Audio Review: Shiny! by Amy Lane - Narrated by Tyler Stevens

Title: Shiny!

Author: Amy Lane

Narrator:: Tyler Stevens

Run Time: 6 Hours, 15 Minutes

At a Glance: Shiny! kept me engaged throughout

Blurb: Will Lafferty and Kenny Scalia are both having sort of a day. Will gets fired for letting fifth graders read Harry Potter, and Kenny finds his boyfriend and his sex toys in bed with a complete stranger. When Will knocks over Kenny’s trash can-and strews Kenny’s personal business all over the street-it feels like the perfect craptastic climax to the sewage of suckage that has rained down on them both.

But ever-friendly, ever-kind Will asks snarky Kenny out for a beer-God knows they both need one-and two amazing things occur: Kenny discovers talking to Will might be the best form of intercourse ever, and Will discovers he’s gay.

Their unlikely friendship seems like the perfect platonic match until Will reveals how very much more he’s been feeling for Kenny almost since the beginning. But Kenny’s worried. Will’s newfound sexuality is bright and glittery and shiny, but what happens when that wears off? Is Will’s infatuation with Kenny strong enough to stay real?

Review: Narrator Tyler Stevens is clearly having fun with this tale of a romance between Will and Kenny. Shiny! What a great title for a great audiobook and what a great cover. It just makes you smile!

I like the one-liners you sometimes find in books as much as the next person. A good one-liner can be sarcastic and funny and sometimes, can be just what you need to get through a bad day. And sometimes an audiobook with substance is one that makes you think or fills you with hope that love and respect can be found between two people that so deserve it. But rare is the author who can write well placed one-liners and give substance to the characters all in the same book. That is unless you are reading an Amy Lane book. She can make you laugh, cry and cheer for the characters, just about all in the same chapter. How does she do that? Not a clue, but that’s why I read the stories and not write them. She has a gift, a talent and a great sense of humor.

My job here is to tell you about an audiobook, to maybe help you decide if it’s worth spending your hard earned dollars on. My job is not to fangirl all over Amy Lane. I like that word fandom and am not sure if it’s a real word or a made up word, but it works when describing my favorite authors. Every book Amy Lane writes is worth reading and listening too. In both instances you finish her stories and are left wanting more, not ready to give up the world she has created. When you are listening to an audiobook narrated by Tyler
Stevens, you also don’t want to leave the world he has created with his voice. Both are worth the time and money spent. Stevens is clearly having fun with this tale of Will and Kenny’s romance. He captures Kenny’s voice, with all its attitude (shininess) and sometimes the hurt, as Kenny is learning how to trust again and admit what he really wants in a partner, and to stop looking for the “sparkly”.

He gives Will a voice that builds in confidence. Will was very quick to describe himself in the beginning of the story as “a totally average, normal, Christian-looking dude!” Tyler Stevens was able to build Will’s voice. At the beginning of the tale he did sound like an average, normal dude. When he discovers his “gayness,” he sounds like a kid in a candy shop discovering all sorts of new things. In the end he sounds confident, mature and completely in love. That’s what keeps a listener engaged, in my opinion. Not only did the story have a beginning, middle, and end, the narration did too. It kept me engaged throughout. Shiny! wins!