Loud and Clear by Aidan Wayne is a romantic short story about two disabled main characters trying to learn to communicate and falling in love in the process.  I received one copy of this book at no charge in exchange for my honest reviews but all opinions expressed here are my own.  This post contains affiliate links.

Loud and Clear by Aidan Wayne

Purchase Links: Amazon

Title: Loud and Clear

Series:   N/A

Author:      Aidan Wayne

Publisher:   Riptide Publishing (May 21, 2016)

ASIN:   B01G0PV6E2

Genre:  M/M, Contemporary

Length/Format:  2260 KB/81  pages

Heat Rating:   1

Star Rating:   3

About the Author:  Learn more about Aidan Wayne by checking out the author’s website or following along on Twitter.

About Loud and Clear by Aidan Wayne

Jaxon is getting by fine, severe dyslexia or not. Being a cab driver means he doesn’t need to read much, and the job has its perks. The pay isn’t bad, the people can be interesting, and having memorized the city streets keeps him from feeling too stupid.

When he picks up Caleb, a quiet fare in a nice suit, Jaxon doesn’t think anything of it. Then he ends up driving Caleb home the next week too, and the next, and the next. Eventually Caleb tries to communicate—by writing things down. Turns out that Caleb has such a bad stutter he spends most of his time mute.

If only Jaxon had an easier time reading what Caleb had to say. But he’s interested in trying, and Caleb seems interested back. They discover that, with a little bit of effort, it isn’t so hard to make themselves understood. Especially when what’s growing between them is definitely worth talking about.

My Review:

Loud and Clear by Aidan Wayne is a very short romantic novel with incredibly unique characters.  Each of them has a communication disability that makes it very hard for them to get to know one another.  Jaxon is severely dyslexic and can barely read.  He is a taxi driver with a phenomenal memory and has the entire city mapped out in his head.  Unfortunately, he spent his entire childhood having teachers tell him he was stupid so he has a very negative opinion of himself.  Made me incredibly angry knowing that they let him slip through the cracks of the educational system like that!

Caleb is a quiet man who Jaxon picks up once a week for a drive back to his condo.  He has a horrible stutter and has trouble speaking unless he is very focused and in a comfortable setting.  Watching these two guys try to figure out how to communicate with each other was interesting.  They clearly want to connect with one another but their disabilities make it incredibly difficult.

The story is written in both characters points of view so you get to know each of them fairly well.  I felt bad for Jaxon’s low opinion of himself and watching Caleb’s speech fall apart when he got stressed out was heart breaking.  This is a very slow, getting to know you sort of story and it really felt unfinished to me.  I loved watching them learn to understand each other’s disabilities and start to overcome them.  However, the story just stopped there.  It felt like this was the first 4 or 5 chapters of a 10 chapter book and I really needed more.  I wanted to see romance (this is a zero heat book.  I think there was a brief kiss but that’s it), I wanted to see them figure out a life together and get a happily ever after.  It really just felt like the first half of a book and I missed the ending.

Overall, Loud and Clear by Aidan Wayne is a beautiful story that is very well written but the characters and story line needed a lot more time to fully develop.