Born Again Sinner

Daryl Banner really knows small-town life, particularly that of a small Texas town. There are some personalities that folks will recognize from episodes of Friday Night Lights. He's also got a particularly masculine POV when it comes to describing sex scenes. In this tale, Trey Arnold, the preacher's kid, is openly gay (albeit theoretically) and a nursing student who comes to the aid of Cody Davis, a vet, who's returned to their small-town of Spruce Texas, is embittered by his injuries and is having trouble doing his rehab and resuming a normal life. Of course, the two become involved and Trey has trouble reconciling his urges with the virginal life he's previously been living. Trey also has trouble learning to act independently from a father who, while preaching acceptance and Christian charity, myopically fails to exhibit those attitudes toward his son. Both Trey and Cody are good men at heart, and it's a pleasure to spend time with them in this tale. It's even better to see how both men are good for each other. This is the second book in the Spruce Texas series and the narrators are once again Chris Chambers and Sean Crisden. In some ways the two main characters here are quite similar to the two main characters in book one, and the guys once again do a good job with voicing them and the assorted secondary characters. It's actually nice to see the two characters from book one have cameos here and having the same narrators added no confusion in that regard. Sean Crisden once again channels Christian Slater a bit in his “inner monologues” and does tend to mumble a bit when his character Cody questions himself. But I can clearly understand it all and at this point its more than a bit endearing. Chris Chambers voices Trey with the same skill that showed when voicing Billy in book one. While it works perfectly well, I did find myself wondering at times if a bit more variety might not have been in order. In the end, I decided that that was actually something of the fault of the author. The characters voiced by Chris are perhaps a bit too similar in their viewpoints. I'm not sure whether it's my perspective (or maybe just all the fancy desserts) but I actually enjoyed the first book better. This one doesn't quite give me that “Let's read it again now” feeling that my five-star reads generally do. However this one laid the groundwork pretty well for another book, and (based on the blurb for book 3), I'll soon be enjoying that one as well.

Awesome book kept my intros throughout the book

This book is the best in the series, in my opinion. I cried multiple times. Trey is very adorable. I recommend!