Author: Eli Easton
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Narrator: Tommy O’Brien
Run Time: 5 Hours and 11 Minutes
At a Glance: The Enlightenment of Daniel is a great story, but the narration misses the mark.
Reviewed By: Kathie
Blurb: Business tycoon Daniel Derenzo lives for his work until his dying father reminds him life is short. When Daniel starts to reevaluate his world, he experiences a startling revelation: He’s attracted to his business partner and best friend, Nick, even though Daniel always believed himself to be straight. In typical type-A fashion, Daniel dissects his newfound desires with the help of the experts at the Expanded Horizons sex clinic. He goes after Nick with the fierce determination that’s won him many a business deal.
Nick Ross was in love with Daniel years ago, when they were roommates in college. But Daniel was straight, and Nick patched his broken heart by marrying Marcia. Two kids and 14 years later, they go through the motions of their marriage like ships passing in the night. But Nick’s kids mean the world to him, and he’s afraid he’ll never get joint custody if they divorced. If he can trust his heart to an awakening Daniel, they all might find their way to a happily ever after.
Review: What I hope for in any audio is a narrator who gives the story texture, adds personality to the characters, adds just the right amount of romantic spark between the main characters, and that the narration is able to sustain my interest so much so that I don’t want to leave my car until I hear the next chapter. The Trouble with Tony (Sex in Seattle: Book One), audio also narrated by Tommy O’Brien, hit all those marks. As I’d stated in my review of that book, “Tommy was Tony.” He had the accent, he had the pacing, and he just made the book better! When I saw that the second book was being released on audio, I just jumped on it. And, I can’t say I was completely disappointed. It is a great story. Tommy O’Brien has a great voice. But, this time I felt that he was reading me a book, not telling me a story. Confusing, I know.
What I have come to expect from audiobooks is a performance. Different voices for the characters, changes of pacing as the scenes heat up or slow down, and emotion—please, give me emotion. If the character is mad, I want to hear it in his voice. If the character is horny, I want to hear it in his voice. This holds my interest. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen with The Enlightenment of Daniel. I really hope that with the third book, if Tommy O’Brien is the narrator, he can turn in a better performance. I want it to make me want to stay in my car and listen to the end because it’s so good!
You can buy The Enlightenment of Daniel here:
The Novel Approach Reviews 
Thank you for the review, Kathie. I love this series and have been thinking about getting it on audio. Your hopes for an audiobook are the same as mine, and I totally understand what you mean about just having something read to you. We don’t get the visual cues, as when we’re reading the words by sight, for who’s speaking or what the pacing of the story is from line breaks and paragraph structure. So I need the audiobook narrator to do that for me. It’s the same way I need the narrator to do different voices because I can’t SEE the change that would tell my brain a new character is speaking. The third book in this series is my absolute favorite favorite Eli Easton book and what I’ve been waiting for it on audio before I bought the rest. I was going to immediately snap it up, but I’m going to be cautious now and wait until I hear back on whether the quality is worth my money and time.
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