Title: Teach Me
Series: N/A
Author: Sloan Johnson
Narrator: Christopher Rain
Genre: Contemporary
Length: 6 hours and 51 minutes
Publisher: Sloan Johnson (05-22-15)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4 Hearts
Blurb: Two words stripped Austin Pritchard of the privileged life he’s used to. The moment he uttered the words, “I’m gay,” he realized there is no such thing as unconditional love. Now, he’s gone from traveling the world with his family to living on the streets trying to figure out how he’s going to stay in school.
A chance opportunity changes everything. Austin impresses the foreman and lands a job, but even more, he catches the eye of David Becker, who is determined to teach him that true love doesn’t come with strings.
The only thing David had as a child was love. His family struggled to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. That has driven him to stay focused on his goals; become a tenured professor at a university and save enough money to build a home of his own.
It’s not until he sees an insecure college student working on his new house that he realizes that he hasn’t planned on someone to share his life with. He’s about to learn that everything he’s already accomplished is nothing compared to the task of making Austin see that he is worthy of love.
Product Link: http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Teach-Me-Audiobook/B00Y1410QE
Reviewer: Tams
Review: Austin Pritchard has his whole life ahead of him. He is young, smart and focused on his college education. Until he tells his parents he is gay and his dad responds by dropping him off at the bus station with nothing but the clothes on his back and a few words of disdain. As if disowning his own flesh and blood and telling him not to come back until he learns the error of his ways and taking away his car weren’t enough, dear old dad stops paying for Austin’s tuition.
Broke, homeless and depressed; Austin winds up living in the park and desperately trying to find work to save money so he can return to school in the fall.
When a day job brings David into Austin’s life, he doesn’t dare hope that the smart, sexy, older college professor could ever fall for the likes of him. That is his first mistake. David Becker never thought that landing the perfect job and building his dream home would be followed up by meeting the love of his life. But Austin barrels into David’s otherwise perfectly manicured life, like a tornado and turns it upside down.
The two are instantly smitten but there are concerns. Austin doesn’t want anyone’s pity, least of all the man he’s falling for, so he doesn’t share the fact he is homeless. David’s friends are concerned about the fifteen year age difference between them, there is definitely a level of maturity that Austin has yet to achieve and it could drive a wedge between them.
I was engrossed in this story from the start, but the narration took some time to get used to. This is Rain’s first audio and there is room for improvement. I love a good May/December romance when the Author can draw me in and make their love story endearing and believable, and Johnson surely accomplished that.
Austin is only twenty years old and has had everything he holds dear jerked out from underneath him. He is in pain and confused and unsure about where he is going in life. That was evident in not only the way he was written, but the way he was voiced by the narrator.
David is mature, worldly and handsome. He also has the patience of a saint, and though he is instantly drawn to Austin he doesn’t immediately act on the attraction of that draw. In fact, it is months of long talks, heavy make out sessions and constant refusals to consummate the relationship before David finally makes love to Austin. Unfortunately, the tone Rain chose to tell David’s voice in was too deep and nasal, it was forced and I never did get used to it.
There was a ton of emotional highs and lows and a lot of angst, but here’s the thing, the angst didn’t bother me too much because it was expected for Austin to be confused and unsure of himself both as a person, and as half of a couple. David truly teaches Austin what it means to be loved, to be cherished and protected. He also helps Austin learn valuable tools on how to cope, communicate and deal with life and all the curve balls it throws at you.
My first point of note would be if you are listening to this book and you think, this narrator is going to kill me, hang on, it gets better as the story progresses. There are some tone and nuance issues, but the story itself should keep you enthralled in the book. This would have been five stars easy but the narration was an issue for me, sadly.
Still, I’d recommend this book.
It’s intense, emotional and angsty… but it’s also passionate romance and the story of a young man who may struggle finding his way in life, but he is determined to make his mark on the world. And the ending, oh my goodness, if you don’t shed a tear at the ending of this book, we can’t be friends.
* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *