Lily

Just okay

Revisado: 01-03-25

The story was fine. Not my favorite, and a bit on the nose and predictable, but fine overall. I actually really liked Luc and thought he was a strong MMC. He was an alpha and rude and just didn’t care and that’s exactly what I was hoping for when I picked up the book.

Amelia is a little all over the place for me. She was offended by the f word, but then in the same chapter was referring to her lady bits as the p word. ??? She was very conflicting.

I would not recommend getting this audio book though. The MMC was fine to listen to, but the FMC was doing this weird over acting voice the whole time and no one speaks like that. It was weird and breathy and really off putting. I’ve never heard an audio book by her before, and I wouldn’t buy one by her again.

They were speaking so slowly I ended up listening on 3x speed and still understood the whole book.

If I had to do it again, I would just read the physical book.

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Amazing New Version

Revisado: 07-21-24

As a massive fan of the Callie version (I’ve listened to it at least 10 times) this is a great new adaptation. You just can’t compare it to Callie’s. If that one wasn’t out there, I think everyone would absolutely be obsessed with this version. The male narrator has to do so many accents, it’s so impressive to hear them all come to life in a male voice.

All that being said, this is a fantastic story with the classic MZ slow burn. It’s just so good. Sal grows up worshiping soccer phenomenon, Reiner Kulti. When he becomes her new assistant soccer coach, she finally realized what the phrase never meet your idols means.

Kulti is the ultimate grumpy a-hole and it is so much fun to watch his relationship with Sal develop. Don’t get me wrong their relationship goes up and down throughout the whole book, but as Sal will tell us, we always fight with the people we love the most.

This is my desert island book, and it is so much fun to now have 2 versions of the audio. 10/10 recommend picking this one up,

Tropes:
Coach/soccer player
Age gap (27 F and 39 M)
Sports romance (soccer)
Enemies to friends to lovers

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Wish I Loved This

Revisado: 02-17-24

I just want to preface this by saying I am a massive Elle Kennedy fan. I own multiple physical, audio, and kindle versions of her books. This particular book just completely missed the mark for me. I wish I loved it, because I preordered a signed copy, but it was just a huge miss.

This story is a single, first person POV told from the perspective of Abbey Bly, a 19 year old girl who is studying abroad in London for her sophomore year of college. We quickly learn that Abbey is the daughter of a massive rockstar turned overprotective father. He does not want her to study abroad, but Abbey feels like she needs to be out on her own for once in her life and have an adventure. This adventure happens to include a love triangle, a scandal with a Lord, and a fair amount of angst.

The premise is great and it all sounds very promising. But as the story is told, it just fell so absolutely flat. The main issue I had was with the love triangle. I prefer a love triangle to a why choose, but this was mostly a why choose with her decision coming in literally the last chapter of the book. Abbey goes on and on about how she needs to choose one, but she feels the exact same way about both boys for 99% of it. The book is an extremely quick read and with that, I feel like there was not enough time to get to know each of the boys and actually form an opinion as to who she should choose. I wasn’t even devastated for one of them in the end because they were practically the same person, but with different fonts. Just two boys with commitment issues. We did not get to see her and the boy she chooses together without a third party in the mix until the epilog, and that basically just gave us a recap of a trip they took together.

Abbey is a bit of a pick me girl. She is constantly saying that she has ordinary looks and is nothing special, but almost every guy in the book wants to be with her. She’s also a nerd who loves libraries and history and has almost no female friends at all. She is also constantly complaining about how she doesn’t want people to know about her father and wants to have her own adventures, but then immediately tells the group of friends who her father is and tells grand stories about him constantly.

This book reads like a YA, but it does contain mature scenes with both boys separately. There is defiantly cheating in this book too, if not physical than emotional with intent to act.

This audio version would have been much better with a bigger cast. One female doing the voices of many men with different accents made it a little hard to figure out who was speaking. She did a good job on the accents though. I could immediately tell someone was Australian. It also came across a little like she was just reading from a page rather than telling her own story. It just fell flat.

Overall, if you don’t mind a quick read why choose disguised as a love triangle, this could be the book for you. I am a bit disappointed by this one though and I sadly won’t be rereading any time soon. It was just missing the classic Elle Kennedy banter and spark that she has within her Off Campus and Briar U series’.

Tropes:
Love Triangle
Study abroad
Roommates
Rugby player
Boy in a band

TW:
Cheating-emotional with intent to act (FMC and one of the love triangle boys)
Loss of a parent
Drug use

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Cute quick read

Revisado: 01-19-24

This is a very cute and easy read for anyone to listen to. It’s a classic boss/employee workplace romance and the boss is a billionaire of course. It’s a little predictable and not the most interesting book in the world, but it’s not at all bad. It’s missing a little substance, but that’s why it’s a quick easy read. The only reason I listened to it though was because I got to listen for free. I absolutely could not stand the female narrators voice. It was too whispered and breathy and it was way more reading it to you rather than acting. She also swallows and gasps or makes general mouth noises a lot and it’s a little off putting. I didn’t mind the male’s voice, but he has a lot less chapters than she does. Both of them don’t change their voices whatsoever when doing other characters, so it can get a little confusing figuring out who is speaking. Overall, not bad but I wouldn’t listen again and I would have returned it if I paid for it.

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Great Dual Timeline Story

Revisado: 01-07-24

This is the story of Juliette, a fairly famous musician, and Luke, a professional surfer. We begin their journey in the present where they are forced to come back together to assist a woman who gave them both so much when they were younger.

This story is told in a single POV (FMC) and dual time line. I am a big Elizabeth O’Roark fan and have read all of her other books, and in my opinion, this one is pretty good, but not her best. The characters are very young in the past timeline and there is just so much angst. A majority of the plot is told in the past timeline and there are a lot of teenage mistakes and feelings involved.

As the story progresses, we learn that Juliette’s boyfriend, Danny (past timeline), is Luke’s best friend. Juliette and Luke have an immediate connection, but because of Juliette’s relationship with her family, she is trapped into staying with Danny and does not act on her feelings towards Luke.

We jump back and forth quite often as we navigate Luke and Juliette coming back together in the present and learning what happened that really drove them apart in the first place.


*MINOR SPOILERS*
This book was a classic Elizabeth O’Roark with so much longing and pining after someone you think you can’t have. But when the characters finally got together, we only have about 1 chapter of them plus an epilogue. It felt like so much build up and then we barely get any time at all with them in the present day. I feel like EO is usually a bit better at describing people falling in love where this one felt like it took 100 years to get there and then it was over. It felt like the conclusion of all the plot points was rushed and for that reason I took off a star.
*END SPOILERS*

We do get cameos from some of our favorite characters from previous books including Drew/Josh and Ben. Those are some of my favorite characters so it was great to see them.

The audiobook is 100% worth it. Both narrators are fantastic as always. It is done in duet as well which I think is a huge bonus. If you like the narrators, you’ll love the audio.

Tropes:
Famous Musician (FMC)
Pro surfer (MMC)
Love triangle
Dual timeline
Ex’s best friend

TW: (there were A LOT) *possible spoilers*
Rape/child molestation by a family member
Domestic violence (not by MMC or in love triangle)
Cheating (FMC and MMC, no one outside of triangle)
Death of a significant other
Death of a parental figure
Child neglect/abandonment
Child abuse
Homophobia
Deep religious beliefs in a small town

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Didn’t love this one

Revisado: 11-12-23

This book just missed the mark for me. I really really wanted to love it, but I felt like the story was very stagnant for about 90% of the book.

The FMC, Dahlia is struggling with depression after a recent breakup and getting some test results. She decides to return to her hometown to be closer to her family. She is quickly reacquainted with her old childhood rival and pushes down all feelings towards him. This is a fine story line to go with, but it seriously didn’t progress past that until the last like 6 chapters of the book. It was just a constant fighting of feelings and refusing to discuss them with one another.

The MMC Julian carried the entire plot on his back and he was willing to speak to Dahlia and wanted to give everything a try with her, but she just refused for so much of the book.

I really wanted to love this one, but the only reason I didn’t DNF was because the narrators were fantastic in duet.

I liked that both characters were hispanic and actually spoke Spanish throughout the book instead of it just saying “they said in Spanish.” Translations were provided as well in the footnotes of each chapter, so even if you don’t speak Spanish, you know what they are saying without looking it up.

I feel like these characters had a lot of potential, but the FMC specifically lacked character growth. She did have moments of growth, but not enough to make the plot feel like it was going anywhere. Her stubbornness and lack of willingness to communicate effectively were extremely frustrating to me.

*mild spoilers* There is no third act breakup, which I like as well, but that comes from the characters not getting together until the end of the third act.
*end of mild spoilers*

Tropes:
Childhood rivals to lovers
Second chance
Billionaire (MMC)
Reality interior design show star (FMC)

TW:
Infertility
Miscarriage (not by the FMC, but mentioned frequently)
Loss of a parent/grief (before the start of the book)
Anxiety/depression (FMC)

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Love the book hate the narration

Revisado: 11-08-23

Great book, but this narrator is just not good. Teddy Hamilton is fantastic as always, but Rebecca Soler is just not right for audio. I listened to the last book, and thought she was just sick, but no it’s just her voice. The swallowing and breathing are just so off-putting, it’s kind of gross to listen to, even at 1.5x speed. She also starts to do voices for different characters, but they all tend to blend into one voice and it’s hard to tell who is who. I liked this story more than the first one though. It felt more complete and the amount of depth in the story was great.

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Great listen!

Revisado: 11-01-23

Elle Kennedy writes another amazing hockey story. This book follows Gigi Graham (Hannah Wells and Garrett Graham daughter from The Deal) and Luke Ryder. The two first meet when they are teenagers and Luke is attending a hockey camp held by Gigi’s dad. They get off to a rocky start and don’t meet again until 6 years later when Ryder is forced to transfer to Gigi’s school. The two once again bump heads, but just like her parents, Gigi makes a deal with Ryder which forces them to spend time together.

This book was really really great. I was wondering where she was going to take it, because how many different and good hockey stories can we get from the same author? But this was honestly so good. I’ve read all of the Off Campus series and the Briar U series and this sits right up there with them. I don’t know if any of these books will ever top The Deal or The Score for me, but it was still really really good and classic Elle Kennedy.

Tropes:
Sports romance (FMC and MMC both play hockey)
College romance
Ex-boyfriend’s rival
Secret dating
Found family
No third act break up


*slight spoilers in the TW*
TW:
Witnessed act of DV (MMC witnessed as a child off page, but recounts events)
Death of a parent due to DV

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Cute Sports Romance

Revisado: 10-18-23

So I liked this book, but I wasn’t head over heels in love with it. It’s definitely a cute story with found family elements, but I didn’t feel obsessed with the story.

We begin this story with Ryan, (Stevie’s twin brother from the first book in the series) who is the newly appointed captain of Chicagos basketball team. He is very focused on staying 100% in the game with no distractions. His sister, Stevie’s, best friend/co-worker Indy needs a place to stay after going through a horrible breakup before the start of this book. You can probably guess where this is going. Indy moves in with Ryan and they slowly get to know each other over the course of Ryan’s basketball season.

The narrators did a pretty good job, but the FMC was driving me crazy with how she elongated the words at the end of almost every sentence. Just a personal preference. I thought she did a great job with all of the male parts and when reading for other female parts. I recommend listening to the sample first just to make sure it doesn’t bother you!

The story was really cute, but it is very very long! I listened on 1.5 speed and it still felt like it took forever for anything to happen.

Tropes:
Best friends brother
Forced proximity
Fake dating
Sports romance (professional basketball)

TW: infertility

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Fantastic Story

Revisado: 07-31-23

I will preface my review by saying that generally I am not a fantasy book lover. It’s just not my style, but I really wanted to see what this book is all about and was finally able to get my hands on a copy. I was not at all disappointed! This book is a bit more fantasy than game of thrones, but in that general realm. Dragons, magic, and creatures that all felt very cohesive. The world building is very impressive. It blows my mind that people are able to come up with an entire map in their heads and build a place that feels cohesive and real.

I understand why the other reviews were put off by the narration as well. Soler was audibly sick while recording half of the audio, so it’s a little strange that they didn’t just wait a few days until she was not so congested. You can here her swallow a lot and it is a little off putting, but it kind of came and went. I know people have timelines to meet, but it’s a bit distracting at times. If they ever do decide to re-record, I think a duet version would bring the story to life 100x more.

All of that being said, the story itself was really great too. A little bit angsty and if it weren’t for the steamy scenes, it would be a really good YA book. The story didn’t feel overrun by steam though and it actually had a really good story line, if not a little predictable. There were a few times I was thrown for a loop though and something would happen that I wasn’t expecting, but generally you could see where the plot was going.

I enjoyed the quotes before each chapter too, which either helped with foreshadowing or explained why something was about to take place in its respective chapter.

I will 100% be rereading this book in the future and cannot wait for the sequel!

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