An utter and complete joy. The words, plus Will Watt’s narration, are magic. I’ve read “Waiting” many, many times and read an arc of “Chasing,” and this alc added a whole other layer to this tender, gentle, nuanced story. It’s one of the best I’ve ever listened to.

Let me preface by saying that the blurb did not make clear that this was 2 novellas, which made things a bit confusing when Edwin's story was wrapping up so early on. I think it would have been helpful to have that info included.

That said, I enjoyed listening to these a lot! Personally, I was drawn in to Edwin's story more than that of Marius, because I found him more relatable on a deeper emotional level.

Edwin is soft-spoken, struggles with a speech impediment, and has been deeply wounded by Marius leaving him years ago. When flood waters rise, enter Adam: tall, ginger-haired, lumberjack type who is instantly taken with Edwin.

In the second half, we are able to delve deeper into the reasoning behind Marius' prickly exterior, and why he choose to leave Edwin, seemingly without cause, years ago. As much as I wanted to dislike him initially, it was easy to empathize with his situation.

I really enjoyed connecting with these flawed characters and their respective love interests. The stories are very emotionally-driven, which is something that I enjoy. The side characters (looking at you, Mrs. P, boat neighbor, and Edwin's mum) were a much needed dose of comic relief.

Special shout-out to Will Watt as narrator, I think he is exceptional! I have listened to many of the books that he has narrated, and each one has been incredibly well done.

Overall, these were a really enjoyable and engaging listen for me.

I very much enjoyed the first version of WftF, narrated by Alexander Doddy. This one differs in two important ways: it adds Marius's post-Edwin story, and it's narrated by Will Watt. Will Watt narrated -- performed, really -- 10 Things That Never Happened; he was wonderful, and I'm pleased to say that he's wonderful in this as well. As a USian, I can't judge how accurately he renders regional accents, but to my ear he's terrific. Each character voice is distinct, and Adam calling Edwin "petal" is outright swoony.

Having read that first version of Waiting for the Flood, you might think there's no way you could ever feel sympathy for Marius. Prepare to have that expectation undermined: Marius's reasons for leaving Edwin and for his generally obnoxious, not to say unkind, behavior broke my heart. If I jam my critic hat down hard I will admit that it's hard to see why someone who grew up in such a loving (if often overbearing) family would be chock-full of self-loathing; but perhaps this comes back to the devastating knowledge that has undone him in many ways. No spoilers: you have to read or listen. I'll just say that I actually cried out in distress when Marius told Leo the truth.

The last section of this new Waiting for the Flood returns to Edwin's POV, in which he's (of course!) happy with Adam and, if not quite friends with Marius, at least in a condition of more-than-truce. Unlike most epilogues, this one adds value, with Edwin's perspective on Marius as he is "now," and also in seeing how different Marius's barbs feel once he's let go of the self-protective wish to hurt everyone who comes near.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audio ARC, and I hope Will Watt narrates more m/m romance: he's already a favorite of mine.

This is a review for the audiobook, which contains two intersecting love stories: Waiting for the Flood and Chasing the Light.

I quite liked Waiting for the Flood with soft, bookish, sadsack Edwin and affable civil engineer Adam. Very sweet, kind of a cup of hot chocolate of a love story. I was a little less enamored with Marius (I know he's mean because he's hurting, but also- he is mean) and Leo, who for some reason put up with Marius.

Both good reads if you like a hopeful romance with charming, funny dialogue.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape for access to the audiobook. Will Watt was the reader, and I quite enjoyed his reading. Never over the top but with lots of personality.

I hate to be a quitter, especially as I liked Glitterland, but this book did not grip me the way Glitterland did. I found it difficult to relate or empathize with the narrator. It just fell flat for me and I had to stop

This was ok but I mean the beginning was ok but I found I didn’t really like the MC .

I really struggled with this book and I almost didn’t finish it.

This one just wasn’t for me I guess

It's kind of fascinating, having such a stark example of how Hall's writing has shifted and changed and the ways that it hasn't. In setting two related novellas together, written about 10 years apart, in addition to an epilogue that focuses on the first, earlier couple, you really get a sense of that shift.

I also didn't know from the blurb that it would be two novellas and some extras, which was a little jarring when the story seemed to be wrapping up at the 30% mark and I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Waiting for the Flood is the earlier piece and it shows, in a way that really cements to me that I like Hall's earlier writing much more than their later. It is almost pretentiously overly lyrical, but it's in such a way as to actually be endearing, especially in audiobook format. You get that hesitant, fairy-tale-esque sense of waiting, of the liminal space of life during the flood, and it doesn't make the flowery prose feel out of place. The relationship between Adam and Edwin is warm and comforting in a way, but in typical Hall fashion, is almost entirely about addressing one party's trauma and the other partner is there because...idk...love at first sight I guess? There is also, as usual, a lot to say about life and worth and love and not closing yourself off from people and does this more successfully than many of their other works.

Chasing the Light is the follow-up and it's almost instantly obvious there's been a lot of time and writing in between the two. I understand the desire to put this novella next to its companion characters, but it really does make it clear that Hall had two very different angles on Marius (and that's fine, takes on characters change, especially over 10 years, but it's a little jarring to reconcile the Marius we see glimpses of through Edwin's eyes in Flood and the Marius whose head we're in for Light). Light trades in the lyrical descriptions for pithy jabs and sarcasm, which do fit Marius' sharp angles, but in doing so, we lose the sense of actually getting into Marius' issues and highlights the thing I like the least about Hall's writing - why do these characters like each other? Especially Leo; we get a little of his backstory but it is more for the sense of why he's on the narrowboat than a sense of why he's the sort of person to want to take in Marius' feral wet cat. It also slips into just eliding against a lot of reasons Marius is all sharp edges - eating disorders, oncoming blindness, artistic block - and not really going into any of them other than another reason he's prickly.

The epilogue shows all of this again - Edwin has gained the signature snark, and instead of showing how the couples have grown into each other and grown as characters through their time together, just feels like "oh we need a proposal" with added "wait look these two have more trauma we could see"

Anyway, it's fine and definitely exists as one of Hall's more tolerable works to me, and was eye-opening in how much more I could get into their stories through audio than in text. Tone works wonders, I guess.

This book was not what I expected! It was cute and sweet! I think at times it was a little lengthy but all in all a great read!

Edwin is still mourning a relationship that ended a few years ago, damaging his self confidence in the process. He's turned inward focusing on his job, hobby and neighbor. When a flood brings a dashing civil engineer to his door he's a bit afraid of letting him in, but slowly let's go.

Then we meet Marius, Edwin's ex who left their relationship. Of course we're set up to take Edwin's side, but Marius is also a prickly sort, quick to be mean to keep others at arms length. However he lucks into meeting someone just patient enough to wait through BS to get to the core of him.

This new edition features a couple of recipes from items featured in the story, but also an epilogue of sorts where we get to see the two couples a bit further down the road into their relationships.

At it's core this is a romance, but it feels deeper without most tropes and full of flaws.

My obsession with Alexis Hall on audio continues. Waiting for the Flood collects two novellas and a special epilogue into one book, marvelously narrated by Will Watt.

Waiting for the Flood: Absolutely adored this sweet, low-angst novella that matches Edwin, a book restorer, with Adam, a civil engineer. Edwin was grievously hurt in his previous relationship, and watching him and Adam fall quickly, easily, maybe even comfortingly? in love was a joy. This novella is like a warm hug.

Chasing the Light: This book is about Edwin's ex, Marius. I have to admit that when the book opens with Marius getting called on his bullshit, I was extremely happy. But as it turns out, Marius isn't quite the villain Edwin needed him to be. He's 100% sharp edges, and the only thing that jars him out of self-destructive action is literally spraining his ankle on Christmas Even and being rescued by the most philosophical narrowboat owner of all time, Leo. Marius is pretty awful, even after you get to live in his perspective, but Leo knows how to manage him.

Aftermath: We get a special HEA epilogue for Edwin and Adam, and it's truly just so sweet!! They swing by Marius's narrowboat for a quick visit (Marius has not improved from his own book) and that's almost everything that happens... except that we really get to see how Edwin and Adam work together, especially in contrast with Marius and Leo.

Altogether this is a very satisfying book as a whole, and doesn't feel like two novellas that just happen to be related put into the same collection. As always, Will Watt gives all of the characters their own nuances. Loved it.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the book.

This was such a gem of a book. For starters, I absolutely loved Edwin. He is one of those characters that unintentionally carves out a space in your heart for him. I loved getting to enjoy all of his growth and self discovery. Marius is more on the unlikable end, but I do believe it was important for the story and helped me to understand their history and storyline better. Overall, this romance was excellent and I enjoyed it very much! Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this new edition of Waiting for the Flood, now with its companion novella Chasing the Light, and Will Watt did an incredible job with his narration, bringing both novellas to life.

Waiting for the Flood, was, as always (this was my third time reading the first novella) a cozy blanket on a rainy day, equal parts melancholy and hopeful. I love this soft, quiet story so much.

Chasing the Light is a gorgeous companion novella to Waiting for the Flood. The two stories beautifully dialogue with one another, in a way I don’t think I’d seen before and certainly didn’t expect from the loose connections otherwise present in the Spires series. Chasing continued the melancholic but hopeful flavor of Waiting, providing continued independence for both Edwin and Marius while allowing their lives to come back together in a new way.

Chasing is the story of Marius, the man who left Edwin prior to Waiting, some year or so after Edwin and Adam’s meeting. Marius is all sharp claws and hissing and teeth and longing — a true feral kitten. He’s lost and listless and deeply sad, and ends up in the care of a scruffy but generous stranger on a house boat after spraining his ankle on Christmas Eve (Yes! It’s also a Christmas story!! Our second in several months from Alexis Hall!). It’s a story of perseverance and opening up and finding self worth, of light in the darkness, and I found it simultaneously excruciating and bright, like a sunrise on a cold midwinter day.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I’ve really loved reading Alexis Hall’s backlog and I was not disappointed with Waiting for the Flood. Edwin and Adam’s story is sweet and so, so cute, while Marius and Leo are a little bit more tortured. Both stories are wildly sexy and romantic. There were a lot of moments that made me laugh out loud- when Marius’ parents visit him! There were also a lot of moments that made me want to cry. Marius is a distinctly unlikeable character but I fell in love with him. Hall is at their best when they are hammering into the psyche of their “worst” characters. The narrator for both this and GLITTERLAND is superb! Overall a very enjoyable read!

This review is also for the Audiobook, rerecorded with Will Watt narrating. It's quite simply AMAZING. All of his voices are fantastic and he brings so much heart to the words. Even though I've read this many times now, it felt completely new as read by Will. – Standout character: Leaf, the 60 year old hippie narrowboat neighbor with long silver hair and a rainbow sweater.

🥰😭🥰😭🥰😭 Sheer perfection.

<b>NOTE: This Review is for the Rerelease.</b>

Spires has always been my absolute favorite of Alexis Hall’s books since I first read the series in early 2021. The atmosphere, romance and heart in the writing is something special. To now get a new companion story with <i>Chasing the Light</i> is such a treat and is the perfect bookend to <i>Waiting For the Flood</i>. If you liked <i>Glitterland</i>, the first in the series, you will absolutely love this one.

Water plays a role in meeting someone new in both of these stories and becomes a metaphor for where the MC is in their lives. In Waiting, it’s a flood in Oxford where Edwin is lonely and lost after his broken relationship with Marius and meets civil engineer Adam. They have tea and conversation and Adam draws him out and it’s gentle and lovely. In Chasing, it’s a frozen river in winter where Marius sprains his ankle and meets Leo who lives on a narrowboat on the Thames. Leo comes to his aid, feeds him, f*cks him, listens to his sarcastic quips and grabs ice from the towpath to help with the swelling. Marius stays on the boat while he heals and feelings happen between them. Both Edwin and Marius are stuck in different ways and the resolution is so beautiful it made me tear up.

But I think the thesis statement for the Spires series, and especially this book, is that Love has nothing to do with Worth–Everyone is Worthy and Deserving of Love–no matter how rude, broken or messed up you are. It’s the importance of being seen by someone who gets you, who fits with you. And it’s about accepting life’s conditions in order to move on with the freedom to trust someone new. It’s the truth in this that becomes so relatable and endearing in these companion stories. I absolutely loved this book and can't recommend it enough.

<b>I also caught a few Spires cameos & mentions:</b> Coal (For Real), Ash, Max (Glitterland), Lionel Dance of Jarndyce & Dance (Pansies)

**Thanks to NetGalley & Sourcebooks Casablanca for the ARC**

This book is comprised of two stories, Waiting for the Flood, which I adored, and then Chasing the Light which I liked. I think that the characters have depth, and that I was wildly invested in Edwin's story which got me through Marious's. Overall though a good and romantic depiction of what kind of hardships can come with love.

I will never not request an Alexis Hall book, and I will never not be utterly ecstatic at being approved.

This new edition in the Spires series does not disappoint! Book #2 groups the story about Edwin called <i>Waiting for the Flood</i> together with the companion story about Marius titled <i>Chasing the Light</i> alongside several chapters of bonus content. Will Watt does an amazing job with the narration, seamlessly voicing accents, emotion, and a stutter as if it's the easiest thing in the world.

As I've come to expect from an Alexis Hall book, these two queer romances star complicated, imperfect people finding their way to love and happiness. Though the characters have to work through circumstances and people who have hurt them and shaped them, they will absolutely stumble their way toward healing and self acceptance. And even though Hall's couples tend to trace similar versions of "kind and gentle x sharp and closed off," I never feel like I'm reading a formulaic repeat. The settings, the backgrounds, and the scenarios are always unique. The writing is by turns whimsical and raw, funny and sweet, and always a joy from beginning to end.

Engaging and immersive. Alexis Hall is a consistent recommended purchase for collections where romance is popular and this one is no different.

ALC update:

After listening to 10 Things that never happened, I had such high hopes for Will Watt’s updated version of Waiting for the Flood, as well as the audio for Chasing the Light. And my goodness, I was not disappointed.

As expected, Will does a spectacular job in bringing these characters to life. His voices for Edwin, Adam, Marius, Leo and the cast of side characters are deeply distinctive, nuanced, and somehow *just right* and aligned to an internal expectation I seem to have generated from the text. Like, Leo literally *rumbles* in the most reliable of ways. Marius is just as prickly yet lovable (he’d hate me for saying this) as you’d imagine. Nobody does gentle exasperation, smiling, amused care, or anxious fluster quite like Will.

Get this in your ears, stat! Just prepare to feel a lump in your throat, to have a little cry, to giggle. And then want to start it all over again as you get to the end.
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**Review for the rerelease ARC for Waiting for the Flood and its new companion piece Chasing the light**

I don’t even know how many times I’ve reread this quiet, carefully stunning novella. And I didn’t hesitate holding it again, like an old friend or a lover, trusting that, as always, it would unspool and reveal another nugget of beauty or quiet wisdom worth witnessing.

The rerelease of this second instalment of Alexis Hall’s beloved Spires series brings back the story of not just Edwin and Adam from Waiting, but also unveils the internal world of mercurial Marius, who was thought to have grown tired of loving and listening and preserving, and a man whose sparkly warm, quiet and slowed down life he crashed into on a frosty and dark Christmas night: Leo Dance.

These two, Waiting and Chasing, are stories about taking care to really listen and see, and the value and restorative impact of truly being witnessed and loved for all that you are. Your hesitations, silences, imperfections, fears, savoury and unsavoury truths, neediness and push-awayness, even and especially your pissyness. Without editing, without beautifying or seeking to change or control, shackle or shoo.

These are also stories about the importance of history and love shared even when it doesn’t lead to a happily ever after. Of attachments that linger and last beyond a goodbye, in memories gathering dust, empty spaces where shared things used to be, the quiet knowledge of how someone did or did not like their tea, how they sounded and looked - and looked at you - in a moment of unguarded ecstasy.

To look for a fig in winter might be the act of a madman - and goodness have I seen a lot of hesitation in some parts of the readership as to whether people might ever thaw to the inexcusable Marius - but maybe, just maybe sometimes we find the richest beauty, and the most sensuous of pleasures, in the darkest, barest moments in the dead of a frosty cold winter’s night. Even if we have to slip and fall on our arses before getting to them.

And as always, Alexis has things to observe about identity, creativity, family, justice and society in the kindest, most clear sighted of ways.

I don’t want to say too much to spoil your pleasure of gradual discovery here. Suffice to say that as always, Alexis made me feel ALL the things. The way these stories unspool and unravel and get woven together again in the most satisfying, most right and most cathartic way I could ever have imagined 🩷 My heart!

I CANNOT wait for my physical annotated copy in February 2024!

I had read Waiting for the Flood a few years ago and have been looking forward to this release, with the addition of Chasing the Light.

Edwin lives his quiet life in the Oxford home he bought with the man he loved. But Marius is two years gone now and time seems to have stood still for Edwin.
The rains have come and his beloved home is threatened by the rising waters. Enter Adam, from the Environmental Agency, who strides into the narrative to not only safeguard Edwin’s home but also gently pull down the walls around Edwin’s tender heart.

The audiobook is exquisite—the gentle charm of the original story shines through Will Watt’s narration. The vulnerability and lyricism of Edwin. The smile that comes through in Adam’s voice. The lush, glowing writing that brings the story to life. This is a gentle, kind, warm, and hopeful story—tender and moving in every way.

I was eager to read Chasing the Light, which is Marius’s story. I should have known, this being Hall writing, that Marius’s story would touch my heart and make me care deeply for a character I was prepared to heartily dislike.

There is a brittleness to Marius—a soft, vulnerable core wrapped in self-loathing and finished off with a thick, protective layer of prickly sarcasm. He’s tempestuous, grumpy, distant. The narration brings these qualities out in stunning layers that slowly unwrap who Marius truly is, when he’s at his most vulnerable. Leo comes into his life—at literally his darkest hour—and wraps him up in the tender, kind care that Marius can’t walk away from this time.

Leo is lovely—a deeply complicated man who has found his place and his peace far from who he used to be. A better self, a better life. Somehow he gets Marius to find hope and consolation. And contentment.

There is also a beautiful epilogue, an unexpected and deeply satisfying coda for these characters.

Highly recommended. The stories are brilliant—they are like a warm hug, tea, and a blanket on a dreary day.

The narrator is sublime. His empathy for the characters shines through.

I’ve read Waiting For the Flood numerous times and I was so excited to learn that it was being rereleased, along with a bonus Marius story. And, wow. Just wow. I’m so happy to be reading a new Spires story and Marius’ story is perfect. It’s beautiful and sad and made me cry. I love that there are cameos from other Spires books. Leo and his narrowboat is romantic, yet realistic, and having seen these narrowboats along the Thames in Oxford really helped bring this to life for me.
I am continually blown away by how Alexis Hall is able to write these incredibly emotional stories and how he’s able to make me care about characters I had thought terrible and irredeemable. Chasing the Light was the perfect companion to Waiting For the Flood and I am so thankful that we finally get this story.
Also.l, Will M Watt’s narration is so perfect, it was an absolute joy to just wrap myself in his lovely voice and be carried away by this beautiful story.