Title: Under the Boardwalk
Author: Felice Stevens
Narrator: Nick J. Russo
Publisher: Self-Published
Run Time: 3 hours and 56 minutes
Category: Contemporary
At a Glance: When Russo’s name appears on an audiobook, listeners can be assured they are about to take a journey that they will be pleased to go on. He takes good stories like this one and makes them come to life with his vast talent.
Reviewed By: Mike
Blurb: Beneath the famous Brooklyn landmark, love is hidden but not denied: All his life, Alexi Kharpov has dreamed of traveling to unknown exciting places instead of working at his family’s frozen custard stand on the famous Coney Island boardwalk. Every year is the same until a gorgeous man picks a spot in front of his stand to sing, captivating him with his beautiful voice. After two summers of listening, it might finally be time for him to cross that boardwalk and take a chance.
Opera singer Cameron Maxwell has traveled the world, but the sight of the beautiful man serving custard to tourists touches his heart like nothing ever has before. A summer fling might be exactly what he needs to put his problems out of his mind, but the last thing Cam expects is to want the summer to last forever.
It’s a season of discovery for both men who learn to dig deep within their heads and hearts to decide whether secrets old and new should remain buried, or if love is too important to keep hidden under the boardwalk.
Review: Alexi Kharpov works in his family’s Coney Island Ice Cream Stand right on the boardwalk. He has spent all his life living and working inside a very small area, but he dreams of traveling and having adventures across the globe.
Cameron Maxwell has travelled the globe as an opera singer, but circumstance find him singing for tips across the Boardwalk from Alexi’s ice cream stand. The two men have noticed one another, but Alexi feels he has to be in the closet, and Cameron can’t figure out if the mutual stares and semi-flirting mean Alexi may be gay or if he’s just being a salesman to move more ice cream.
Finally, moves are made and what seems like a summer romance develops into something that could be much, much more.
Nick J. Russo has given voice to such a tender and fragile thing here, and he does it so well. The feelings between the two men must be tentative. Each has a secret and neither wants the other to feel obligated to be more than a summer lover. Russo paints the two voices with extraordinary emotion. When Cam’s secret is revealed, you can hear Alexi trying to find a way to make it right, and when Alexi is determined to come out to his family, you can feel Cam’s tension for what may happen to his new lover.
As secrets are revealed and tension builds between Cam and Alexi, everything about them intensifies, and Russo takes us along with it from first kiss, to keeping secrets, to passionate lovemaking. Nothing is skimped on, and all of the bit-players in their summer of love add to the depth of the story and reveal a great voice talent in Russo. Characters that have only a few lines have individual voices, the mark of a true talent.
When Russo’s name appears on an audiobook, listeners can be assured they are about to take a journey that they will be pleased to go on. He takes good stories like this one and makes them come to life with his vast talent. Buy this book because the story is sweet and good, because the voice work is excellent, and because every summer deserves a sweet romance that grows into something very special.
You can buy Under the Boardwalk here:
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