His Horizon

His MM Romance, Book 1

By: Con Riley

Narrated by: Cornell Collins

Temperatures rise when there are two cooks in Jude's kitchen....

Jude's drowning when he can't save his family business single-handed. The last person he expects to throw a lifeline is Rob, a rival chef who once beat him to first place in a cooking contest.

Two chefs working together won't be easy. Not when Rob is everything Jude isn't - popular, extroverted, and a one-time hookup. What's worse is that Rob wears his heart on his sleeve while Jude's still in the closet.

Jude's dilemma doesn't end there. Rob's rescue package comes with conditions that mean sharing everything from the profits to Jude's sleeping quarters. Sleeping with the enemy will either be a disaster or signal a much brighter future, but only if Jude can meet Rob's final condition and love him in the open.

Featuring opposites who attract, rivals to lovers, and an out-for-you storyline dripping with hurt-comfort feelings, His Horizon is the first in a shared-world series of stand-alone MM romance novels from Con Riley.

Contains mature themes.

©2020 Con Riley (P)2021 Tantor

Painful to hear

Though very well read it is painful to hear. Almost dropped the book a few times since Cornell Collins was fighting with the text.
The history didn’t held much either. Jude the main character is as uptight and unreal.

Very Sweet

I enjoyed this story and performance. It's pleasant and straightforward, and has good character development.

Heart wrenching and well done

This was a great listen. Not exactly what I was expecting based on the blurb but still an amazingly well done listen. Lots of emotional exercise and development for the characters and reader.

A sweet start to the series

Having read several books from Con Riley's Learning to Love series, I wasn't sure about jumping into this one. Think of Con Riley as the other side of the looking glass to Garrett Leigh. Both decidedly British, two wildly different points of view. A huge fan of Leigh and the literal life or death gravitas of her stories, the handwringing nature of Riley's books can feel cloying and rooted in hurt feelings of the well to do. This starts off very differently from Charles, the first book of the Learning to love series.

Cornell Collins is to Riley, what Dan Calley is to Leigh. Collins gently lulls you to the Cornish costal town and the variety of characters who live there. He does a great job of individualizing everyone, even dipping into a pleasant bit of French for the character of Marc, a character who doesn't really become important until later in there story. Collins has a great repertoire of accents in his bag of tricks and adds a lot to all of Riley's books.

What sets this title apart from the other Riley's I've read is there is real pain and guilt driving Jude. Jude isn't manor born, struggling against perceived issues. Jude is a guy on a mission to find any sign of his parents who were presumed lost in a typhoon, while returning home to help keep the family business afloat before going back on the search. The premise is a bit of a stretch initially, but is handled very well with supporting storylines that nurse that initial disbelief into a fully workable plot. Riley smartly rips the bandages off early and allows this low angst love story to move forward consistently while the leads learn about each other and themselves. The plus being we don't have a waiting for the shoe to drop element to the romance. There are a lot of steps along the way, and not always smooth sailing, but always a willingness to figure it out together rather than getting mired in misunderstanding, or the like.

This sweet story should hit most, if not all the marks. Highly recommended!

Con and Cornell Collins - perfect!

This is my second time listening to His Horizon and I’m so glad I decided to revisit this book.
The local is the Cornish coast, the setting a small village. Unique in that the folks who live there are a combination of traditional, artistic, and dreamers. There’s they couple who buys a pub catering to English families touristing and camping along the summer beach. There’s the French artist family who moves in and creates a stir, the dour fisherman who brings the delectable fresh catch to the pub, and the locals who frequent the pub in off season.
Children are born , raised, educated. And come, or never leave. Parents who set sail in a handmade sailboat to revisit places they had visited when young and without kids.
Add in two chefs, a clash of different backgrounds, a bit of sex, a poignant story, and 12 hours of listening becomes a wonderful slice of life, of people I’d love to know.