Building Forever by Kelly Jensen

Narrated by Austin Jay

I really enjoyed reading Kelly Jensen’s This Time Forever series when the books were first published in 2018/19. The trilogy features characters ranging in age from late thirties to early fifties finding love and second chances they thought might have passed them by. It’s not all that unusual to find a romantic hero in his forties, but it’s less so to find couples in romances in that age bracket, and that premise is one of the things that originally drew me to these stories.

Book one, Building Forever finds successful architect Simon Linley moving to the town of Bethlehem in Pennsylvania following the end of his twelve-year relationship with the man who was also his business partner. Adding a growing dissatisfaction with the way his career was progressing to the relationship issues he’d been turning a blind-eye to for too long, Simon is determined to make a fresh start, and has taken up a partnership with a local architect that Simon hopes will enable him to work on the sorts of projects he really believes in, ones that want to preserve old traditions of workmanship and character rather than flattening them to make way for soulless new-builds.

The character property next door is just the sort of thing Simon admires, so he goes to introduce himself to its owner who – it turns out is also just the sort of thing Simon admires. Chatty, handsome, with a ready, warm smile, Charlie King is friendly and charming, and Simon is immediately captivated – although the alarm bells start ringing fast when Charlie’s references to his daughter Olivia indicate he’s both straight and married.

Charlie is, in fact, a widower with a seventeen-year-old daughter, Olivia (Liv). He and his late wife Merry were high-school sweethearts who got married after Merry fell pregnant when they were both in their late teens. Charlie never regretted it and loved Merry whole-heartedly until her death from cancer five years earlier; he’s been caring for Liv on his own ever since, and while he’s a great dad, like all parents, he continually worries that he’s not ‘doing it right’. He’s a writer – technical manuals are what he terms his ‘day job’, but he’s also the author of a successful series of science-fiction novels, and is currently struggling to meet the deadlines for his current book – the final one in a six-book series. So he’s home during the day most days – which is how come he’s in the kitchen in his rattiest sweats, covered in crumbs, his mouth full of Cheeze-Its when his gorgeous new neighbour comes in through the back door.

Over the next few weeks and months, Charlie and Simon spend a bit of time together and get to know each other a little better, the initial spark of attraction both felt at their first meeting building slowly into a strong desire for something more. Having married so young and been a faithful husband, Charlie never got the chance to explore the bisexuality he acknowledged in his teens, and hasn’t had a relationship – other than the odd hook-up (with women) at the Sci-Fi cons he attends – since Merry’s death, so he’s not at all sure how to go about starting something with Simon – or even if Simon would want him to start something.

Building Forever is a warm, funny and charming story featuring two engaging leads who have been around the block a few times emotionally, who feel like real people with real quirks and insecurities; and the author does a great job of capturing the messiness of relationships – especially those begun later in life with all the attendant emotional baggage. Simon and Charlie have great chemistry and a really strong emotional connection to complement their growing physical attraction; they’re both extremely likeable characters, but Charlie is, quite simply, one of the most adorable/adorkable heroes I’ve ever come across. He’s funny and sweet and utterly disarming, and I loved his honesty in acknowledging his feelings for Simon, and his unashamed enthusiasm for new sexual experiences is both cute and sexy. In many ways, he and Simon are total opposites – Charlie is talkative and outgoing where Simon is quieter and more considered – but their differences complement each other, with Charlie bringing some light and liveliness to Simon’s life and Simon bringing calm and stability to Charlie’s.

Family and friendships are important to both men, and although there isn’t a large secondary cast, the relationships between Simon and his best friend Frank (whose story is told in book two in the series) and Charlie and his brother-in-law Phil are really well done, and Liv is a wonderfully realised teenager rather than just being a plot-moppet. I loved that she was so supportive of her dad and Simon and wasn’t at all freaked out at him dating a man; she and Charlie clearly think the world of each other. My one issue with the story is with the third-act conflict; there’s nothing keeping Charlie and Simon from moving forward together apart from personal insecurities and some really bad timing, and although Ms. Jensen doesn’t draw things out, it’s still a bit flimsy.

Austin Jay is a new-to-me performer who appears to be fairly new to audio narration too, with just eighteen titles (so far) listed at Audible. Having listened to him in Building Forever, I hope that list grows, because he’s pretty good, and I would certainly listen to him again. His performance is well-paced and suitably expressive; he communicates the emotional content of the story well and clearly conveys his engagement with the story and characters. He portrays the main characters – Charlie, Simon and Liv – really well; in fact, his portrayal of Charlie is pretty much perfect, his warmth and good nature coming through really strongly, and his nervous babbling sounding exactly as I’d heard it in my head when I read the book. There were a few issues with character differentiation – occasionally, I couldn’t tell the difference between Simon and one of the secondary characters or between two other characters, so I had to rely on dialogue tags to work out who was speaking. And in a few places, I couldn’t tell the difference between narrative and dialogue; the tone Mr. Jay adopts for Simon is very close to his narrative ‘voice’ and this issue usually cropped up in scenes that featured Simon rather than any of the other characters. It didn’t happen very often, but it was noticeable when it did and took me out of the story a little bit while I worked out who was saying what.

In spite of those issues however, I enjoyed the audio version of Building Forever very much and am happy to recommend it to anyone looking for a sweet, sexy, low-angst romance featuring a mature couple who are perfect for each other.

Caz

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Buy Building Forever by Kelly Jensen on Amazon