Audio Review: Good Bones by Kim Fielding – Narrated by Nick J. Russo

Title: Good Bones (The Bones Series: Book One)

Author: Kim Fielding

Narrator: Nick J. Russo

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Run Time: 5 hours and 53 minutes

At a Glance: Nick J. Russo did a fantastic job in his performance of Good Bones!

Reviewed By: Kim

Blurb: Skinny, quiet hipster Dylan Warner was the kind of guy other men barely glanced at until an evening’s indiscretion with a handsome stranger turned him into a werewolf. Now, despite a slightly hairy handicap, he just wants to live an ordinary – if lonely – life as an architect. He tries to keep his wild impulses in check, but after one too many close calls, Dylan gives up his urban life and moves to the country, where he will be less likely to harm someone else. His new home is a dilapidated but promising house that comes with a former Christmas tree farm and a solitary neighbor: sexy, rustic Chris Nock.

Dylan hires Chris to help him renovate the farmhouse and quickly discovers his assumptions about his neighbor are inaccurate – and that he’d very much like Chris to become a permanent fixture in his life as well as his home. Between proving himself to his boss, coping with the seductive lure of his dangerous ex-lover, and his limited romantic experience, Dylan finds it hard enough to express himself. How can he bring up his monthly urge to howl at the moon?

Review: Let me start off by saying that I’ve read almost everything that Kim Fielding has written, and I’ve enjoyed almost all of her work. The “almost” comes from reading her short stories, where I’ve been left feeling “too darn short and I want more!” Since Good Bones is the first book I ever read by this author, I had no problem revisiting an old favorite read. And, I really love it when an audiobook breathes life into its characters and makes them come alive. Nick J. Russo did a fantastic job in his performance of Good Bones!

When Dylan has a close call making it home in time for his wolf to come out, he decides it’s best to find a more isolated location for his beast to roam more freely. Because Dylan is an architect, he can afford to stay at home and make the bi-weekly commute to work. What he eventually finds for himself is a fixer-upper in the middle of nowhere, with miles of wooded area. Only one hitch, though—he has a neighbor.

Dylan and Chris both start off on the wrong foot, each stereotyping the other. Dylan thinks Chris Nock is an unsophisticated redneck, and Chris thinks Dylan is too “big city folk” to get his hands dirty. The fun part of Good Bones is that both men are proven wrong as they get to know each other, and eventually become lovers when Dylan hires Chris to help with the remodel of his new home.

What’s sweet is that you can tell that Chris is falling for Dylan when he opens up to him, but he’s frustrated that Dylan is keeping secrets from him. By secrets I mean that Dylan is terrified that Chris will run from him if he finds out Dylan’s a werewolf. And… It doesn’t help that Andy, the man who bit Dylan, keeps showing up to lure Dylan back into his pack.

And this is where Mr. Russo made me aware of something that I didn’t pick up when I first read Good Bones. Even though Andy is supposed to be the bad guy in this story, I kind of got the impression that he was lonely, a bit of an outcast who needed someone in his life too. I mean, Dylan ran away from Andy too, once he found out what Andy was. Not that he didn’t deserved what happened to him in the end, but I was kind of bummed out because of the bad choices he made that ended things the way it did for him.

Anyway, I’m sooooo looking forward to listening to Buried Bones with Nick J. Russo as the narrator. Soon please!

You can buy Good Bones here: