Paint the Stars by Christina Lee & Nyrae Dawn

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Title: Paint the Stars
Author: Christina Lee, Nyrae Dawn
Series: Free Fall #3
Published by: Audible Studios
Release Date: March 6, 2018
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: James Cavenaugh, Ryan Turner
Length: 6 hours and 55 minutes
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, LGBT
Source: Audible
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Winter 2018
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ iTunes ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

Ezra Greene has made a pretty decent life for himself. He has a nice apartment and spends his days doing the one thing he’s always loved—creating art. Despite being somewhat of a grumpy recluse, he’s even made a few loyal friends. When he takes a side job painting a mural at a local holistic center, he can’t help being curious about a certain friendly and self-assured yoga instructor, even if he doesn’t buy into any of that Zen crap. His holier-than-thou family already tried fitting him inside a box, and he swore he’d never be molded into anybody’s belief system again.

For Daevonte Randall, adulthood has worked out pretty well. He’s close to his parents and lives with an awesome roommate. He’s content with weekend hookups, teaching yoga, and taking college courses. What he doesn’t expect is to be so intrigued by the brooding and reserved painter he’s been tasked to stay after hours with at the center. Something fascinates him about Ezra, even after Daevonte’s attempts at flirting gets him friend-zoned on the spot.

As weeks pass, Ezra and Dae get to know each other, and soon their friendship catches fire. But Ezra’s been burned pretty badly before so trust and intimacy has to be earned. Daevonte feels up to the task, but it proves difficult as Ezra continues to keep his emotions in check. Dae’s only willing to wait so long, and when they’re dealt a surprising blow, Ezra needs to decide if love is worth the risk, that is…if it’s not too late.

My Review:

4.5 stars — This book, and this series, has been on my radar for awhile, and I’m so glad I finally dove in (even if I did dive in on book 3 instead of book 1).  It just hit a lot of my buttons, and gave me a new favourite book boy to put on my list (because you know I have a list).

We’ll start with the narrators: I LOVED James Cavenaugh for Daevonte.  He just somehow made him come to life, and I could practically hear the smile in his voice when he would tease Ezra.  He was also relatively consistent with his other character voices.  There wasn’t always a huge difference, but even the subtlest ones helped me to keep track of who was speaking without waiting for the dialogue tags.  Ryan Turner was also good as Ezra, but personal taste-wise I just didn’t enjoy him quite as much.  He fit for the lower-key Ezra though.  He conveyed good emotion, but he wasn’t as consistent with his other character voices.  Heck, sometimes he wasn’t even consistent between Ezra and Dae, but it didn’t necessarily disrupt my enjoyment.  But of the two, I will definitely be seeking out more from Mr. Cavenaugh.

As someone who recently discovered she’s likely on the ace spectrum, listening to a book with a main character who is demi-sexual was really gratifying.  I was able to relate to Ezra and how he saw the world.  I’m not saying this aspect was a huge part of the book, but it was definitely there and present and well represented in my opinion.

Ezra was also an epic introvert, and really closed off emotionally because of a past heartbreak.  While I can’t relate to the second, I can definitely relate to his time limits around big groups of people, and his need for alone time.  I really loved the way that Ezra and Dae were opposites in this way, but they both tried to be mindful of the other.  Ezra learned to push his boundaries for Dae…and Dae helped Ezra get out of his little bubble a bit more, all while reading him so he didn’t push too far.  The funny thing is, maybe because we’re too alike, I found I didn’t connect with Ezra quite as much as Dae, but even so I felt like he showed a ton of growth in the book…it was subtle, and sometimes it took longer than I’d like, but it was more realistic that way.

Daevonte (which I’m always going to say it in my head with the same flair that Mr. Cavenaugh did at the beginnings of Dae’s chapters) was SO EASY to love.  He was like an adorable puppy dog that was incorrigible, but you just wanted to snuggle with.  He was hilarious, and his teasing of Ezra gave me all the butterflies.  He was just charming, and open, and sassy, and kind, and genuine.  I LOVED him.  And I loved him for Ezra.  I loved that he didn’t give up on Ezra, but sort of bulldozed himself into his life in whatever capacity Ezra would have him, while still respecting Ezra’s boundaries.  I was afraid for his heart, because he put it out there so easily, and I didn’t want him to get hurt.

The friendship between Ezra and Dae, and watching that blossom into feelings and love, was truly the star of this book.  I loved seeing them grow with one another, and while they hit a few snags, no one behaved terribly.  God that’s so nice sometimes.  I just loved the chemistry they had with one another, and I was rooting for them from the beginning.

I definitely need to go back and read the first 2 books in this series.  Ezra’s group of friends were all very different, but I liked that they all supported one another.  And I LOVED Daevonte’s gregarious and loving family…it’s really nice to see great parent figures in books.

So yeah.  This is my first book by this duo of authors, but it won’t be my last.  Solid M/M romance with an emphasis on the connection between the heroes.