The List by Felice Stevens

Narrated by Denis Lambert

The List is the first book in Felice Stevens’ new series, Second Chances, featuring Elliot, Spencer, Wolf and Chess, four men who have been friends since college, and who, in the fifteen years since they met, have become more than best friends – they’re family. The List is Elliot’s story, and it’ll be followed by Chess’ book and then… well, I have my suspicions ;)

Elliot Hansen has an unfortunate habit of falling in love with pretty much every man he dates. After his most recent break-up – with a guy who’d moved in with him, conned money out of him to start a business (which went nowhere) and then dumped him – his friends once again urge him to be more careful (read: less gullible), to try to protect himself a little more and not to assume every guy he goes out with wants the same things he does. They suggest he should stop looking to fall in love, that he should play the field and have some fun – but that’s not really Elliot’s style. All he wants – all he’s ever wanted, really – is to love and be loved. But he decides to maybe give ‘having fun’ a try – which is when Spencer jokingly writes a list of the things that would make Elliot’s perfect man… only the things he comes up with (hung like a horse, perfect abs, great ass) aren’t the things Elliot is looking for at all. (Well, not the most important things, anyway). Later, and more than a little annoyed at his friends’ not-so-gentle teasing, he crosses out all Spencer’s suggestions and adds some of his own – picnics, walks on the beach, long drives and days out at the zoo and local wineries.

Detective Winston Rogers lost his husband in an accident five years earlier and has found it hard to move on. Even though he’s not really interested in a new relationship, he’s signed up with a couple of dating sites at the instigation of his best friend/work-partner but hasn’t had a great deal of success with the guys he’s met so far. Arriving home late one night he sees someone climbing in through the window of the house next door – he parks in his driveway and follows, entering the house through the same window and slowly moving upstairs when he finds the downstairs empty.

As meet-cutes go, apprehending a burglar in the bedroom of your sleeping neighbour certainly wins points for originality! After the intruder is apprehended and taken away, Win takes a good look at his neighbour for the first time – and can’t help but notice that he’s really, really cute. It’s been a long time – five years – since he’s noticed that about anyone. Quickly telling himself to stop thinking inappropriate thoughts, he instead concentrates on looking around while Elliot checks to see if anything’s missing. That’s when Win notices a crumpled piece of paper sitting on the bedside table – and although he knows he shouldn’t read it… he does, finding himself relating to the second part of the list, the bit about long drives and walks on the beach. Before he leaves, Win brusquely tells Elliot he’ll help him fix the window.

After this, the two men start spending time together regularly, and when Elliot tells Win about his disastrous history with relationships, Win sees a way they can help each other. Win isn’t looking for love, but he does want companionship – and (hopefully) sex with someone he likes – something with no strings to help him adjust to life as a single man, while Elliot needs to learn how to have fun and be with someone without instantly thinking they’re ‘the one’.

The romance that ensues is lovely, full of genuine affection and tenderness as these two men find themselves falling in love, no matter how much they’ve told themselves they don’t want it (Win) or shouldn’t be looking for it (Elliot). Both are compelled by loss and hurt to either seek love (Elliot’s story is particularly heart-breaking), or avoid it, but together, they’re able to help each other to break the cycles they’re stuck in. Being with someone who is genuinely interested in him is something of a revelation for Elliot, who has never had that before, while Elliot’s kindness, good nature and affection eventually bring Win to see that he can let go of his grief and guilt and that he’s ready to accept love and happiness.

Win and Elliot are three-dimensional and engaging characters, although I confess I found Elliot’s naivété at the beginning a bit hard to swallow – but as the story progresses and the author slowly reveals what is driving him, it became impossible to see him as foolish or needy. Instead, I saw someone who had the strength to persevere when he was knocked back, and watching him finally get his heart’s desire was deeply satisfying. Elliot is an absolute sweetheart and Win is the grump to his sunshine; on the surface, they’re very different, but it turns out that they have very similar tastes. The additions Elliot made to the list are exactly the sort of things Win likes to do as well, things that speak to the sort of connection and companionship that are important to both of them.

I have a few niggles though. First of all, Win conceals a rather important detail from Elliot for reasons that don’t make a great deal of sense, and I really couldn’t buy Elliot’s mother’s sudden and total change of heart near the end. There were times I wanted to yell at Elliot’s friends because their well-meaning interference and ‘advice’ was sometimes harsh and their lack of sensitivity was… quite something. But then I suppose, when a group of people is as tight-knit as these friends are, they’re the only ones you can rely on to tell it like it is – and the truth isn’t always pretty. While they might not have covered themselves in glory in this book, I’m certainly going to be picking up their stories as they appear.

This is (I believe) Broadway actor Denis Lambert’s first foray into audiobook narration, and he acquits himself pretty well, delivering a well-paced and expressive performance that effectively conveys the emotional content of the story. His portrayal of Elliot is excellent; he captures his innate kindness and optimism and vulnerability very well, and his interpretation of Win is equally good, with just the right amount of gruffness in his voice. He does a great job with Spencer’s confidence and snark, although I have to wonder if he’s going to be able to sustain the low pitch and gravelly tone he’s given Wolf when it comes to his book – it sounds a little uncomfortable here. There are only a couple of recurring female characters in the story – Elliot’s mother and his partner’s wife Claudia – and Mr. Lambert’s female voices need work; the first time Claudia spoke I wondered if he had got the dialogue (or the tags) mixed up, because ‘her’ voice was lower-pitched than all the male voices in the scene. There are also places where his inexperience in the form shows; for instance, his phrasing is off occasionally – it sounds as though he isn’t sure what’s coming next! – and some of the characters aren’t differentiated clearly enough, so I needed to rely on the dialogue tags to work out who was speaking. I also noticed some sound-quality issues – nothing terrible, but a few places where the ambient noise differed from one moment to the next, or where there were obvious drop-ins.

Felice Stevens is an expert at crafting poignant, character-driven love stories full of genuine emotion featuring individuals we come to care about and root for, and The List is no exception. It gets the Second Chances series off to a good start, and even though I have some reservations about the narration, I’ll be back for the remaining books in the series.

Caz

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