Tough Luck by Annabeth Albert, narrated by Kirt Graves. Even though this is a bodyguard romance, it’s light on suspense and fits firmly into the contemporary romance category.
Tough Luck is book one of Annabeth Albert’s latest series, A-List Security, loosely based on characters in and around a security firm of the same name, located in Los Angeles.
Ex-SEAL Cash Erwin is staying with his friend, Duncan, his former lieutenant and current proprietor of A-List Security. Duncan has made Cash a standing job offer but Cash is not looking to provide security services to the rich and famous. At 38 and after 20 years in the military, he’s at a loose end and is not sure what’s next for him.
Danny Love is Duncan’s younger brother (technically, they’re half-brothers). Danny was a child/teen star on a show which I imagine to be something like Glee. He’s retired from acting (he’s 25) and has battled substance addiction in the past but he’s clean now and trying to live his best life while also not really knowing what’s next for him. As well as all that, Danny has a stalker.
Duncan asks Cash to help look after Danny as Duncan has to go out of town on an important assignment but doesn’t want to leave Danny unprotected. Cash agrees but only as a favour – not as a paid employee. This does make it a bit easier to accept the relationship which develops between Cash and Danny as no money is changing hands. (That’s not necessarily a deal-breaker for me but it has to be dealt with in the story if there’s that kind of relationship. It wasn’t necessary here though.)
Danny, while young, has a lot of life experience and the age gap between the two didn’t seem all that big given their personalities. Both men are also deeply lonely. Danny, because he’s lost many of his friends and associates since he retired from acting and got clean. Cash, because he’s left the only life he’s known for 20 years.
Cash was the “tank” in his squad. The go-to guy who got things done. He compartmentalised his emotional life and his sexual and romantic desires while in the military and has had very little sexual experience. He’s not really considered his sexuality before but now he finally can. And Danny Love awakens feelings in Cash he’s never taken out of their box and peered at before.
I wasn’t really sure exactly what Cash’s sexuality turned out to be; it wasn’t labelled in the book exactly but the suggestion is that he’s somewhere on the ace/demi scale in addition to being gay (or possibly bisexual).
Given his lack of experience, it was somewhat surprising then how quickly he got into sex with Danny once they “broke the seal”. He had no hesitation to try anything and he took to it like a duck to water.
The age gap didn’t bother me – to me the difference didn’t seem marked, as I said above, but another way that the power differential was managed here was that Danny was the sexually experienced one of the pair and so Cash was his (very willing) “pupil” during the early part of their relationship.
Not much was made of the financial differences between them, other than that Cash wanted a job and refused to be a sponge and live off Danny’s substantial wealth. That could have been explored more. Cash’s eventual job felt more like an afterthought to wrap things up rather than something which had a meaningful arc in the book.
Even though there’s “security” in the series name, there’s not a lot of suspense in this book and I’d classify it as squarely contemporary romance. There is some threat from the stalker but mostly the police do the actual investigating. Cash is simply there to make sure Danny is safe. They take precautions, sure. In fact, much of their early relationship takes place at a remote cabin where they’re alone together (convenient! 😊) while the cops investigate. But there are only a few scenes where there is any real risk. Mostly the stalker is the reason the pair are in proximity and that closeness brings about the relationship. It’s more of a fluffy book than a suspenseful book overall.
The narration by Kirt Graves is excellent. I’m not sure I’ve listened to him before but I know now why Caz speaks so well of his talent. I was particularly impressed by the very different voices he gave to the main characters. All of the characters have a different tone to their voices but much of the dialogue was Cash and Danny (they spend a lot of time alone together after all). Cash has a deep, gruff, kind of rumbly voice and Danny’s is lighter in tone and younger-sounding. There was seamless switching between the two in conversation.
After this listen I know I’ll be seeking out more work from Mr. Graves because apart from his great delivery, emotion and pacing, he seems to have a very broad range of character voices – so many very excellent narrators seem to have only one or two “hero voices” and it feels pretty special to find someone who (at least from what I can tell so far) has even more to offer.
Grade: B
