Advance & Retreat

The Midwest Series, Book 4

By: Brigham Vaughn

Narrated by: James Edward Jones

A competitive swimmer and a glamorous drag queen…a love worthy of gold or a crushing defeat?

Openly gay college swimmer Ian Harrington is fighting against a current of tragedy. He's grieving the loss of his parents and best friend, and now he's dealing with a toxic coach and judgmental brother. But he won't let that stop him from chasing his dream: Olympic gold.

Ricky Chavez has almost everything he wants in life: a great career, a supportive family, and a side gig as drag queen Rosie Riveting. The only thing he's missing is a partner to share it all with.

When the two men connect after Rosie’s performance, they're immediately drawn to one another. But Ricky isn't the type of man to hide, and with Ian's coach breathing down his neck, he can't openly love a drag queen without making waves.

They'll have to brave deep waters to make it to the finish line.

Advance and Retreat contains a drag queen with a heart of gold, a swimmer moonlighting as a photographer, meddling friends, and a lesson about finding family where you least expect it.

©2020 Brigham Vaughn (P)2022 Brigham Vaughn

Great narrator and MM contemporary story

I've read this author before. I've read book 1 of this series too. I listened to the audiobook. This is a MM contemporary story set in the USA. Main characters are Ricky a Hotel Manager and part time drag queen and Olympic swimming hopeful Ian. Great story with a slow burn for Ricky and Ian. I really enjoyed the road blocks they faces together and alone. Great side characters as well. Can be read as a standalone.

A good story if you stick with it.

I did enjoy this story but parts of it were hard to read. Some of the flashbacks felt awkward it’s the way they were stuck in there. The dates being out at the beginning of each chapter make you think everything is set during one time during the story but it really isn’t. It made those parts kind of difficult to figure out. I loved everything about Ricky. He is fabulous, both as himself and as Rosie. Ian just had to get his head out of somewhere dark and see how toxic his swim coach really was. He also had to wake up and realize that everything wasn’t about him, not that he was too terribly arrogant to begin with thanks to the personal losses he had suffered in his life. But he does have privilege and he knows it. I love the other drag queens and their friends too. The audiobook of this was ok. Again the story was good but I didn’t really care for the narrator. His voice kinda put me to sleep.

an unlikely match

Advance and Retreat is Book 4 in The Midwest series but can easily be enjoyed as a standalone. This is an enjoyable story about Ian, a college swimmer, and Ricky, a hotel manager and drag queen. Through an unlikely chain of events Ian and Ricky find themselves in a relationship working on their baggage together. I liked how Ian grew as a character. For awhile there I didn't like him much but I tried to understand where he was coming from. Ricky helped him a lot. I liked how Ricky never lost who he was. There was a lot of trust issues these two had to wade through but in the end the love they had for each other was bigger than other people's ideas about whether or not they should be together. Ricky and Ian made unlikely pair but they really are sweet together and I'm glad they got their happy ending. 
Narrator James Edward Jones has a nice voice and does a wonderful job.

Pretty Good

They say opposites attract. This is no more true than in. this story. Ian, a closeted-ish gay man who happened to be an Olympic hopeful, lived and breathed swimming. He was drawn to men dressed as women, but still attracted to the man underneath. Ricky was a sassy drag queen, unlucky in love, as men tended to treat him like someone to use once, lured by the illusion of womanly beauty, and quick to run when faced with the man Ricky ultimately was underneath. Ian and Ricky were fated to be together, although it took awhile for them to make it work. But anything worth keeping is not meant to be easy. After they get out of their own ways, they learn how good the are together.

I really enjoyed this book. The narrator was good, although he tended to trip over some of his words when he spoke quickly. But I enjoyed listening to his voice and he read the story very well. I highly recommend this book.

Advance and retreat

I really enjoyed listening to this book the narrator did a great job and the story was really interesting I enjoyed how Ricky and Ian met and though they had some rough times with their relationship they worked together to make everything work and I’m happy with how things ended up with them