Excellent story 👏👏👏

This was a beautiful and captivating love story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Loved the characters. Loved the writing, loved the narration and the HEA was perfect.

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Pretty Boy and his Angel

It’s been a while since i first read this but I have often thought of Oliver & Victor.
The audiobook was amazing Iggy Toma always does an excellent job and he excelled with this book.

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1 person found this helpful

Incredible emotional story with so many sweet bits

Love that Iggy Toma narrated the story. It was amazing. The story has happy and sad moments but proves that lives conquers all of you willing to put in the time and effort.

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1 person found this helpful

Sexy, angsty and emotional

I enjoyed Halo when I read towards the end of last year - it's an "escort" romance featuring Oliver, a young grad student who does sex work to pay his way through college and Victor, an older businessman who lives with a genetic disorder that affects his mobility. When Victor walks in on his fiancée fucking his best friend, he bolts and just wants to get away from everything - and ends up going on the honeymoon alone.

On his first night, he calls for a ride to go to the hockey game he'd booked tickets for (because his fiancée liked the sport, not because he's particularly interested in it) and gets into the car that pulls up outside without realising it's not the ride he booked. The driver - a gorgeous young man named Oliver - is chatty and quick-witted, and Victor ends up having a really great time. Until someone tells him who - and what - Oliver is.

Oliver had been scheduled to pick up a client that night and although he quickly realised that Victor wasn't him, the older man's aura of sadness and melancholy made Oliver want to do something nice for him. That Victor is hot certainly doesn't make it a hardship. When the truth comes out, Oliver explains that he'd gone along with the deception because he thought Victor wouldn't want to spend time with him if he knew; Victor doesn't condemn him for his line of work, and can't help but think that Oliver is probably right about that.

Before they part for the evening, Oliver gives Victor his number and suggests that if he's going to hire someone to show him around the town, he should hire him - they get along well, he knows all the best places - and Oliver likes him. Victor is hesitant, but takes the number, not sure if he'll call or not.

Of course, he does and the two of them end up spending a fantastic week together. They both have insecurities that stem from difficult pasts - Oliver because his parents threw him out when he came out aged twelve and he bounced around the foster system, Victor because of his illness and the way his parents treated him because of it when he was a child and how others have treated him as an adult. Together, they show each other that those things don't have to define them going forward and they fall deeply in love.

E.M, Lindsey knows how to write strong emotion and to pack a real punch, because although there's the whiff of insta-love here, it's clear that these two feel deeply for each other and are each other's forever person. In my review of the print edition, I said that the momentum kind of fizzles out after the holiday ends - but with that said, the time Oliver and Victor spend apart is necessary so they can both take the time to work out where they go from here and if what they found in each other back on their break from reality holiday was real and worth pursuing or just a fling. I think listening rather than reading crystallised that - I do find sometimes that listening to a story - because I'm going at the narrator's pace and not just my own - shows me things that I didn't quite pick up on in print.

The disability rep is excellent - this author frequently writes about differently abled protagonists and does it very well - and I once again enjoyed Victor's journey towards confidence and gaining a more accurate picture of himself than the one he's held for so long. (And I still had to side eye Oliver not once being concerned that he might not be able to become a teacher after being a sex worker. )

Iggy Toma is someone I always enjoy listening to, and this was no exception. He's bright and upbeat as Oliver and puts a bit of gravel into Victor's tone, slowing his speech a little to depict someone who is considered and maybe a bit shy. There aren't many secondary characters, but the few there are are voiced appropriately and clearly differentiated.

Halo is a sexy, emotional and very satisfying romance, and I enjoyed it even more in audio. Recommended.

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