Strange Bedfellows

By: Cardeno C.

Narrated by: Ron Herczig

Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

As the sole offspring of the Democratic United States president and his political operative wife, Trevor Moga was raised in an environment driven by the election cycle. During childhood, he fantasized about living in a made-for-television family, and as an adult he rejected all things politics and built a highly successful career as far from his parents as possible.

Newly elected congressman Ford Hollingsworth is Republican royalty. The grandson of a revered governor and son of a respected senator, he was bred to value faith, family, and the goal of seeing a Hollingsworth in the White House.

When Trevor and Ford meet, sparks fly and a strong friendship is formed. But can the billionaire son of a Democratic president build a family with the congressman son of a Republican senator? Forget politics, love makes strange bedfellows.

©2015 Cardeno C. (P)2015 Cardeno C.

A Nice Re-Listen

I'm giving it four stars because it was well written, had great characters and the pacing was perfect. I enjoyed the performance by Ron Herczig.

The narrator spoilt this great story

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend this book to a friend but NOT the audible version. I gave up listening and just read the book!

What other book might you compare Strange Bedfellows to and why?

I cant think of any books with a similar story line to compare this one .

What didn’t you like about Ron Herczig’s performance?

The narrator read the first 3 chapters(that is all I could stand to listen to) in what sounded like his "bedroom voice". Its was low and sultry even when the MCs where arguing!! I also feel that the tone of voice hardly changed and made the listen very boring.

Did Strange Bedfellows inspire you to do anything?

The book reminded me why I like reading this author's books. For me Cardeno C is an auto buy

Any additional comments?

I believe in giving people a chance but I think we best stick with Greg Tremblay or Renard Pasquale :)

Excellent

This is a 5 star audiobook! I totally love Cardeno C. And then add Ron Herczig and you have a masterpiece!
This is an audiobook that I will listen to over and over - I truly appreciate the way Ron brings the characters to life!

good thing I had the actual book

love Cardeno C, I'm never tied if get books.
the narrator for this book however would've turned me off of the story if I wasn't reading at the same time.
the permanent bedroom drawl killed the flow and cadence of the story.

Interesting story

This isn't a different topic. It's a political romance. President and Senator Sons fall in love. Now what I did find interesting and really enjoyed was the reaction of the conservative side when their son come out. I really love how the entire thing was handled. It's a pretty sweet story and Herczig does a fine job with the narration. Overall I found this quite enjoyable.

3.5 stars

I love Cardeno C's stories - They're a perfect blend of romance, sex, and humor and 'Strange Bedfellows' is one of my favorites. However, out of all of her audiobooks 'Strange Bedfellows' is my least favorite, mostly because I don't like the narrator's tone or speaking style. But, because I really wanted to re-listen I changed the audio speed this time to 1.25x and it made all the difference in the world listening. I would not usually recommend changing the speed as it does alter the overall performance, but if the tone and pacing is as bothersome to you as it was to me, try increasing to 1.25x before you chuck it out, you might end up as pleasantly surprised as I was.

Trevor and Ford

Trevor and Ford give us a beautiful, slow-burn build to their relationship. They see the other, not their political affiliations, not their family names, not all their other differences, but who each other truly is. Trevor's growth from a man cynical about relationships to a devoted lover is wonderful. I liked that Ford doesn't lose his faith in accepting who he is. He is the kind of Christian I wish more authors would write. He struggles more with disappointing his family and losing his backing than with being gay. Trevor's support and desire to help Ford achieve his dreams made me smile but his adoration of Ford made him an even better guy to me.
Highly recommended author

Audiobook: the enunciation is good but occasionally the voices of the two main characters were difficult to distinguish from one another.

Love the story, not crazy about the narrator

Ford Hollingsworth is a very closeted, conservative gay man on his way up the Republican Political ladder. He’s not necessarily ashamed of his sexuality, but he knows it’s political suicide to act on his desires, so he remains mostly – key word
“mostly” celibate.

Trevor Moga is Ford’s opposite. He’s out and proud, the only son of the current Democratic President. He and Ford meet at a political party but it’s not until they meet again at a bar that they hook up.

Their romance is fast in the sense that they are sexually combustive and do all they can to be with one another in that sense as often as possible. However, both want something more with the other but have a hard time seeing that as a reality.

**

This is a super sweet, terribly unrealistic book about two prominent members of politics coming together and the world – blessedly – leaving them alone. It’s wonderfully sweet and hopeful and gives a plausible if unlikely way for them to be together in the public eye.

The sex between them is super hot and the romance heart strumming in the way Cardeno excels at. I loved the vision of family as defined by the Mogas because even though it was heavily flawed in some aspects it really rang true that when the cards were down they were there for one another. (I sort of imagine this is life in the Clinton household – but we’ll never know if that’s the truth or not!)

I loved the emotion and the happy ending and really enjoyed this and all Cardeno C books!

Audio

I am a person who really doesn’t like to give negative reviews – especially when I love the book! I do have to say that this narrator is someone I might avoid in the future.

I loved his sweet and sexy bedroom voice and the dialog scenes he does are excellent. For that I was able to continue to listening to the book. However, the rest of the story is delivered in this cadence where he goes up and down and up again, over and over in a way that doesn’t make sense with what he’s reading. It’s very distracting.

I give the story a 4.5 of 5 stars and the narration a 2.75 of 5 stars – so an average of 3.6 stars

A nice romantic story

This Cardeno C romantic novel, narrated by Ron Herozig, was a pleasure to listen to. The MCs met started a sexual relationship and fell in love with each other along the way. They were completely smitten and didn’t let anyone/anything get in their way. That’s how I like the love to grow to be: at first sight, deep and steady as she goes. No bible thumping, conservative parents could separate them. The style was unique: a situation in a section of a a chapter was introduced midway and then the explanation of what led to it and how, followed. Interesting. Four stars, because it was a short story. And I like Cardeno’s novels

The Story Has My Vote, but.....

I enjoy the worlds of Cardeno C. That there is always a happy ending and interesting characters keeps me coming back to these stories. I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed in the choice for a narrator this time around. I'd gotten used to Paul Morey even though I thought he was too old for many of the characters. I think Charlie David did a great job with the ones he narrated. And now that Greg Tremblay is on board, I would have loved to hear his take. But Mr. Herczig doesn't do it for me. His style is a bit grating and he has a tendency to go up and down when he speaks. I tried another book that he narrated and couldn't get through it. Since I love Cardeno so much I thought I would give him another chance. I'm afraid my conclusion is the same. He's not the worst but I think another could have done better.