Audiobooks are still a fairly rare commodity when it comes to gay literature. Unlike reading your fantasy gay novel on the beach or lying in bed on a lazy Sunday afternoon, audiobooks can bring those characters you fantasize about to life in new and exciting ways. And that’s just so with Jordan L. Hawk’s“Widdershins (Whyborne & Griffin).”
“That’s exactly what I hope it’s like for listeners when I portray the self-deprecating Whyborne and the raw earthiness of Griffin, in what I consider one of the best M/M romances to come along in ages,” said the audiobook’s narrator, Julian G. Simmons.
“Widdershins” is a serious novel about a young man, a virgin, who deciphers ancient texts at a museum in New England during the 1800s. He’s gangly and awkward, and doesn’t think himself much of a catch. He’s also been hiding his sexual orientation from everyone he knows, but he isn’t full of self-loathing about it either. He looks at everything in his life like a cipher, and he is constantly struggling to solve the perplexing riddle of himself.
It’s when he meets the masculine, but gentle, private detective Griffin that all his cautious tactics for living his life scatter to the wind. He is constantly and erotically distracted just by the scent of him.
The two are thrown together to solve the mysterious death of the son of one of the museum’s major benefactors. As the story unfolds and the pace of discovery quickens, the romance also heats up. Unearthly creatures and dark secrets tighten the tension, just as Griffin and Whyborne grow closer. Can they find love in the Puritanical time? Will they live to enjoy it for more than a fleeting moment?
“The relationship between the two is one of the most sexually charged, realistic romances I ever remember reading,” said Simmons. “In reading and narrating ‘Widdershins,’ I didn’t find any of the tawdry sex-without-substance scenes that so often typify contemporary gay novels. You find yourself rooting for these two men, you want to see them get together, want them to consummate their relationship with all the passion it promises. You won’t be disappointed.”
Jordan L. Hawk portrays the gay romance with such intuitiveness and honesty, it dares listeners not to be aroused. “Playing these two men, it’s difficult not to become them,” Simmons stated, “To feel their fears, their hopes, their strengths and their vulnerabilities. And yes, I admit it, their lust. It was some of the best sex I’ve ever read.”
“Widdershins” is Book One in a series. “Threshold,” the second book in the series released in June is already one of the top selling m/m romance adventure novels. And will soon be available in audiobook. Take a listen to “Widdershins” and you may no longer hear anything with virgin ears.
