Ben Fortune arrived at Blackstone Academy expecting to leave behind the homophobia and judgment of his old pack in Utah. He got the progressive, large-scale pack environment he wanted, and immediately found himself entangled in exactly the kind of drama he was trying to avoid, beginning with the Alpha's son publicly rejecting his sister on their very first day at the school. Elizabeth Dear's second Blackstone Academy novel picks up that thread and pulls it through Ben's perspective, giving a character who was clearly popular in the first book his own complete story. This audiobook runs nine hours and twenty-one minutes, narrated by Michael Gallagher, and it is positioned as a series sequel that can technically be read as a standalone, with the strong recommendation to read Mave's book first.
Ben as a narrator is one of the more entertaining first-person voices in this paranormal M/M romance genre. He has what reviewers consistently call charisma and hilarity, a combination of self-awareness about his own outsider status and genuine confidence in his ability to disrupt whatever situation he walks into. Dear gives him a voice that is funny and sharp without making him invulnerable, and the scenes where his certainty about Thad James, the Alpha Heir's best friend and the book's romantic lead, collides with the real complexity of what Thad is managing are the places where the story earns its emotional depth.
Is Ben Fortune Worth Your Time?
The paranormal framework here is werewolf pack politics, and Dear uses it with more sophistication than the subgenre sometimes manages. The omega/alpha hierarchy is not simply a substitute for class dynamics. It is built into the characters' literal biology and social structure, which gives the question of what it means for Ben and Thad to pursue a relationship across those lines a specificity that the genre handles well when it is working properly. The reviewer who described the dynamic as enthralling and fresh in the M/M paranormal space is responding to exactly that: Dear's investment in the internal logic of the world rather than treating the pack structure as background decoration for a conventional romance.
Gallagher's narration is well matched to the material. Ben's voice demands comedic timing, and Gallagher delivers it without sacrificing the emotional register when the story requires it. The scenes where Ben is navigating the tension between what he wants from Thad and what Thad believes is possible, given his own commitments to the pack hierarchy, are handled with enough weight to make the resolution satisfying rather than perfunctory. Gallagher distinguishes the main characters clearly without resorting to exaggerated vocal characterizations, which keeps the longer conversational and confrontational scenes easy to follow.
The Best Parts of Ben Fortune
The M/M paranormal romance category has expanded considerably in recent years, and the quality range across the subgenre is significant. Ben Fortune sits in the upper portion of that range because Dear commits to the characters rather than to the tropes. Ben's humor comes from a specific place: someone who has been told his whole life that who he is and who he loves are problems, and who has decided to treat that history as fuel for confidence rather than as damage. That grounding gives the comedy a real foundation, and it is what makes this audiobook worth nine hours rather than feeling like pleasant but disposable entertainment.
The first Blackstone Academy book, centered on Mave and her story, is strongly recommended before this one even though Dear positions Ben Fortune as a standalone. Reviewer feedback consistently indicates that the dynamic between the Fortune siblings, and the context of how their family arrived at Blackstone Academy, enriches the experience of this second book significantly. New readers will be able to follow the plot without that context, but they will be missing relational texture that the series reader carries into every scene.
Before You Commit to Ben Fortune
The book is explicitly intended for adult readers, with significant profanity and explicit M/M romantic content. These are not incidental elements but genre specifications: this is new adult academy M/M romance for an audience that understands and wants that register. Dear is transparent about this in the synopsis itself, and Gallagher handles the mature content with the same directness he brings to every other emotional register in the book.
Dear's structural choice to keep Ben Fortune centered on Thad and Ben rather than rehashing the first book's events is a confident decision, but it means the full emotional context of certain scenes requires the prior book. Reviewers who read both consistently praise this aspect: the way the sequel builds on rather than recaps the foundation, treating the audience as readers who have done the work of the first book. Those who have not should plan to do so before beginning this audiobook.
Should You Listen to Ben Fortune?
M/M romance readers who enjoy paranormal worldbuilding with genuine pack politics, a first-person narrator with real comedic charisma, and romantic tension grounded in something more structurally interesting than simple desire will find Ben Fortune one of the better entries in the subgenre available in audio. Gallagher's narration amplifies what is already strong in the text and handles the range from comedic to emotionally serious without losing either quality.
Listeners who have not read the first Blackstone Academy book should circle back to Mave's story first. Those who prefer M/M romance with light paranormal elements as background rather than load-bearing structure will find Dear's commitment to the pack hierarchy more central than they may want. But for anyone already invested in this universe, or looking for a confident and well-narrated entry point into M/M paranormal romance that takes its world seriously, this audiobook delivers a satisfying experience across its nine-hour runtime.
At a Glance
- Voice: Michael Gallagher gives Ben's confident and irreverent first-person voice the comic swagger it requires while landing the emotionally heavier scenes with enough sincerity to keep the character from becoming a pure performance.
- Big ideas: Queer identity within pack hierarchy, trust across class divides, found belonging versus pack loyalty
- Atmosphere: Sharp, funny, romantically charged, with real stakes underneath
- Worth it?: Ben Fortune is a strong M/M paranormal romance sequel that works best for readers already invested in the Blackstone Academy world, with Gallagher's narration making Ben's voice one of the audiobook's genuine pleasures.
