The Boy I Grew Up With

Lame Gang

The description and reviews are amazing so how could I not purchase!?

Struggled to make it a quarter of the way thru - Channing (while a great performance and beautiful voice) was way too old of a voice for this.

While I could get past that, the lame attempt to talk about "gangs/crews" was laughable. The Jets and the Sharks breaking in to dance had more street believability.

Hard pass for me.

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What Only Love Can Do

Damaged girl grows up in crummy household environment, not feelin' the love. Damaged boy has crummy household, too. No love there. But he finds damaged girl in first grade and latches onto her like his life depends on it. In truth, it probably did. These two, Heather and Channing, sure didn't have much going for them in their early years. They had to claw their way up on their own, and figure out what life and love was all about without any good role models.

But somehow they clung to each other like driftwood from the Titanic and managed to make their own way. It was at times turbulent, messy, insane, beautiful, maddening, and steamy. They must find within themselves and each other the strength and courage they need to grow well beyond their history and become beautiful people capable of loving and caring for others. Fabulous story of an incredible journey and an amazing love.

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Incredible

This book was truly amazing. I couldn’t stop listening. It had me on the edge of my seat most of the time. It had me feeling all of the emotions. It was wonderful. I didn’t want it to end.

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VERY Sons of Anarchy

If Sons of Anarchy had been written from Tara's perspective, it might have been very similar to this book.

When I added this book to my Escapes titles, I was looking for something light and silly as I just finished a book that gave me a mild existential crisis. This book was not light. It certainly wasn't silly. It is dark and brooding and intense. It is a gritty, extreme story about two people from the same but different worlds who have battled a tempestuous relationship since they were 8. It is about their lives - Heather as a restaurant owner/manager, sister, girlfriend, and badass woman who is continually pulled into explosive situations (much like Sons' Tara). Channing is a brother, boyfriend, bar owner, and the reluctant head of a "crew" trying to keep rival gangs off his turf (just like Jax). This is a book about every piece of their lives and their relationship just happens to be a piece of that.

IT IS NOT A ROMANCE NOVEL!!! However, I thought it was fantastic. I'm not going to lie, there were a few moments where I seriously considered stopping to find another book - mostly in the first 5 or so chapters - but so glad I continued.

I felt that the narrators did an outstanding job, though I think that the male narrator's voice sounded just a bit too old for the character. It didn't throw me off, but he just seemed more mature than what I was picturing Channing.

On a side note, I found the shoutouts to some of the people/artists that the author seems to be a fan of to be very amusing. For example, Heather's closest friends in childhood were Channing and Tate (usually short for Tatum). And since I believe the author took inspiration from SOA, Healther's last name is Jacks, much like Jax Teller. There are a couple of others thrown in. Watch for them.


Another author you might enjoy, though not as dark:
LJ Shen

A beautiful story packed with everything

What a rollercoaster of a book! It follows the ups and downs of Heather and Channing, who’ve known each other since first grade, and been a couple almost since. Now they’re in their twenties, and life hasn’t been nice with them. Sometimes they stick together, sometimes they tear each other apart. And you have all of that in the book--including flashbacks of their early years.

I enjoyed it a lot because, instead of witnessing the umpteenth seducing process, I could read--or listen to--about how a couple deals with their problems. Not always in the most mature way--because they’re still young--but I liked the novelty.

It was emotional, to say the least. Heather is a strong independant woman, who takes care of everything and everyone--a crew mindset, Channing would say--but can only lean on her lover. And Channing is a reliable and adoring man when he’s with her. She’s the princess in his life, he loves her that much. A beautiful couple.

I also liked the supporting characters, they’re pretty colorful. Between the snobish stalker, the psycho manager and the powerless playboy, they made for a fun read. A good way to release the tension between the intense scenes with Heather and Jax.

But I think the audiobook wasn’t the best way to discover this beautiful piece. Although the female voice was really good, I couldn’t care less for the male voice. He almost put me to sleep, barely whispering his lines... Thankfully, Heather/her voice have the most lines.

If you want to read a beautiful story packed with everything--violence and romance and drama--this is the one you should read.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Wow, this was hella boring. I'm up to chap 8 and there's like no story surrounding this romance in between all the unnecessary filler flashbacks. I got fooled by the hot guy cover. The narrators are great though..

I love the avtor's voices to this story

I am just starting to listen to this audio book, and I am so encaptured by the actor's voices. I feel like they embody Heather and Channing. Oh man..

Worst male narrator ever!

The male narrator just ruined this entire thing. The story wasn't the greatest but it would have been OK if he didn't sound SOOOOO annoying. Absolutely struggled to get through this.

not a typical romance but good story

This is my first time for this story as well as the author. After reading the review and summary, I decided to give it a try and dive in Heather and Channing story. I really enjoyed their story and for being so young, the love for each was still strong, I love this couple's journey to adulthood. They both have issues that they had to deal alone and with each other. The author did a good job by bring some past details without overdone. I did appreciate that. Both narrators did superb job on reading this story. As a die hard audiobook listener, the narrator can break or make the story even if it's good. This story can be listen/read as stand alone but if you love this author writing, I would recommend this one.

Love this couple

This book was so good, I loved reading about Heather and Channing. It was interesting to see what their day to day life was like and it was great reading about their past together as kids and teens. In this story they have some ups and downs, some heartbreaking times, some revelations, and some hard choices that needed to be made. I love how tough Heather is and watching her navigate her business, her family, and her love life is wonderful. Channing is strong, loyal, sexy and he loves Heather so much. It was nice meeting some new characters and I can’t wait to read Crew next. The ending was so fantastic, I loved reading about not only their future but also the futures of some other characters I love, is there a possible future story here featuring the children of our favorite characters lol. The narrators were great, Blake had the perfect voice for Channing, just what I pictured he would sound like.