And Then He Pressed Play cover art

And Then He Pressed Play

Track One

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

And Then He Pressed Play

By: Robert Halliwell
Narrated by: Gary Furlong, Pagan McGrath, Alana Kerr Collins
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £14.16

Buy Now for £14.16

Season's Savings | £0.99/mo for 3 months

£5.99/mo after 3 months - terms apply. Cancel monthly

It's 2006 and Sixteen-year-old A.J. Walker is openly gay, painfully Canadian, and very much out of his depth. He’s wanted to do his school’s exchange program for years, but now that he’s landed at an all-boys school in Glenbridge Ireland—an ocean away from Moose Jaw Saskatchewan—he’s starting to question his decisions. Armed with nothing more than his trusty Discman and an accent that makes him stand out, A.J. has one goal: get through the Irish school year.

Born and raised in Glenbridge, Bren O’Shea has never known how to sit still or keep quiet. He’s also never known a day without laughter. Even when things get bad, Bren always knows how to get a smile out of someone, whether they asked him or not. His mam always says he needs to think before he acts, but as long as his heart’s in the right place, what’s the harm in a bit of impulse?

Glenbridge is the sort of town where everyone knows everyone—and unfortunately for A.J. once someone thinks they know you, it’s hard to change their mind.

After a rocky start that ends in disaster, Bren and A.J. need to decide if it’s worth reaching out to someone who’s so different from you—especially when one of you has to leave in June.

©2026 Robert J. Halliwell (P)2026 Robert J. Halliwell Coming of Age LGBTQ+ Literature & Fiction Romance Heartfelt
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
All stars
Most relevant
It was really nice, spent my whole day listening to it.
Made me kick my feet out of giddiness several times, I love the love in this, from all angles.

Lovely

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Listener received this title free

Great narration! Loved the accents and various voices.

As a girl who grew up in Moose Jaw and went to RVCI, I was a little shocked to see MJ featured in an LGBTQ+ book.

I know it wasn't set there, but MJ is not the most progressive place and I wonder if the boys' experience if Bren had come to Canada and not the other way around.

Not sure if the author is from MJ or Saskatchewan as there was not a lot of action in MJ, but it was fun just the same.

The story is good and I liked that hate did not win but it still broke my heart that those poor boys had to deal with those fools at all.

The mum's comment about how this would not happen in MJ....honestly, I don't know. MJ is heartland and ridic conservative and I coudl sadly see it. It's an overgrown country town with loads of old people who have very old and rigid views on dating and marriage.

Good book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved the story and the banter and the side characters. But loved Bren and AJ the most.

Hilarious and heartbreaking

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Just finished and just restarted because I don't want the book to end, the storyline is sweet, sour and laugh out loud funny at parts, as an Irish person I'm extremely impressed by the nods to how we speak, our humour and even the rare nod to our language... this book captured my heart completely from the first chapter and something tells me that it's not going to let go any time soon

Feeling Brilliant 🇮🇪🇨🇦

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
lovely story about two boys falling in love over a year in Ireland I need the 2nd book asap! all the friends are fun too I'd love a book about Rory!?

so cute!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews