I’m over at Dear Author with a review of Codename Charming by Lucy Parker. Aptly Named.
Tag: contemporary (Page 9 of 119)
I’m over at Dear Author with a review of The Summer Girl by Elle Kennedy. I made the happy book noise.
The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren, narrated by Cindy Kay and Jonathan Cole. I loved it. One for the best of list.
I’ve had some great success with Christina Lauren books in the past – whether reading or listening to them and something about the blurb for The True Love Experiment called to me. A TV producer (single dad!! Yes!) and a romance author pair up to create a reality TV dating show, a la The Bachelorette. I’m not even a huge fan of reality TV, let alone dating shows. Still, I was super keen to try this one.
Connor Prince III is an English guy who has been living in the US for some years – he still has his yummy accent though. (Another yes!) He is divorced and has a remarkably great relationship with his ex-wife, Natalia– who is more like a best friend than anything else – and together they share custody of their 10-year-old daughter, Stevie.
Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is a popular romance author who is in both a dating and writing slump. She’s bubbly, energetic, generous and fun. She has never really thought that there would be a soulmate or “the one” for her but she likes romance and sex and is pretty disappointed that she’s had a significant dry spell.
Connor is a producer at a TV production company which had been specialising in environmental documentaries. Only, the boss, Blaine, has decided they need to get into reality TV to make a lot of money and Connor has been tasked with making a reality dating show. He’s not enthused but there is not a lot of work for producers in San Diego. If he leaves for LA where there is more work, he will be too far away from Stevie and that’s not what he wants at all. He’s a hands-on dad who sees his daughter every weekend (although there is a large amount of flexibility between him and Nat, as required, when one or the other has something on). His own father was absent and Connor will not be that guy. Plus, he loves Stevie to bits. He’s been promised money for his next nature documentary if he comes through on the dating show so he’s going to suck it up.
A chance encounter at a bar when he sees Fizzy across the room inspires him and before you know it, Fizzy is the lead in the dating show and, at her suggestion, he’s casting hero archetypes as her potential love interests.
Prior to the show commencing filming, Fizzy challenges Connor to undertake joyful (non-sexual) activities together and over this time each begins to feel more and more the pull of attraction.
Once filming starts, things only get worse – while the “heroes” are all well and good, none of them are Connor. What to do?
It was a delight.
Special shout out to River Pena, the hero from The Soulmate Equation (which I now definitely have to read) who is one of Fizzy’s BFFs. Her other BFF is his wife, Jess. Fizzy is not at all shy – about sex or anything else. She is delightfully blunt. Poor River tends to walk in on Fizzy and Jess in the middle of an explicit conversation – “It was the size of my fist!” – and immediately, without a word, turns around and leaves. It made me laugh out loud in glee.
The romance between Connor and Fizzy is wonderful. Sexy and charming and sweet and just great. I enjoyed the characters separately but together they were something even better.
I loved the narration. If I had one tiny criticism it would be that very occasionally – and I mean very occasionally, I thought the way a certain line was delivered didn’t quite fit the text but that is a tiny criticism as compared to my overall enjoyment.
Cindy Kay does a great English accent for Connor – this actually feels pretty rare to me. Commonly, a British narrator will do a good US accent but the reverse isn’t as often true. Her deeper tone for Connor worked great for me too. Fizzy is well named – she has this chaotic energy about her and Ms. Kay imbued her voice with just that quality without making her annoying or over the top.
I just went and checked my audio file because I could not for the life of me remember if Jonathan Cole used a US accent for Fizzy’s voice. And do you know, he does not. And I DID NOT NOTICE when I was listening. I did not care. How weird is that?? Ordinarily I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to accents. Perhaps it was merely that I found Mr. Cole’s accent overall delightful to listen to – he definitely had a touch of the Richard Armitage’s about him – that I was in a daze the entire time. Whatever is the case, I ought to probably have liked the listen less on the basis of Mr. Cole being unable to or choosing not to use an American accent for the American Fizzy. I ought to have but I didn’t.
Both narrators delivered on character. Mr. Cole was as able to express Fizzy’s energy as Ms. Kay. And Ms. Kay was as good at embodying (emvoicing?) Connor as Mr. Cole was.
I raced through this listen. Just about everything about it worked for me.
In hindsight, I would have liked to have had a little bit more information about how Blaine reacted to the denouement and what consequences, if any, it had (and if none, why) but when I was listening I didn’t really feel any lack.
The True Love Experiment is definitely going to make my best of list for this year, no doubt.
Grade: A
I’m over at Dear Author with a review of Unfortunately Yours by Tessa Bailey. Enjoyable catnip. If you enjoy a hero totally gone for the heroine this will scratch the itch nicely.
I’m over at Dear Author with a review of Funny Guy by Emma Barry. I liked Chick Magnet better.
Hard Job by Annabeth Albert, narrated by Kirt Graves. Enjoyable but not my favourite.
Hard Job is the second book in Annabeth Albert’s A-List Security series. This time, Duncan Lubov finds his HEA with rock star Ezra Moon.
The first book in the series, Rocky Start, Duncan’s younger brother, Danny, ended up with Duncan’s good friend and contemporary, Cash. It was a best friend’s younger brother, with a bit of age gap story. This time it’s younger brother’s best friend (Ezra is Danny’s BFF) and age gap.
There were enough similarities to the storyline that some of the conflict felt forced to me. For instance, why would Danny react badly to finding out Duncan and Ezra are together? He didn’t like it much when Duncan reacted badly to him being with Cash – but then he did the same thing!
Duncan owns A-List Security and is trying to grow the business. He is the son of a famous and notorious movie producer/director who has had multiple marriages and scandals. Duncan wants nothing to do with dear old dad and actively tries to avoid trading on the Lubov name.
Ezra and Danny used to be a on a TV show called “Geek Chorus” – I imagine it to be something like Glee – and have remained friends. Ezra went on to become a successful rock star with his band We Wear Crowns but he’s in trouble with his record label after an incident where a fan was injured at a concert. Ezra is in need of new security and does not wish the record label to choose who that is. Danny persuades Duncan to do the job personally.
Duncan ends up joining the We Wear Crowns tour and is therefore in close proximity to Ezra. Each has secretly been attracted to the other for some time and Duncan is a closet Crowns fan. Duncan doesn’t believe in love and relationships, having seen the example of his father and is generally a reticent type of guy. Ezra grew up with loving and supportive parents and is extroverted and open.
After some initial differences, Duncan and Ezra give in to their attraction. Duncan does not want to get a reputation for sleeping with his clients and does not think there can be anything long term for them anyway, so they keep it a secret.
Over the course of the remainder of the tour though, their feelings deepen and grow. But Duncan is stuck on what people will think if he’s in a relationship with Ezra. Ezra is hurt that Duncan puts his business and rep over their happiness.
I admit I was a little lacking in sympathy for Duncan here. I didn’t quite see how it was a big deal for him to be in a relationship with Ezra. In fact, I thought it was better that it was an actual relationship rather than just having a fling.
Duncan and Ezra were both likeable enough but there wasn’t anything in the story which truly grabbed me. It was enjoyable enough but it didn’t wow me.
Kirt Graves’ narration was good but there were a few vocal errors and a couple of instances of unusual (to me at least) pronunciation. Also, and maybe this is just me, but it sounded like Mr. Graves spoke with this jaw clenched sometimes and that was not my favourite. I found it easy to tell when Ezra or Duncan was speaking – the character voices were well differentiated – and the emotion and pacing was fine too. Like the story, the narration was enjoyable but not a standout.
Grade: B-
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