Underdog
In Vino Veritas
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Underdog
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Gesprochen von:
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Nick J. Russo
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Life in foster care wasn’t easy. Life after prison? Unforgiving. But I’m determined to stay out of trouble, and I’m gaining a foothold on the closest I’ve ever known to normal.
Then, thanks to a pair of escape-artist dogs from the sanctuary where I’ve found work, I cross paths with my boss’ neighbor, Ty Adams. He’s a horse trainer, and winter is his quiet season. It’s also the season when he gets restless and lonely—two things I know all about. He’s not interested in love or romance. I’m just happy someone’s interested in me at all, even if emotions are strictly forbidden.
When we’re not together, I’m thinking about him. When we are together... Well, I’m definitely thinking about what he does to me and what I want to do with him.
As we keep each other warm through the Vermont winter, this feels a lot more than physical. Somehow he soothes my pain, and I wonder if I’m touching something deep inside him too. But Ty won’t let himself love anyone. I never had a chance. And now, with my past closing in, I could lose the one man I hoped I could count on. The one I thought might be different.
When his present and my history collide, is it too much to hope he’ll choose me?
CW: Sick horse and a minor accident involving a horse—no animal deaths or serious injuries/illnesses.
©2022 L.A. Witt (P)2022 Heart Eyes Press LLC
Landon is an ex-felon recently released on parole after nine years, trying to find his footing in a society that has already decided who he is — and refuses to see anything beyond that label. He’s a beautifully layered, heartbreaking character. My heart ached for him constantly: his longing for human touch, for someone to say I love you, I believe in you, I trust you. He’s good and broken in the quietest, most painful way, and watching him shrink himself in front of people who condemn him without mercy was genuinely devastating.
Then there’s Ty — the warm-hearted farm owner and horse trainer who is instantly drawn to Landon and believes in him from the very beginning. He gives Landon a chance, a job, and something dangerously close to hope. Ty is torn between his growing feelings and the realities of his business, and that internal conflict added emotional weight that I really appreciated. The chemistry and tension between these two were genuinely well done.
That said… this book did not need to be this long.
While the story itself was promising and emotionally rich, the execution seriously suffered from unnecessary filler. Entire sections were weighed down by excessive, unimportant details — naming countless dogs at the sanctuary, extended descriptions of horses and competitions, and chapters filled with repetitive inner monologues. I found myself skipping pages and paragraphs just to get back to the core story.
Ironically, while Unmanageable could have benefited from being a bit longer, Underdog desperately needed to be at least 200 pages (or 3 audiobook hours) shorter. I genuinely don’t understand why the pacing and structure between these two books in the same series are so wildly different. The writing felt repetitive, overly detailed in the wrong places, and painfully slow.
The spice was fairly mediocre, but the emotional chemistry and slow-burn tension carried those moments more than the explicit scenes themselves.
On the narration side, Nick J. Russo once again delivered an excellent performance. His ability to differentiate both characters and bring emotional nuance to Landon in particular really elevated the listening experience — easily one of the strongest aspects of the book.
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⭐ Final Breakdown
• Story: ⭐⭐⭐
• Character Development: ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐
• Spice: ⭐
• Narration: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Writing Style & Pacing: ⭐⭐
Overall: A powerful concept with deeply emotional characters, but weighed down by excessive length and repetitive writing. This could have been something truly special with tighter editing
Emotional Story weighed down by excessive length
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