Opposites

By: T.M. Smith

Narrated by: Greg Boudreaux

Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

In the year 2081, our planet has survived global warming on an apocalyptic scale. When the dust settled and the water receded, Dr. Anthony Smith, along with the few survivors of GWI, started society anew. Having come to the conclusion that injudicious breeding played a huge role in the destruction of Earth as we knew it in the 21st century, he worked closely with other survivors to isolate the Dionysus gene: the gene has the ability to manipulate human DNA to ensure that all male children be born gay, and all female children be born lesbians.

A new society was born.

In the year 2300 Dr. Smith's descendants are ushering in the 24th century, having maintained control of the government that still rules society. Twins, Aiya and Aiyan, are preparing to meet their matches and take control of House Gaeland, the current ruling House. But not everything is as it seems.

Love is love, it knows no gender and doesn't conform to restrictions or boundaries. Aiyan has found his soul mate in Kaden, the prince of House Devi, whom he will eventually marry. But when the person Aiya falls in love with tests the boundaries put in place after GWI, all hell breaks loose. And in the midst of one secret unraveling, another will emerge. There is a growing anomaly that threatens to destroy over 200 years of progression. This anomaly is known as Opposites.

©2013 TM Smith (P)2016 TM Smith

Great start to a new series

The beginning of this book was difficult for me to follow. The author had too many names that are similar so I would get lost on who was who & w/whom. But, the amazing Greg Boudreaux did help as he did a great job w/the different voices & accents. The first half didn't really have much of a plot, its Aiyan & Kanden jumping each other at every turn. And boy are they rough on the furniture, yes you will have to read it to understand what I mean. Also, I'm not sure exactly how old any of them are. Sometimes I get the feeling they are in their late teens and other times they appear to be full grown adults. I probably won't read the next books in the series, I will probably wait until they are out in audio as Mr. Boudreaux makes it easier to keep track of people. Or maybe not :

GOOD BUT DISAPPOINTING

As in the first book you have the perfect MM audiobook 8 hours of sex. killing people. sex, horse back riding, sex, killing more people, sex, horse back riding back to the palace, sex, fighting with the elders, sex and having dinner and the reader threw off the cliff. It has a great storyline, plot this series has e everything a great MM would want to read. There is massive flaw the listener is throw the cliff and hoping they can find the next audiobook in the series if they do do not expect the books to pick up after other they want and the listener is left trying to figure what is happening or the listener is totally lost. I tried to search on Amazon, Greadreads and Bookbud to find the sequence of the books and I could not or I find one try to buy it and when it went to Amazon I get a dead page.
So good luck with this series it would be an awesome series to read or listen to.

5 stars and a Top Recommendation for Opposites!

Let me start off by telling you that I don’t normally read or listen to stories in the dystopian genre. I just have a really hard time getting into them, and usually find my attention drifting. With Opposites, that was so very not the case, and actually the…opposite…was true (sorry, couldn’t resist!). Take the world as you know it, where gays and lesbians are a clear minority, and reverse it—all the way to the point where heterosexual barely even exists. Can you imagine such a world? T.M. Smith did, and it is brought to life perfectly here in Opposites-so well in fact, that as you read it becomes very easy to become immersed in it and believe that somewhere this world really can be found.

This story is very much character driven, and those characters are as unique as the world in which they live. Their individuality is detailed and distinct, making them come alive in these pages…and the further into the story I got, the more wrapped up in them I became. Emotions between couples are clearly intense, and this shows not just in their interactions with each other-both in and out of the bedroom-but also with the other couples, families and other supporting characters. I was particularly drawn to Aiyan and Kaden as well as Raven and Tanis.

With Aiyan and Kaden, they are drawn to each other like powerful magnets from the moment they lay eyes on each other. Their match is unusually powerful, as is the relationship Aiyan shares with his twin sister Aiya. Aiyan and Kaden together define sensuality, and their intimate scenes are wild and a bit…destructive ;-)

When it comes to Raven and Tanis, angst and turmoil rules as Raven becomes torn between his duties and his feelings for Tanis, making their relationship especially tumultuous—and turning them into my favorite couple of this story even though much of this book is centered on Aiya, Aiyan, and their spouses.

With the drama introduced when the Opposites anomaly is thrown into the spotlight at House Gaeland, it sends events spiraling into unforeseen territory and you couldn’t have dragged me away from this story at any point (and heaven help anyone who might have thought about trying). In the end, we are left with questions and unrest, and it will have you desperately seeking the next book in the series just like I was.

While I might not normally care for this genre, Opposites blew that out of the water and was a 5-star read for me—and is my absolute top recommendation in the M/M dystopian genre (and the dystopian genre in general). I highly recommend this to any fan of LGBT romance in general, and if you’re a dystopian fan as well, then you’re going to be twice as happy. This story is meant for readers 18+ for adult language and some very naughty sexual content.

Audiobook thoughts: Greg Boudreaux does a smashing job with the narration of this book. His character voices are distinctive and consistent throughout the story, and they are also consistent with the two novellas from this series that he also narrated, The Library and The Cellar. It’s the mark of a truly talented narrator when I can hear a character’s voice and know exactly who is speaking without having to be told in the story. He brings this world and these characters to life beautifully, making it very easy for me to clearly picture everything in my head. 5 stars for this performance, and this is one audiobook-and series-that I’ll be listening to again and again! *Note-I do suggest that you read the book before listening to it.  There are a lot of character POV changes, and from my perspective it helped me to have a general idea of what was going on before listening.

Didn't care for the MC's. Narration was great.

Story:
Based on the cover and the blurb I had expected the story to focus on one couple, Aiyan and Kaden, with maybe a strong secondary character in Aiya. It goes far broader in scope though, and features seven main characters, all but one of whom fall in love with someone from among these seven. The book becomes even more crowded when taking into account all the parents that are never far from our young heroes and heroines.
Everyone gets about equal attention from the author, with slightly more time in the spotlight for Aiyan and Kaden, but because there are so many characters to follow up on, I feel as if we don’t get to truly know any of them. All the characters’ interactions, though well-written, remain almost superficial, making it very difficult to get into the story or care about what happens to them next. There’s too little time for self-reflection or internal dialogue and what dialogue there is among the group or pairings isn’t necessarily very revealing or meaningful.
When things get physical, we stay with the couple in question for a longer time, which struck me as somewhat unbalanced in the grander scheme of things. I’d have preferred it if the writer had taken more time to actually build these relationships on an emotional level too.
A lot of attention to detail has gone into the world-building and the story is certainly set in a highly unique universe, giving the reader a thought-provoking perspective. Still, there are some things that struck me as a bit strange. A futuristic society, with great biological advances, falls back into an almost medieval way of living but keeps quite modern sounding idioms that don’t fit the atmosphere of this alternate universe. The main characters are nearly all of royal rank or at least quite high up in society, but servants seem to be scarce, leaving all the menial work for princes and princesses to do themselves.
I don’t care much for Aiya who seems very passive and a stereotypical damsel in distress. Outside of a physical attraction there doesn’t seem to be much to bind her to her chosen significant other. Once Aiyan learns more about who his sister loves he reacts like an absolute boor. For twins with a supposedly strong connection, they don’t communicate well at all and don’t trust the other with their secrets. Aiyan, and some of the others, are shown to be bloodthirsty and vengeful, leaning towards gratuitous violence rather than attempting to keep up any sort of justice system. The book ends on a cliffhanger of sorts.
I really couldn’t get into this story, I tried, but it’s not for me.

Narration:
Greg Boudreaux did a great job narrating this story. It can’t have been easy with the multitude of main and secondary characters, several of whom had distinctive accents.

A post-apocalyptic, dystopian romance!

I loved this post-apocalypse story set in a dystopian world.
The world building was unique and refreshing.
The concept of this story was interesting and kept me engaged throughout. The characters were well fleshed out had depth. Overall a sweet romance set in a dystopian world.
Greg Boudreaux did an amazing narration. He gave the characters their own voices, despite there being so many of them.
If you are willing to try something new and different, do give this one a listen.

The Future???

This was a unique take on relationships and pairings. Same sex is accepted and expected, but hetero unions are not. A couple starts a clandestine hetero relationship and how others react and the situations and problems thst arise. This is not my usual, but I found myself immersed in it and wanting more. Intriguing and captivating storyline. I looked forward to more. The ending is an eye opener!! I voluntarily read an advanced copy of this and am giving an honest review. The narrator did an excellent job with voices and expressions.

Very good

If you like TM Smith you’ll enjoy this one. Lots of great romance set in a unique and interesting world. Loved the characters and the setting. Greg Boudreaux once again does a great job.

Good start to an unusual post-apocalypic mythology

Where does Opposites rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The narrator elevated what might have been a confusing storyline, with an extremely large cast of characters, by the judicious application of accents, including performing credible female voices.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Opposites?

The switch from an atmosphere where most of the characters displayed mindless acquiescence to the status quo to that of questioning their places in society and their own belief systems via a series of unexpected conflicts.

What about Greg Boudreaux’s performance did you like?

Another excellent performance, especially with the large cast. Each voice was reasonably unique and made following the narrative easy.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I found it easier to follow by listening to just a couple chapters at a time since much of the first half of the book was devoted to set-up, back story, and description.

Recommended!

I will always listen to anything narrated by Greg Boudreaux. I really enjoyed this one. It took me a bit to get into it because there seemed to be so many characters involved, so many with similar names, I had a hard time. When they started pairing off, it was easier to find my way.

The story held my interest and I found the relationships to be very compelling. I'd recommend this without question.

Spectacular Story!!

I really enjoyed this story a lot more than I thought I would. Great world building of a post-apocalypse future world. I love that there are so many fascinating characters especially Aiyan and Kaden who are the main focus. I love them right from the start, their attraction and connection are instant and I love watching their relationship unfold. The narrator did a spectacular job with this one especially with so many different voices of all the different characters. I can't wait wait to listen to more of this seris. I voluntarily reviewed a gifted copy of this audiobook.