Broken Man

McCullough Mountain, Book 5

By: Lydia Michaels

Narrated by: David Allen Vargo

Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

An eye-opening exploration of small-town life and adversity through an LGBT lens, best-selling author, Lydia Michaels, delivers a masterpiece of emotion in an unforgettable male-male romance that all listeners will love.

When Luke McCullough’s athletic potential is diminished by a field injury, his pride pays the price. Returning to his small town a broken man, the long road to recovery seems dreary and overshadowed by lost opportunities until he meets Tristan Hughes.

Tristan came to Center County to escape his past and start anew, but nothing prepared him for Luke. Intrigued, Tristan cautiously gets to know this formidable man and falls head over heels for the vulnerable soul hiding behind all that muscled intensity and drive.

Luke has never been interested in men. When he can’t get Tristan out of his head, he fights the inevitable. Stolen glances lead to heated encounters, followed by punishing regret, but Luke’s inability to face the truth of who he really is could cost him the only happiness he’s ever known.

Best-selling author, Lydia Michaels, has created an unforgettable family saga bursting with sizzling secrets and scandalous moments in this award-winning series, McCullough Mountain, where each story can be listened to as a stand-alone!

©2015 Lydia Michaels (P)2023 Lydia Michaels Books

Oh my heart

This was an impossible review to write. So much happened. So many feelings swirled inside me as I read/listened. Tristan and Luke’s love story is heartbreaking, frustrating, and beautiful in the end. There were moments when I wanted to smack both of them and hug them. I highly recommend this as both an audiobook and an ebook. But be prepared emotions are high in this one, the good, the bad and the down right infuriating. Be aware parts of this story pay be triggering. The ending is good, beautiful even, so rest assured in that, but be aware that some moments might be difficult to get through.

Felt rushed

3.5 stars for Broken Man

I was excited to read their story, but I feel like it fell short. I didn’t feel the development of Luke and Tristan’s relationship over the many years they were together. Their story felt rushed for me. The ending was unexpected but I liked the intimate ceremony. David Vargo did a good job portraying both Luke and Tristan.

Highly emotional!

4.5 Stars

This is an emotionally charged M/M novel in the series that takes us through Luke's discovering his true sexuality and his long hidden relationship with Tristan. The family dynamics play a huge part in this story. It gives a great retelling of exactly how hard it is for some to come out to their friends and family and just how dangerous life can be when they do.

The most important part of the story is obviously the love that Luke and Tristan share. It was so heartwarming. After all...love is love.

I listened to the audio version of this book narrated by David Allen Vargo. At first I had a little trouble with the voice for Tristan, but I got used to it.

Thanks to Valentine PR for the gifted copy.

Good book for those looking for a small town romance series

⭐️⭐️⭐️.75/5
🌶️🌶️🌶️/5

I loved the premise going into the book. It had all the qualities that I love in a book. Small Town Romance seriously you could never go wrong with it. I loved the romance between them but the story felt like there way so much going on. There was so many time jumps it felt overwhelming because it felt as though we missed so many points. For instance, Tristan and Sheilagh situation felt like we missed so much. It went from a little kid crush to all of a sudden he liked her. Even the situation where it felt as though he was mad at Luke for not wanting to come out but at the same time not wanting to as well. I don’t know I could have interpreted that wrong. I did the beginning of the book that’s what’s really giving this book a good rating. I mean how much Luke showed how down bad he was for Tristan was amazing. We got to really see the characters and connect. It wasn’t until the 6 month jump mark that really felt a distance with the characters bc we missed so much time with them. I mean 6 years flew by so quickly. Luke and Tristan are 2 broken and insecure people trying to love each other. As much as I would love them together they did need to heal for each other. They talked about the constant fighting or Luke not sticking up for Tristan we he needed him. It felt like they were on 2 different paths. There’s so much I can go on about that I didn’t like but mostly I did love the story. It was captivating and truly and enjoyable read for those who want a quick read. Highly recommend I would say there are some trigger warning for the ending but besides that it was a good read.

Loved this love story

Broken Man is the 5th book of the McCullough Mountain Series, but can be read as a standalone. Michaels stirs so many emotions in this book. Tristan’s and Luke’s story is one of secrets, discovery, loss, adversity and love. We see as Luke and Tristan fall in love and all the struggles that they go through to get to a place of acceptance and love. This book has me crying at the end, but I’m so glad it had a happy ending. Narrated by David Allen Vargo, and he just pulled at my heartstrings. He did a great job with the voice transitions, and kept me engaged. I loved this small town Romance.

I voluntarily received a complementary copy of this book/audio book

Hard fought love

I enjoyed getting to know the McCullough family and knew that Luke and Tristan's story would be emotional. Both men struggle to find their identities; one has always known he's gay, but growing up with a hateful father has made him cautious, and moving to a town where being gay isn't openly accepted isn't making his life easy. The other has just discovered he's attracted to men and struggles to come to terms.

Luke and Tristan's story spans several years. It's great to see the struggles and triumphs they face as single men and then as a couple: their fears, doubts, and their hopes, and dreams. The ending was raw, devastating, and emotional, but one of the best things about the McCulloughs is how they come together as a family.

The narration by David Allen Vargo is terrific. Once again, he does a beautiful job of providing each character with a unique voice and even performs a British accent. Overall, Broken Man is a lovely story and worth a listen.

Finding your person

There were times that I wanted to quit reading because I was so tired of Luke denying himself and being unable to admit that Tristin was his. And Tristin just put up with Luke being in denial, flirting and making comments about women in front of his lover, Tristin. When an event happened later in the book I almost quit listening but it all came about alright and they had a HEA. This was my first book from this author. It is very well written and the characters, main and side, are all great. I enjoyed the narrator also.

I received an arc of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

loved this story

I read the book first, and it's such a heartbreaking story. it's so well done, spanning over the course of the whole series, overlapping scenes, which I enjoyed. the narration was good. I don't care for his female voices as much as some other male narrators. but since this was a MM story, it wasn't a factor as much. his mrs McCullough made her sound older than I pictured her being. not sure how I feel about the sound effects either. some will like it, but for me sometimes it felt a bit distracting.

All the feels and emotions

This book literally takes you on the journey of finding love and who you are. It is full of heart break but also heart warming love. I rarely get mad at main characters but I was not happy with Luke and wanted to yell at him so much. But he portrayed a damaged man that your heart will go out to.
Just a simply beautiful Love Story.
David Allen Vargo did a good job with voice changes and putting emotion in each scene that was needed.

Wow

I didn’t really like Luke’s behavior for most of this book and some of the things Tristan did weren’t great either but their mistakes make them more relatable which made this story all the better there were a lot of things I wasn’t expecting to happen especially towards the end but I’m glad they found a way to be strong enough to get through everything together this was certainly a great book and I’d listen to it again the narrator did an awesome job and so did the author