L. Mac

Hoo boy. The narration is ROUGH!

Revisado: 11-23-24

I agree with many of the other reviews — the narrator absolutely butchers this audiobook. I’m glad I listened to book 2 before this one because had this been my first exposure to Tor’s narration, I wouldn’t have continued the series. The voice he uses for Scott is too soft and breathy, which makes him sound like another female character. And the “Boston” accent used for Kip was wildly confusing and terrible. Like the Yellow M&M trying to sound British. It actually detracts from the story enough that I’m not sure if I’d like it more had I read it instead.

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Fun and romantic story with questionable narration.

Revisado: 11-22-24

I thought the story was great; a slow burn but without a bunch of “misunderstandings”. The narrator was definitely not my favorite. If he read without doing voices it would actually be better! It was hard for me to remember Shane and Ilya were young because Tor made Ilya sound like Dolph Lundgren. Shane’s dad sounded like the Other Father (Coraline) and his mom sounded like she was inebriated. It was super distracting. Very good story, love the HEA, narration was bad but not insurmountable.

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Superficially Cute but Problematic Underneath

Revisado: 10-20-24

I would refer you to Michelle’s review (c. 2022) below because she describes well the issues I had with this story. Part of me liked it because it was friends-to-lovers overcoming obstacles on their way to a HEA. But I do feel like Max treated Jack poorly repeatedly, emotionally manipulating him, and just being “confused” is not a good enough excuse. Also, the story and characters kept referring to Max as gay when he was in love with and married to a woman. Is bisexuality not a thing in this world? I also feel like a pro athlete would have a lot more to do in the off season than cook, clean, and babysit for his crush. Jack deserved better IMO and didn’t demand enough for what he needed.
Narration-wise, I’ve listened to a lot of Cendese and Toma books and I like them well enough. I think Toma is better, mainly because Cendese always seems to rush through everything. And the voices he does for women and children makes me cringe.

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Solidly Average

Revisado: 07-30-24

The female narrator is not my cup of tea and it’s totally a personal preference. Not very distinct differentiations between character voices and everything was sort of too slow and breathy for regular dialogue. A decent premise for an enemies-to-lovers style trope but the writing style just isn’t my favorite. An abundance of clichés and metaphors abound!

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DNF. If you confuse/equate control with love, this may be for you.

Revisado: 03-09-24

Hoo boy. I’m a sucker for shmaltzy love stories so I thought this sounded like something right up my alley. Unfortunately, I could not make it through the story as the male lead was EXTREMELY controlling and possessive and I do not confuse that with love, care or affection. The female lead wasn’t written very strongly at all but I couldn’t even focus on finding that annoying because the writing was just awful.

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Cute But Mildly Irritating

Revisado: 02-25-24

The narrators were pretty good — both Connor and Emma did well and their voices went well with their characters’ physical descriptions. But Emma’s voice definitely grated on me after awhile and I had to listen to the book in chunks to give myself a break. *Especially* once the female lead became pregnant, though I admit the way the character was written made the voice more annoying. I have been a pregnant woman myself and don’t remember being SO emotional for the *entirety* of the pregnancy! Charlie was making me insane with her constant crying and lashing out and whinging. Phew. The story was cute and I appreciated a different take on an oft-used trope. And I always love a HEA that doesn’t feel too contrived or rushed.

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The “Accents” Were Hard to Get Through

Revisado: 01-20-24

I’ve listened to several other books, narrated by Cendese and he’s never the *best*. He’s a solid B/C+ narrator, but the accents? Good grief. Not only were they not good but they went in and out. Sometimes Mac was Southern and sometimes he wasn’t. Gideon was almost always from NY but not 100% of them time. Which was actually good because that accent was particularly grating. The plot was a nice degree of different from the usual in this genre, so that was enjoyable. 

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Okay? Sure. Good? Almost.

Revisado: 01-16-24

A snarky moment: I genuinely don’t understand how an audiobook has a director and a producer and *still* somehow pronounced Hobie as “hobby” for 25% of the book.
Cendese is totally fine as a narrator, though his voices for other characters like women and children are kind of grating. My main issue is that he’s a FAST narrator. I’ve heard a few other books in which he’s been a narrator and he’s always fast. No pauses to let any tension or emotion or anything register.
The story is fine, too. I was happy the age gap didn’t come off as creepy as it has in other stories. Cameron and Walker were cute with each other and they were fleshed out well enough. Walker was perhaps a wee bit too interested in collegiate reminiscing but maybe that’s just a me issue. 😉

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Too Shmaltzy and Off-Putting Narration

Revisado: 01-15-24

I am usually a fan of Marley Valentine’s stories but yikes — this one just didn’t work for me. The narrators’ voices did not work well together IMO. We’re not supposed to read the age gap as a huge deal but the older lead’s voice is SO deep and the college kid’s is so not that the former comes off as creepy, not sexy. And the way the characters spoke to each other was way too saccharine and eye roll-inducing for me. I actually DNF this one, which is unusual for me.

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I wish this had been a full length story!

Revisado: 12-13-23

The complexities of a trans person returning to a small town was an interesting backdrop to the love story. I enjoyed the story for what it was — so much so that I wish there was more. Interesting characters and thoughtful circumstances made for a quick listen.

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