Title: The Heart of the Race
Series: Daily Dose 2013 – Make a Play
Author: Mary Calmes
Narrator: Greg Tremblay
Genre: Contemporary
Length: 2 hours and 5 minutes
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (07-06-2015)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4 Hearts
Blurb: Varro Dacien spends his life riding toward the next adventure. Brian Christie, his best friend and touchstone, the one person who’s always truly seen him, plays sidekick on these madcap adventures and subsequent trips to the hospital until he can’t take it anymore. While Brian can see Varro, Varro has never caught on that he’s breaking his best friend’s heart.
Without Varro, Brian builds himself a life that’s all about just getting by, doing his best to ignore the hole in his heart and his life. Without Brian to balance him, Varro pushes harder and takes more risks to reach that ultimate high. His job racing high-octane bikes on suicide-level courses makes it easy to get that rush… until it’s no longer enough and Varro realizes it’s not the race, but who’s waiting at the finish line that truly matters.
Now he just has to convince Brian to be there.
Product Link(s): https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6708
http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Heart-of-the-Race-Audiobook/B010TCEIN8
Reviewer: Tams
Review: Brian Christie and Varro Dacien have been best friends since the day Brian watched Varro launch a homemade contraption off his roof and subsequently wind up in the hospital. That day set the stage for their lives moving forward.
Varro is the daredevil and Brian is his conscious. Best friends and foster brothers, the two were inseparable until Brian realized he was in love with Varro. While Brian tried to put distance between them, Varro continued to pull Brian closer all while tearing his heart in two with constant trysts with random women and groupies.
When Brian finally has enough and completely pulls away, both men are left in stasis, not really moving on and constantly thinking about each other, both too damn stubborn to do anything about it. There is nothing like a little competition to make a man admit his feelings, in abundance.
Calmes is the queen of sexy short stores, and Greg Tremblay is her court jester. The only reason I’m giving this one 4 instead of 5 stars was the pain in my ass miscommunication and stubborn resolve to forever wallow in self-pity, miserably that Brian wore like a badge of honor. I seriously wanted to snatch him up by his hair and slap him a couple of times.
I tell you what though; the conversation on the phone toward the end, Tremblay used some amazing vocal chops during that part of the story. He gave voice to every word and emotion and had me hanging off every syllable and frustrated groan. And who knew that Tremblay could pull of an Irish baroque?
Great story for fans of the author and narrator, angsty but fun and I think the last thirty minutes was my favorite part.
* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *