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Larissa_S

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Playing Dirty cover art

Enjoyable start to the series

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

Reviewed: 07-05-23

Beth Bolden’s Playing Dirty is the prequel novella that kicks off her highly entertaining Miami Piranhas series. Wade and Tristan are both rookie NFL players who room together at training camp. Tristan is out and proud, but Wade is bisexual and closeted. The story doesn’t dig deep or give any twists and turns to their romance, but they are a really cute couple with great chemistry. One of the things I like about Bolden’s football stories is that she puts a lot of on-field football action and off-field strategy into the plot. If you aren’t a football fan, you may not enjoy that level of detail. Personally, I think it lends the story authenticity, and I enjoy seeing how the men interact both on and off the field.

Darcy Stark narrates the audiobook and does a nice job. He’s clearly skilled and embodies the characters well. I found his style to be a bit stilted, though. The reactions and emotions didn’t flow as naturally as I would have liked. His slow methodical pacing compounded that. Once I sped up the playback, the audio flowed better, and I enjoyed listening to this absorbing story.

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Bending the Rules cover art

Enjoyable second chance romance

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

Reviewed: 24-12-22

Like so many second-chance romances, Noah and Simon discover timing is everything. A serendipitous unexpected encounter brings them back together again after not having seen each other since college. The interest and attraction are clearly there as well as the desire to make it work this time to rectify the misunderstandings and poor timing that constantly interfered with their chance to develop a relationship in college. However, even now it’s not smooth sailing. Noah is laser-focused on his comeback from injury, and then there’s the minor detail of them living in two different places.

The story is low-angst and sweet, although it has less hockey in it than I would have expected for a sports romance.
Like the other titles he’s narrated for Vaughn, James Edward Jones gives a solid vocal performance on the audiobook. He’s in touch with his characters and gives a natural flow to the story that I didn’t feel when just reading. Recommended.

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Prince of Flowers cover art

Fantastic narration but lackluster story

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

Reviewed: 14-10-22

Greg Boudreaux could narrate the phone book and make it come alive. He invigorates this story which on its own, is lacking in my opinion. I didn’t particularly like either Locke or Prince Sylvain, but the quest was entertaining. I had to push myself to stay engaged and it was Boudreaux not the source material that kept me listening.

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Crankshaft cover art

Fun, frisky, enjoyable audio

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

Reviewed: 08-09-22

Crankshaft kicks off K.M. Neuhold’s Big Bull Mechanics series, the long-awaited spin-off of her Four Bears Construction series. Crankshaft has the Four Bears feel to it and we get to visit with the Four Bears couples as well. But Crankshaft still maintains its own identity, with a new group of characters who are endearing, wacky, sexy, and sweet. Neuhold’s trademark storytelling is on display with plenty of feel-good found-family dynamics, super hot sexy times, playfulness, rowdy behavior, bawdy language, and irreverent antics. It also showcases swoony declarations as only she can craft them. You know you’re in a Neuhold book when “You could steal all my pickles” is a love declaration. TL;DR: If you love Four Bears, you’ll love Crankshaft.

Steele owns Big Bull Mechanics, the series’ titular auto repair shop. Steele is “tall, bearded, and beastly” - to quote Porter. But despite his very burly, tattooed, bear-ish appearance, he’s all heart. He’s a guy who protects and fixes. He needs to make things right for the people he cares about, like his prodigal brother Gates, even if that means his own needs and desires take a backseat.

Porter is the town’s veterinarian. He just recently passed the boards and has taken over his childhood next-door-neighbor/mentor/family friend’s veterinary practice, so he’s feeling in over his head. He’s stressed over owning his own business while also feeling the inevitable insecurity that comes from being a new vet. Porter is a study in contrasts. He’s a self-described “average-looking, mildly adorkable man”. But his twinky, slightly nerdy, often frazzled appearance belies his assertiveness in the bedroom.

Steele similarly struggles under the weight of owning a small business, although Big Bull is established and doing well. Nevertheless, he’s pulled in a million directions by work obligations, his brother Gates’ problems, and the general need to protect and take care of his family and friends. Perhaps it’s Steele’s split focus that makes him somewhat oblivious. He doesn't know who Porter is even though they’ve met several times before at gatherings at Miller and Demetri’s. It leaves him vulnerable to the not-too-subtle machinations of the Big Bull guys to get him together with Porter. Thankfully, their maneuvering, Steele’s soft heart, and Denali, Steele’s rambunctious husky puppy/unwitting bunny assailant, combine to bring Steele squarely into Porter’s orbit. The rest, as they say, is history.

In Crankshaft, Neuhold tells a virtually no angst, sweet story of two mature, responsible men falling in love in the real world. Steele and Porter are immediately attracted to each other and they’re forthright about it. There’s nothing difficult about the falling. The character journey for these men involves priorities and balance. They are both self-sacrificing men with too many commitments and responsibilities. They help and support each other and together, find a way to carve out space for a lasting relationship and love. They learn that the ups and downs are all better when shared with a partner who’s got your back as well as your heart.

Crankshaft has lots of laugh-out-loud, sweet, silly moments, and the Big Bull crew are as zany as their Four Bears counterparts. These are a bunch of tough guys with hearts of gold and a healthy amount of naivete that Porter doesn't have the heart to dispel, even when it comes to their willful blindness about cute furry animals and the perils of nature.

Tim Paige and Liam DiCosimo narrate and they do a solid job. Paige’s voice is deeper, and he gives Steele a timbre that’s apropos to his character. I would have liked to have heard his voice sit at a lower pitch, though, but that’s a personal preference. DiCosimo has a higher pitched, lighter voice with a bit of a flair to it that fits Porter’s personality well. The characters are consistently delivered and distinguishable. They take this enjoyable story and translate it into an enjoyable listening experience.

I wholeheartedly recommend Crankshaft. It’s a fun, frisky, easy read that will have you eager the next book in the series.

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How to Catch the Boss cover art

Short sweet story but narration is lacking

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

Reviewed: 02-08-22

If you’ve read How to Catch a Vet, you’ll recognize that one of the protagonists there, Santiago Torres, is the older brother of Luca and best friend of Ryan, the couple featured in the novella How to Catch the Boss. Santiago may not appear much here, but he plays a pivotal role in the relationship between Ryan and Luca.

In contrast to most of the Chester Falls series, How to Catch a Boss takes place entirely in Lydovia. I enjoyed the different perspective, especially because the novella otherwise relies heavily on tropes - brother’s best friend, boss/employee, stuck in a cabin in a snowstorm at Christmas time, age gap, forbidden romance. Misunderstandings about mutually held attraction underline the plot here, and Ashley does a nice job maintaining the UST until Luca and Ryan give in. That relationship progression felt a bit rushed despite their long history. I think the characters could have been fleshed out more, and perhaps a larger story about them would have facilitated that.

As for the narration, Nick Hudson narrates Luca and Andre Santana narrates Ryan. I typically enjoy Hudson’s narration, but he has a very distinctive stop/start pacing and upward inflection that is more pronounced and distracting here. That may be because of the alternating dual narration with Santana, whose vocal performance couldn’t be more different. Santana’s portrayal of Ryan is very different from Hudson's in just about every way. His voice is too high-pitched and thin for how I pictured Ryan (deeper, fuller voice). The transitions between chapters is particularly jarring.

That being said, Hudson captures the emotions of the scenes well, as does Santana although he is a bit less successful at it. Overall, the audio experience felt disjointed. I would have preferred Hudson to narrate the entirety.

How to Catch the Boss itself is short and sweet, and definitely an enjoyable, holiday romance. It's particularly impactful in my opinion and the audio doesn't help, so I liked it better on text alone.

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Fairy and Impartial cover art

Another great Starfig adventure

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

Reviewed: 24-06-22

Meghan Maslow delivers another highly entertaining story in her Starfig Investigations series with Fairy and Impartial. This is the fourth book in the series - you do need to read the previous three books first - and the storyline of half-dragon/half-fairy Twig Starfig and his human wizard mate, Quinn Broomsparkle, continues and expands.

Book Three, His Fairy Share, took us into the mind of Quinn for the first time, as we got to experience the events in that book from his viewpoint. We also got to see Quinn’s home and learn more about his backstory as we spent most of that book in the Hominus Realm. But now we have returned to the Elder Realm and Twig’s point of view in Fairy and Impartial, and the book takes up a very similar tone and trajectory as the first two books.

That’s not a bad thing because the Starfig Investigations series overarchingly fascinates and enthralls the reader. Book three is a standout because it breaks with the mold of the rest. But here, we get to see increasingly implausible, crazy things happen, and yet they are entirely believable in the context of Twig and Quinn. These two are veritable magnets for trouble coupled with a complete inability to keep their nose out of other people’s business, particularly if it affects someone they care about. Like Bill, their resident, domesticated red fury demon and BFF. Or Zak, Quinn’s younger brother. Or Dandy the Tworc (yes, apparently there is such a thing as a twinky orc). Or even Auric, Twig’s nosy, manipulative father.

The best part of Fairy and Impartial is the continued expansion of the Twig found family to include more “unique” creatures. For example, a character from My Fairy Share makes a reappearance in this book because “She’s come to apply to be part of the clan.”

Twig is the Pied Piper of supernatural creatures. They can’t help but be attracted to his charisma, kindness, and fierce loyalty. Every member of clan Starfig is someone or something which is considered different from the norm and treated negatively because of it. The Twig clan not only offers respite from that, it offers the love an acceptance of a family:

“In our own way, we were all misfits looking for our fit. And we found it. Together.”

Twig and Quinn even charm Leo, the EBI elf agent who is called upon time and again to investigate the Starfig Investigations team when they get embroiled in magic, mayhem, and murder. Which, I might add, happens all. the. time. We get to see more of Leo here, mainly because Twig and Quinn keep finding dead bodies, body parts, and other magical things and people.

As we’ve come to expect in this series, Ms. Maslow delivers a convoluted plot that is easily navigable. Her stellar worldbuilding is on full display, and we enjoy more of her well-crafted, highly endearing characters. Her writing is crisp and witty, even laugh-out-loud funny at times. It provides a nice and needed counterpoint to the violence in these stories. Total props to her for her continued creativity. It’s a joy to be transported into such a colorful, exciting, utterly wacky world with supernatural creatures and plenty of magic.

Starfig Investigations is a series I highly recommend. It has everything: love and steam, action and drama, mild angst, suspense, humor, heartwarming relationships, and endearing, unforgettable characters. Fairy and Impartial is another exciting, enjoyable entry in the series that you’ll be eager to read and sad to finish. Join me in eagerly awaiting more.

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His Fairy Share cover art

Best of the Series

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

Reviewed: 12-06-22

Let me preface this review with the following: Starfig Investigations is a true series with a continuing storyline. I do not recommend reading His Fairy Share without having read the earlier series books. Inevitable spoilers will be revealed and the plot will be too convoluted to follow unless you’ve been on the crazy ride with this eclectic found family from book one, page one.

Having said that, I assume if you are still reading, you’ve read By Fairy Means or Foul and Be Fairy Game, Books One and Two in Meghan Maslow’s addictive Starfig Investigations series. As such, you will immediately recognize that His Fairy Share is quite different from those two books. It contains a significant shift in the tone and direction of this series thus far. Unlike the first two books, His Fairy Share is told entirely from Quinn’s point of view. Additionally, it focuses predominantly on Quinn, his magical powers, and his past, not Twig, his background, and family. We also travel to a different realm, Quinn’s homeland, the Hominus Realm, where Quinn reluctantly returns in response to summonses for his appearance before the ruling Council of Divine Magic. He also hopes to gain closure concerning his family, who sold him off to slavery when he failed to pass the wizarding exams.

While His Fairy Share starts with the slower pacing that we’ve found in the previous books, it picks up steam more quickly. Then, about a third of the way in, we hit a pivot point in the plot, and the action takes off like a runaway train. The action and events that transpire after that are mesmerizing, fascinating, and His Fairy Share becomes utterly unputdownable.

I want to keep the specifics of the plot under wraps because a significant component of the experience of this book is the constant surprise from the twisty-turny plot. The blurb and your knowledge from the first two books are plenty. 😉 This story has a “Pirates of the Caribbean” feel - oh, I forgot to mention: Here, there be pirates - and it’s mixed with plenty of magic and paranormal adventure. Twig and Quinn’s relationship is tested. Family bonds are strained, and others are formed. The plot is full to bursting with emotions, including devastation, angst, fear, revenge, loyalty, and love. There are betrayals, new alliances, new characters, and less reliance on the Elder Realm and Twig’s father Auric as a plot driver (although also less Bill 😢👿). Ms. Maslow expands her gorgeous, intricate worldbuilding and builds out the diverse, misfit, found family that makes up the Starfig clan.

Ms. Maslow’s writing is consistently on-point, crisp and descriptive with witty dialogue within complex, engaging storylines. Her creativity is off-the-charts, yet no matter how out there it is, it’s completely plausible within the context of her textured, enthralling stories.

If you are listening to the audiobook - and I HIGHLY recommend that you do - you will be gifted with Greg Boudreaux. This man has a voice that I could listen to 24/7 and his vocal acting is par none. He's fantastic here, bringing the characters and story to life in his inimitable way.

His Fairy Share is the best of the series so far. I give it, and the Starfig Investigations series as a whole, my highest recommendation. Listen to these titles in audiobook format for an even more immersive experience.

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Chasing Fate cover art

Sexy, sweet story

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

Reviewed: 03-05-22

Mia Monroe’s Chasing Fate follows on the heels of the fabulous Dirty Forty in her Friendship and Desire series. Sequels are always difficult especially when the first one is so good. And Dirty Forty was very good … indeed, a tough act to follow. Couple that with the fact that this is a “themed” series where every book is based on the same trope - friends to lovers - and Ms. Monroe set herself up with quite the challenge for Chasing Fate.

Admittedly, I had some trepidation when I started the book. We met Sydney in Dirty Forty, and I immediately loved his exuberant personality, quirkiness, and utterly charming outlook on life. So I was thrilled he’d be getting his HEA, but I wasn’t sure who his “other half” would be. When I discovered it was his childhood best friend Diego, I wondered if I was just going to be reading Dom and Zach’s story all over again. And in fact, there are a lot of parallels between the storylines.

So this is where the Mia Monroe magic comes in, reminding me that I should never have doubted what this very talented author can do. Sydney and Diego are given a great deal of emotional complexity that‘s authentic and understandable. They are both fools for and about each other in different ways. But wow do they have hearts of gold. And Diego … *swoon*. This man. Patient. Kind, Respectful. Loving. The optimism and “glass half full” attitude he consistently displays reflects that same attitude as conveyed by Ms. Monroe throughout everything she writes. You cannot walk away from one of her stories without having fallen in love and feeling better about life and the people in it.

Sydney and Diego’s romance provides all the hot, steamy, sexy, swoony, flirty, and fun content you could ask for, wrapped up in two beautiful men who are perfect for each other. Their journey to HEA is not easy, “[b]ut there’s beauty to be found in the hard stuff”(to quote Diego).

To bring this full circle, those things that concerned me about Chasing Fate, turned out to be exactly the things that make Chasing Fate so remarkable. Despite a fairly straightforward premise with a story trajectory similar to Dirty Forty, Ms. Monroe manages to hook us into a wholly absorbing story with a romance that is fresh and new. And also like in Dirty Forty, the true obstacle to the men’s HEA is not what you expect it to be. Ms. Monroe turns the trope on its head. This isn’t your ordinary best friends-to-lovers story. This is a story of self-discovery. Sexuality is just part of that journey. Trust is the goal. You’d think with a best friends to lovers trope that would be a given. Well, think again.

Chasing Fate is a well-crafted, superbly written story that is completely addictive. The audiobook is solid and Tim Paige is terrific. His vocal performances continue to improve and I really enjoyed his interpretation of the plot and characters. Liam DiCosimo is hit or miss for me with his vocal performances and here is more a miss than hit. He didn't quite connect the voices to the characters the way the story called for and I also didn't find a fluid connection between his voices for Sydney and Diego and Tim Paige's voices for them. Personally, I would have preferred a solo narrator (Paige) but YMMV. Overall, though, I still give this audiobook my recommendation.

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Perfect Ten cover art

Not perfect, but enjoyable

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

Reviewed: 27-04-22

Perfect Ten, the latest from K.M. Neuhold and the first book in her new series, The Off-Season, revolves around the life and times of the residents of Palm Island, an isolated, gay resort island paradise. The only way on and off the island is a ferry that runs with frequency for only six months of the year during tourist season. Once off-season starts on Labor Day, the ferry rarely runs, essentially trapping the Palm Island residents there for six months until tourist season begins again. Perfect Ten shines a spotlight on what the few residents of Palm Island get up to during the off-season, and it’s as wild as you might expect.

Ten is a thirty-six-year-old doctor who was just weeks shy of completing his residency when he walked away from it all after a car accident nearly killed him. He changed his whole life, moving to Palm Island where he works as a bartender. He's been happily single but now wonders if maybe he wants something more. Bambi is ten years younger than Ten, and coincidentally, is studying to be a doctor. He left med school after his first year when his father died, and came to Palm Island to mourn and try to heal. He has been working with Ten at the bar for two years, but Bambi’s never fully settled, knowing he’d need to return to New York at some point to finish his schooling.

Perfect Ten is a silly, super sweet, low-angst, fun story with steam and shenanigans, that’s focused on two endearing main characters in Ten and Bambi. I expected I’d love it just as I loved Ms. Neuhold’s Fours Bears Construction series. After all, Perfect Ten contains many of the same elements. However, something is lost in the translation.

Ms. Neuhold’s books generally contain playfulness, rowdy behavior, bawdy language, and irreverent antics, like Ten and his crew get up to here. She usually shows the love and affection between the featured couple through swoony actions and plenty of hot scenes, as she does here with Ten and Bambi. She also typically constructs her stories around a found family, a group of men with a bond of friendship and support, as she does here with Ten and his friends, and as shown through how they readily bring Bambi into the fold. But despite all of these things being present in Perfect Ten, they, strangely, don’t produce the same result. It’s like two plus two added up to three and a half, instead of four.

I suspect it’s because several things served as distractors, at least for me. For example, Ms. Neuhold lays the groundwork for some intriguing backstories, like Ten’s car accident, the circumstance of him becoming a doctor, Bambi’s family, and his mourning and subsequent decision to come to the Island, but she doesn’t pull the thread on them. Additionally, Perfect Ten‘s premise is implausible as are some farfetched facts. And can we talk for a minute about the excessive use of nicknames? I found it challenging to focus on the storyline when constantly confronted with them.

All that being said, Iggy Toma does a terrific job with his narration of this story and it goes a long way towards smoothing out those rough spots. His vocal performance is invested and intuitive and he captures the essence of the characters and the dynamic of the story. I read the book and then listened to it and I definitely enjoyed it more in audiobook form.

Overall, Perfect Ten is not perfect, but it is enjoyable. It introduces us to a host of intriguing characters that I’m hoping to learn more about in the following books in the series.

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Taken by Storm cover art

Great addition to the series

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

Reviewed: 27-04-22

Taken by Storm lets us revisit Palm Island, the isolated gay resort island that provides a unique environment for people to get a new perspective on life, on what’s important. During the off-season, it also creates a tight found family of friends.

In Taken By Storm, we get a lot of punny twists on Chef Storm’s name, including the title itself, and a lot of storm imagery including one actual storm that plays a role in the plot. While a bit obvious, I liked how the storm theme was threaded throughout the story, unifying the relationship between Storm and Hennessy, his part-time waiter/employee. The ex-husband/fake relationship storyline felt contrived, but I nevertheless enjoyed it. The grumpy/sunshine dynamic between Storm and Henn is sweet and funny. They also have evident chemistry.

Iggy Toma is back, narrating this second series installment, and, as with book one, he elevates the story, infusing it with depth and emotional impact. He does a great job consistently distinguishing between the characters, and most importantly, he gets the vocal choices just right.

Overall, Taken by Storm is a book/audio I recommend. You don’t have to read Perfect Ten first. Taken by Storm works fine as a standalone.

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