Tell Me It's Real cover art

Tell Me It's Real

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Tell Me It's Real

By: TJ Klune
Narrated by: Michael Lesley
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Do you believe in love at first sight?

Paul Auster doesn't. Paul doesn't believe in much at all. He's thirty, slightly overweight, and his best features are his acerbic wit and the color commentary he provides as life passes him by. His closest friends are a two-legged dog named Wheels and a quasibipolar drag queen named Helena Handbasket. He works a dead-end job in a soul-sucking cubicle, and if his grandmother's homophobic parrot insults him one more time, Paul is going to wring its stupid neck.

Enter Vince Taylor.

Vince is everything Paul isn't: Sexy, confident, and dumber than the proverbial box of rocks. And for some reason, Vince pursues Paul relentlessly. Vince must be messing with him, because there is no way Vince could want someone like Paul.

But when Paul hits Vince with his car - in a completely unintentional if-he-died-it'd-only-be-manslaughter kind of way - he's forced to see Vince in a whole new light. The only thing stopping Paul from believing in Vince is himself - and that is one obstacle Paul can't quite seem to overcome. But when tragedy strikes Vince's family, Paul must put aside any notions he has about himself and stand next to the man who thinks he's perfect the way he is.

©2013 TJ Klune (P)2014 Dreamspinner Press
Contemporary Contemporary Romance Literature & Fiction Romance Funny Feel-Good Witty

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Lightning-Struck Heart cover art
Bear, Otter, and the Kid cover art
Confetti Hearts cover art
Cast in Shadows cover art
How to Be a Normal Person cover art
The Right Way cover art
The Husband Hoax cover art
Reunion cover art
A Villain for Christmas cover art
The Sunny Side cover art
Asher cover art
Ghost of Lies cover art
Until I Saw You cover art
The Last Sun cover art
The Intern cover art
The New Guy cover art
All stars
Most relevant
Really good book. Was not expecting much from it as I bought it in a whim but had me laughing out loud all the way through. Got me some weird looks as a walked around cackling to myself like a mad man. Hilarious sad witty. Very good book not the usual gay romance book which don't float my boat. Loved it!

Well impressed with the book

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

great to hear a positve gay story with a happy ending, eventually - and not that sort or happy ending!

Great, nice to hear a positive story with a happy

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

I absolutely I love this book stop there are so many lol moments along with a bit of cringe but it was totally worth it

it is brilliant

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

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

If it's the right sort of friend!! This book is not for everyone - some reviewers elsewhere have been slightly offended by some of the topics, and the language is not for the faint-hearted, or people who cannot easily comprehend high-speed speech, but listen to the preview and you will have a pretty good idea of what type of book you've selected. I really enjoyed it. It is very amusing in places - dangerous when you are listening in the car! The characters are well-defined, possibly a bit over-the-top, but real enough that you can feel what they are feeling themselves and with each other - especially when you really want to slap them and tell them what they are doing wrong! There are some really touching moments, and it left me with a nice warm feeling inside.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Tell Me It's Real?

There are too many to mention really. Paul and Vince's first real meeting (rather than encounter), and the funeral are particular high-points for me, but there are very few dull moments in this story.

Which character – as performed by Michael Lesley – was your favourite?

Difficult to pick one. I especially liked Paul's father, who shouts "Language!" whenever somebody crosses his profanity threshold. The way in which Michael Lesley makes the two alter egos of Sandy and Helena different and yet the same is very impressive. Paul is a bit of a whiner but the incredibly fast rate at which he speaks was very well performed. I have even found myself reading things on my PC with the Paul style of delivery in my head!

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Love at first sight can happen - it is real.

Any additional comments?

T.J. Klune has a marvellous way with words, and with completely conveying the characters just by what they say. The narrator in this book definitely helped that become even more apparent, and both of them are to be congratulated.

There are one or two mis-speakings in the narration, but that is more than acceptable considering the rapid rate of delivery - you might even need to use the "play slower" function for this book! One phrase is repeated - presumably a re-take that didn't get edited out of the recording - but these are minor complaints. Overall I loved this book and will miss it now it has finished.

Laugh-out-loud funny, frustrating, heart-warming

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

If you could sum up Tell Me It's Real in three words, what would they be?

Funny, lively, engaging

If you’ve listened to books by TJ Klune before, how does this one compare?

This is my first listen.

Have you listened to any of Michael Lesley’s other performances? How does this one compare?

This is my first listen.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion and I found myself structuring my work day so that I could work on stuff that also enabled me to listen to more of the book as I worked.

Any additional comments?

The production isn't as perfect as some books I've bought - there's a couple of instances of repeated lines that were missed in the editing process and the dead time between scene or chapter changes were way too long - but this is definitely one of the most talented narrators I've ever listened too. Even though his Vince voice drops a little too low in register at times to be easily understandable as he switches between characters the narrator reads with ease and confidence that makes the whole book a delight from beginning to end. It was my first time with this author as well and, like the recording, the story itself could have done with an intense edit before final release, but on the whole it was well told, funny and I would consider buying something else from the author again. I am hopeful that a sequel featuring Sandy/Helena and Darren is in the works as I would love to read/hear their story and if the same narrator is used then I would definitely buy it as, for me, he was what made the whole story take off. I think that I might have given up on the book if I'd read it in the written format but in audio I really enjoyed it and will probably listen to it again more than once.

Well worth a listen

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

See more reviews