Off Balance

Painted Bay, Book 1

By: Jay Hogan

Narrated by: Gary Furlong

Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

When Judah Madden flees his tiny suffocating home town in New Zealand for the dream of international ballet stardom, he never intends coming back. Not to Painted Bay. Not to his family’s struggling mussel farm. Not to his jerk of a brother. Not with his entire life plan in shreds. And certainly not into the tempting arms of Morgan Wipene, the older ruggedly handsome fisheries officer who seems determined to screw with Judah’s intention to wallow in peace.

But dreams are fickle things. Shatter them, and it’s hard to pick up the pieces. Hard to believe. Hard to start again.

And the hardest thing of all? Finding the courage to trust in love and build a new dream where you least expected to find it.

©2020 Jay Hogan (P)2022 Jay Hogan

Great Story, Narrated wonderfully

I’d never heard of Judah’s disease before so that, combined with him having had a ballet career, piqued my interest. Judah’s struggles to come to terms with his life as it is rather than what it was, came across as very realistic. Add to that stress the brother tension and it makes you want to just hug the poor guy. Morgan was more than willing to give him all the hugs and love, despite dealing with his own loss. Their witty banter always made me smile, Morgan giving as good as he got.

The narration was masterfully done, proper inflections where they’re supposed to be. He made it sound as if each character was literally sitting with you and telling their parts of the story.

Ballet and true love.

Judah’s professional struggles after developing recurrent vertigo symptoms have put an end to his brilliant ballet career. His struggles to find a place after losing such a huge part of his destiny comes when he meets Morgan. Both men have lost so much but their developing feelings happen as Judah begins to find his future again. I loved watching Judah bravely struggle to find acceptance both within himself and the town the spurned him as a teenager.
A beautiful story of love, acceptance, fate and the beauty of our obstacles creating the path we were meant to follow. The narration is fantastic as well. Loved it!

Humor, good story, and the best narration

These two MC’s are great together and both of them immensely likable. Judah’s back story is especially poignant and the author does a good job of painting a man at the pinnacle of his dancing career, brought down by something completely beyond his control.

Gary Furlong’s narration is, as always, on point. I’ll listen to damn near anything he reads.

SO GOOD!

This is what hurt/comfort dreams are made of. Omg I devoured this book. This was my first book by Jay and it will not be my last!

Stunning! Gorgeous Performance by Gary Furlong

I enjoyed the descriptions of New Zealand, Painted Bay sounds magical.

Jay Hogan writes a lovely hurt/comfort romance, and Judah's story is a heart wrencher. Really beautiful. What a marvelous happy ending.

The audio is flawlessly performed by Gary Furlong.

Fantastic.

I loved every bit of this audio. First off we had a great story about wonderful emcees wonderful side characters, and yes there were some good steam, Just enough. Gary for long is an absolute master and really brought it to life. Highly recommended.

Gorgeous

Jay Hogan wrote a beautiful story.
Narration amazing.
Recommend with out reservation.
You won’t be disappointed.

Wonderfully captivating!

Wonderful heartfelt romance that gives you all the feels! Love the characters, the story, the heat, and suspense 💖

Heart felt

I decided to round up to 5 stars, though it's more on 4 and a half. The characters in this story are so well developed, and the story itself broke your heart, then healed it. The connection between the MCs was so well written and realistic. The only part of the story I didn't love was the late, sudden, near death drama. It just wasn't needed, but that was my one issue to an otherwise incredible story.

Took me a while to finish....

But I am glad I did. I felt sorry for Juda growing up in a town where he felt like a misfit; was horrendously bullied and made to feel useless. His talent as a dancer and moving away is what helped him to develop confidence...but life - the biotch that it can be - went awry for poor Juda and he develops a life altering ear disease that affects not only his ability to dance but his ability to do anything at all without the looming threat of an attack. So he comes home...tail between his legs and feeling more useless than ever. But with the fortune of falling in love with a great man like Morgan...and a dance recital with a young girl in crutches that helped to showcase his talents - so much that everyone saw him in a new light, this helped Juda to learn to accept the man as he is now, and that he can finally be at home with the town he grew up in. The ending and his realization is what saved this book for me. Gary Furlong is a talented performer; I have enjoyed a few other titles with him.

3 stars - I won't listen again