Title: Switched
Author: N.R. Walker
Narrator: Joel Leslie
Publisher: Self-Published
Run Time: 8 hours and 50 minutes
Category: Contemporary
At a Glance: With rich emotion, excellent pacing and distinctly unique voices, Joel Leslie made Switched a story I could listen to over and over again.
Reviewed By: Sammy
Blurb: Israel Ingham’s life has never been easy. He grew up in a house devoid of love and warmth. Nothing he ever did was good enough. The fact Israel is gay just added to the long list of his father’s disappointments.
Then a letter from Eastport Children’s Hospital changes everything.
A discovery is made, one of gross human error. Twenty-six years ago two baby boys were switched at birth and sent home with the wrong families.
Sam, Israel’s best friend, has been his only source of love and support. With Sam beside him every step of the way, Israel decides to meet his birth mother and her son, the man who lived the life Israel should have.
Israel and Sam become closer than ever, amidst the tumultuous emotions of meeting his birth family, and Sam finds himself questioning his feelings toward his best friend. As Israel embraces new possibilities, he needs to dissect his painful relationship with his parents in order to salvage what’s left.
Because sometimes it takes proof you’re not actually family to become one.
Review: N.R. Walker explores the idea of a young man finding out he had been switched at birth, accidentally ending up with a wealthy, distant and judgmental couple. Israel Ingham has never felt as though he belonged to his cold, disapproving parents—parents who found Israel’s sexuality a disappointing embarrassment and never failed to remind him of such. With his best friend, Sam, by his side, he would venture into a new life, albeit a strange one, where there was a family that actually cared for him and his feelings and who wanted him, for the first time in his life.
Sam had always been there for Israel but only as a friend; there had never been anything else between them. But as Israel begins this new and scary chapter in his life, Sam is there, always there, comforting, caring, a pillar for Israel to lean on. When friendship begins to morph into something more, both men are at an absolute loss as to what to do next. Could they possibly be more than friends? If they dared explore a relationship, would they lose the best mates they’d ever had in life, and was it worth the risk in the end?
Switched is a strongly emotional story, one where the reader feels engaged almost immediately. While it was a bit predictable for me, there was still a lovely slow-burn to this romance as the two friends became lovers and more. I loved that the author embraced her Australian heritage in both the language and pacing of this novel. Having good friends from that lovely country, I felt right at home with the colloquialisms used and the Aussie vernacular. I suppose the only difficulty I had with this book was the idea that it had taken these two men so long to figure out what most everyone around them had already guessed—that they were already halfway in love with each other. Still, it was really wonderful to watch their relationship move to the next stage and for the two of them to be willing to be vulnerable and brave enough to grab what they wanted—in this case, each other.
The Audio: Joel Leslie does accents like no other. He is truly outstanding in his field when it comes to adopting a voice that is polar opposite to his own. Having Aussie friends, I was particularly interested in finding out if this narrator could not only achieve the Aussie accent but maintain it throughout the entire novel. I am thrilled to say that Mr. Leslie is a consummate professional and never once slipped despite the many different characters he voiced—including a drunken Israel. There have been times in the past when this particular voice actor has used a marked stop and start pacing that tended to grate on me and prevented me from always enjoying his narration skills. Not this time. Instead, the pacing, the pausing for dramatic or emotional effect, and the various voices all worked together to make for a truly marvelous audible experience.
Honestly, this was just wonderful storytelling by a voice actor who has raised the bar once again for all others by creating characters that sounded just as they should. With rich emotion, excellent pacing and distinctly unique voices, Joel Leslie made Switched a story I could listen to over and over again.
You can buy Switched here:
[zilla_button url=”https://adbl.co/2trzrt6″ style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Audible [/zilla_button][zilla_button url=”https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/switched-unabridged/id1279416557?mt=3″ style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] iTunes [/zilla_button][zilla_button url=”http://authl.it/B0759MRFSY?d” style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon [/zilla_button]
The Novel Approach Reviews 
Leave a Reply