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Anne in London

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Revisiting Dylan and Gabe’s HEA wedding

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 2025-01-26

How love,y to revisit Dylan and Gabe as they try to find a wedding planner to help them create the wedding of their dreams. It would help if they knew what their dreams were. Enter Joe from Confetti Hearts as he crashes, drunk from a cocktail tasting, into their lives. We get to visit with Jude and Asa, Henry and Ivo, and touch base with Dylan’s extensive and rather eccentric extended family.
This is a novella, and every word is perfect. As usual Lily Morton’s story is expertly performed by Joel Leslie.
I was moved to happy tears a few times by the glimpse into love between these two characters, and it is worth every moment.

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Finally, Henry’s story!

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 2025-01-25

Henry and I’ve are an unlikely pair. Henry is a family lawyer, living in London, and deciding that he will stop having hookups, and start looking for a relationship partner as he comes to a realization that the love he has for his ex-step-brother will never come to pass. The night he makes this decision he arrives home to find Ivo the ex-step-brother sitting on his doorstep with a bleeding bullet wound in his side. Ivo has just come back from his latest photo journalist assignment in the war torn Middle East.
Lily Morton has written an enthralling book about recovering from trauma, the healing power of therapy, and the healing power of art. Love has always united Henry and Ivo as best friends since they were 15, and now, during Ivo’s recovery they have the time to explore their love.
There are cameo appearances from Gabe and Dylan, and Jude and Asa, from the first two novels in this series, and they are welcome additions.
As always, Joel Leslie is the perfect narrator for Lily Morton’s works.

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Dylan and Gabe’s love is mesmerizing

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 2025-01-24

Dylan is Gabe’s PA, and after two years together in a professional capacity Gabe changes the rules, and they come together in a relationship of sorts. Gabe has so much baggage and trauma in his past that he wants a physical, sexual relationship only. The problem is that Dylan has fallen in love and wants more.
There’s humor, badly made coffee, snarky emails, toxic exes, good friends on both sides (Jude and Henry appear in subsequent Mixed Messages books), angst, and then finally, a satisfying HEA.
Joel Leslie is, as always, a brilliant narrator, and Lily Morton is a born story teller. She brings so much of England to life for me, and gives us a glimpse of the wild beauty of the sea cost in Devon.
Absolutely goes on my list of books to revisit.

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Asa and Jude are wonderful together

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 2025-01-23

There is humor, character growth, an adorable child - Billy, and a love story of epic proportions set against a backdrop of overcoming preconceived notions, family difficulties, and responsibilities that define our lives. Dylan’s, Gabe, and Henry make appearances, and this is a lovely audiobook. As usual, Joel Leslie brings all the characters to life.

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Charming and funny love story for Joe and Lachlan

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 2025-01-21

Joe is a wedding planner dealing with overwrought brides, drunken wedding parties, and the occasional mother of the bride and/or groom who has more in common with a velociraptor than with an actual human being. Lachlan is a forensic accountant who has his life under strict control, who meets Joe when Lachlan is a guest at a wedding Joe planned. Sparks fly, big time. There are not date dates, hot hookups, wedding disasters, snowstorms, a misunderstanding that parts Joe and Lachlan, and then a grand reconciliation.
Lily Morton can be counted on for good writing, and Joel Leslie is a worthy narrator of her works. I liked this book better than the second in the series, Something Borrowed.

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Friends to lovers, contemporary M|M romance

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 2025-01-20

Charming romance where Rafferty deals with chaos as a wedding planner, and his life-long friend, Stan, overcome emotional and physical barriers to find the true love they have always had for each other.
Lovely story, and as always, Joel Leslie brings the words to life with his narration.

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Daniel’s story is Da Bomb

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 2025-01-17

I so enjoyed the love story between Daniel and Rory Brennan. As Rory is involved, of course Cian’s parallel story is also involved. There is magic in Sheena Jolie’s writing as she continues her world building in the Beacon Hill Sorcerer. Old friends and old adversaries are back, and there are new characters as well. Angel and Simeon have moved into a new home in Beacon Hill, and it comes with Martin the Butler. Enoch thinks of him as Martin the Butler.
There are laugh out loud parts, Angel being in-your-face protective about his dragon, Eroch, a courtship, a jailbreak, coming into magical affinities, and surprise new characters appearing at the end, which explains the first short story in A History of Trouble.
I can listen to this series over and over.

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Love and magic, isaac’s story is a winner

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 2025-01-15

This is Isaac’s story in the Beacon Hill Sorcerer epic. We also get Constantine’s backstory, the history of blood magic, and love and adventure.
Loved it, loved the writing by Sheena Jolie, and loved Joel Leslie’s narration.

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Beacon Hill Socerer short stories to fill in the blanks

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 2025-01-14

Sheena Jolie (S.J. Himes) not only writes cracking sharp long fiction, but is adept at short stories as well, which are a completely different written art form.
Especially notable is Dragon in the City written from Eroch’s point of view. Eroch is Angel’s dragon familiar, and Eroch sees Angel and Simeon as his nest mates.
Especially funny is the description of Eroch’s constant battle with the pidgins of Boston.
Of course, Joel’s Leslie shines as the narrator.
Each of these four short stories expands the Beacon Hill Sorcerer story line, and fit well in a collection rather than included in any of the main stories.

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Love Angelus Salvatore as a battle mate

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 2025-01-14

In this, the third book in the Beacon Hill Sorcerer series, we see Angel in his aspect as a battle mate fighting latches, grave robbers, and the Council of Magic. It’s a roller coaster of an adventure, and kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end.
Isaac has gone to Nevermore for his alcohol addiction, Daniel is deal with the aftermaths of his abuse at Dayimos’ hands (from the first book), there are vampire politics to untangle, and Eroch decides to take matters into his own wings.
This book is well written and well paced, and the partnership between Joel Leslie and Sheena Jolie is the chef’s kiss.

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