All the Way Back Home
By: J.R. Rain / Narrated By: Alex Freeman
Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
Had SUCH high hopes for this, but alas! Narrator Alex Freeman dashed them all!
I’m unfamiliar with any of author J.R. Rain’s works, and I did NOT read the Publisher’s Summary. I just saw a man and a dog on the cover, and as it was Kindle Unlimited with the paired audiobook for cheap, dude! I was so there, waiting for a chance to make it my Animals Pick for the week.
But oy, from the get-go, the narrator just marred the beJESus outta what mighta been a decent story. At first I gave Alex Freeman the benefit of the doubt; after all, our hero Shaye Fox is totally drunk as the story opens, and he’s quite the bitter drunk. Okay, methinks to m’self, the narration is flat because Shaye is just tired of being alive.
Alas, the delivery doesn’t get any better as Shaye starts making choices and starts actually living…
What we have is drunkard ex-dentist, ex-husband, Shaye, driving home drunk, through a winding mountain road and in the rain. Not smart, but he doesn’t care: His wife fessed up that she’d been having an affair, left him, he turned to booze, he drunkenly pulled threeeeee teeth, the wrong teeth, and lost his dental license due to malpractice. He’s got nobody, nothing. He’s swilling his way to an early grave, and who cares?
But right as he comes up, he sees a big ol’ white dog lying in the road, and he barely misses it. Stunned and not knowing what to do as he sees the dog has been cut wide open and is bleeding in the rain, he finally decides to help the dog, reaching back into his bag of tricks for surgery skills and stitching the dog up (But not before finding a big bag of cocaine and a human finger in the dog’s torn stomach). Realizing the dog had been used as a drug mule, Shaye aims to make the dog’s new life better. Bummer, tho’ cuz the dog reeeeeally wants to go home. And, earlier, an old acquaintance helped Shaye discover the dog was from a (Fictional) country called East Sahara and was registered as a service dog. He’s named War Daddy, and Shaye KNOWS the person who War Daddy was likely kidnapped from is surely missing this wonderful dog.
And so Shaye decides to sober the heck up and take War Daddy back to East Sahara, trusting that this special breed (Also fictional) of dog will lead the pair back to the owner.
It’s TOTALLY not a piece of cake, and Shaye, once in the rolling desert and with a couple o’ camels, discovers that this particular breed of dog is highly prized and sought for illegal animal fighting. There are brouhahas galore, and there are quieter parts where we learn that SOMEhow Shaye brought his dental equipment with him and becomes juuuuuust what the inhabitants of the lightly inhabited East Sahara so desperately need. A gentleman Shaye meets has dreams that are coming true, plus War Daddy seems to know exACTly what Shaye needs in life and leads him to it, like, SEVeral times that try one’s ability to suspend disbelief.
Still, I appreciated the magical bends in the story, the fantastical elements. If it weren’t for the dratted narration! Freeman, who did a dead-at-heart drunkard acceptably, only changes things up by speeding up his pacing for the action scenes, but he does nothing as far as vocal inflections to indicate awe or surprise (And there are PLEnty of surprises in store for Shaye!). Yeh yeh yeh, his voices for women/girls didn’t suck, but really: Author Rain packed so much into this story that COULD’ve been grand. Action, adventure, romance, kidnapping scenes, animal fights (Oh, warning: If you’re squeamish, War Daddy sees action… Fast forward if it’s too much), the tearing out of throats, camels who become friends.
And as ever, a good and faithful dog ever moving onward. So much possibility, all coming to nothing as I simply couldn’t give such lackluster narration a pass.
Would I give Rain another chance? Maybe, but I see he’s noted more for his tales of vampires, so maaaaybe nooooot. Would I give Alex Freeman another chance? Oh Jiminy H. Cricket, I dashed over and searched through my Library to make absoLUTEly sure I didn’t have more narrated by him.
And I don’t…
So, > PHEW <
An enchanting read, no doubt, filled with trials, tribulations, the melting of a heart and the new singing of a soul. Got me with a Hero who grows and makes some silly but sound choices, kept me with a strong heroine capable of leading a tribe, made my heart go Awwww with a dog who knows his own heart.
Lost me on flaaaaaat narration.
So, Boooooo!!!
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