Such a sweet story - great narration!

Gael (pronounced Guy – el) is an amazingly sappy and sweet soul who finds a broken and beaten, half-dead Silas in an alley and immediately falls under his spell. His normal hands-off approach to dating falls away as he can’t help but dive into the messy life that is Silas.

Silas has a lot of story for only being 19 years old. When he sees “G” he also immediately falls for the (much) older man.

There is a bit of drama with Silas’ family and a bit of worry about their ages, but really, the love story itself is almost completely without angst.

The sensual times are pretty smokin’ and the romance is ooey and gooey enough even for my sappy soul!

Audio

Derrick McClain does a tremendous job with this! I loved the accents he used – G’s partner has a mix of Irish and South Boston… awesome! Silas and Gael are both as I’d “picture” them in my head and as always he’s great with the emotion and pacing as well.

Highly Recommended

4.5 of 5 stars

5 people found this helpful

Short but sweet 💖

For a short story, this one packs a good plot. It has the holiday feels & romance. It has action & a bit of suspense and the steamy parts are quite sexy.

It’s my first listen to Derrick McClain narrating and he did a great job!

3 people found this helpful

Gael and his Angel!

I really enjoyed this story. I knew going in that it would be a short story so I was prepared for that. I would love more of this story because I loved Gael and Silas together. Yes this was an insta-love story but again going into a book that is less than four hours that is kind of a given. The angst was all from outside sources like Silas' worthless father and Gael's ex who I wanted to shake. I would have loved to see the outcome of what happened with the father but I was just glad that this had a happy ending, well happy for now in my opinion since this could theoretically be turned into more. I really enjoyed Derrick McClain's narration with all the different voices, especially Gael......he could call me Angel in that voice and I would probably fall in love instantly too, I'm just saying haha.

2 people found this helpful

Angst-filled Holiday story

Would you consider the audio edition of Saving Silas to be better than the print version?

I didn't read the print version.

Would you be willing to try another book from SJ Himes? Why or why not?

Oh yes, I like her stories!

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

Not necessarily.

Any additional comments?

*I was provided with a copy of this audiobook by the author in exchange for a fair review*Gael is an Iraqi war veteran suffering from PTSD. He now works as an EMT in Boston. Following a mass shooting event he finds a wounded young man, Silas, who is the son of a local, powerful District Attorney. Silas’ father is abusive, and doesn’t approve of his son being gay. Gael instantly feels very protective of Silas, and Silas feels very protected by Gael. I’m not a huge fan of insta-love, but it wasn’t really overdone in this story. Gael and his friend Jim work together to protect Silas from his influential father. Much of this book was kind of unbelievable and over the top, along the lines of a Die Hard movie. There is a lot of angst in this story, but it’s all wrapped up in a neat, happy ending. The narrator, Derrick McClain, is among my favorites, and once again I enjoyed listening to him narrate this story. I did have an issue with his pronunciation of Gael’s name – early in the reading I heard both Gile (one syllable, hard G, rhymes with smile) and Guy-El (two syllables). By the end of the story (and after the pronunciation had been clarified in the book) he was consistently saying it the correct way.

2 people found this helpful

Perfect

Loved Derrick McClain's voice for this story. Gael and Silas are two forces of nature in personalities and I loved how McClain made them both come to life. Short listen and flowed well between chapters with the perfect tone. Can't wait to hear more from them and SJ Himes

1 person found this helpful

Love happens when you least expect it

Gael (love this name) is haunted by his past but keeps moving forward. Silas is trying to figure out what to do while staying free of his father. As these two come together and begin the path to a relationship, they are having to deal with outside sources that mean them harm. Even with that threat hanging over their heads, Gael and Silas are getting closer and you can just feel the love beginning to bloom.

1 person found this helpful

Just ok for me.

The vocal performer was ok…he had several distinguishable voices for the characters. He put emotion in the performance but at times the voice bothered me a bit.

Most of this book didn’t work for me. The story really needed to be a full novel to work…there was way too much going on. If it were to be expanded to a full novel, it could be incredible.

Here are my issues with the book:

Silas was forced to come out by someone who shouldn’t have outed him which caused major devastation. He was stuck in a family with a father who abused him emotionally and physically for YEARS. His mother was also abused and was basically his father’s puppet. Silas barely escaped alive and became homeless while nursing some pretty major injuries. And after all that, Silas is seemingly fine emotionally. We never experience his healing AT ALL. He’s just magically ok. Even teenagers aren’t that resilient and there would be some sort of backlash from that.

Gael suffers from PTSD and still has flashbacks to his days in the military which again go unresolved except Silas being the ‘cure’ for his issues. He has 1 friend and is completely closed off emotionally but 2 days with Silas and he’s all better now. With these severely damaged men, this story needs more healing. They just can’t get over everything they’ve gone through without it.

Faster than instant love…these two fell in love at first sight when Gael basically saved Silas’ life. The potential hero worship was glossed over. Silas is a TEENAGER while Gael is an adult with some major life experiences under his belt. Silas is also a virgin with very limited sexual experience and has sex with Gael almost immediately after going to stay with him (while injured I might add).

The big showdown with Silas’ dad is outrageous.

Again, I think this has the potential to be a really amazing story but it needs A LOT more meat to be complete.

3 people found this helpful

Couldn't get past the creep factor.

Ok. Bear with me, this is the first unfavorable review I've ever written. Here goes. While I absolutely adore SJ Himes other works - this one, not so much. Firstly, I found Silas being labeled as "my angel" downright stalkerish. Secondly, G's age difference was not acknowledged, nor was Silas's sexual naivetee, except in one short conversation. Infatuation and obvious hero worship don't equal love. I suppose that it doesn't help that I am the parent of a nineteen and a twenty-one year old. BRRRR! Finally, the narrator's inability to hold an accent and/or stay in character was a huge nail in this book's coffin.


I am usually willing to overlook a bit of fudgery in a plot line, but this just didn't pan out for me as expected.

Enjoyable little romance

This is a short and very sweet story. I think the offer you some interesting concepts and lovable characters that can be fleshed out in longer formats if the offer desires. Some of these story elements are hello harder to believe such as a homophobic Christian district attorney being in power in Suffolk County Massachusetts, but I can imagine that perhaps a decade ago that kind of possibility did exist.

So much yes!

This was a quick listen but ticked all my boxes all the same. Loved this hurt comfort that radiated love between the MCs. I’d previously read this in its ebook format and absolutely loved Derrick McClain’s performance. He was really good fit for the MCs. Did I want more? OF COURSE! then again I never want books to end. This is perfect for someone looking for a great listen during their daily commute.