L-L-L-Little Reviews #18: Six Five-Star Adult Contemporary Romance Audiobook Reviews

And now I’ve fallen behind with my reviews since school started.  If
it wasn’t for a blog tour or a advanced copy, which most of my
audiobooks were just ones I wanted to read/listen to, so they are bottom
of the review schedule.  But I am a bit behind on where I’d wanted to
be for some of my review ARCs, so I’m going to fit in the last six
audiobooks I listened to.  Two of them are from clear back in July, and
three of these books are by Penny Reid.  I signed up for the Audible
Escapes program, and so far it seems to kind of be more worth it than
just the Audible one credit a month program, but we’ll see.

We Own Tonight (Second Time Around #1) by Corinne Michaels:

Release Date: September 19th, 2017
Source:  Borrowed from Audible.com as part of Audible Escapes program
My rating:  5 stars  

So
this one was a lot of fun because I’m pretty sure, no I know for sure
after talking to the author at Book Bonanza, that the main love interest
was based on DonnieWahlberg from NKOTB.  What I loved is how the author
kept us just slightly out of the loop without leaving us totally
hanging about everything.  I did get mad at the main character, Heather,
for fighting the chance to be with her teen idol.  And then I did get
mad at Eli/Donnie, for not telling her the big secret he had!  But
honestly, I adored this, it was like if my NKOTB crush would come true
and how I’d love it all to go. 

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
From New York Times Bestseller, Corinne Michaels, comes a sexy new STANDALONE romance novel.

I’m
not a one-night stand kind of woman. I’m especially not the woman who
has a few drinks at a concert and ends up in bed with my childhood
celebrity crush, Eli Walsh.

However, that’s exactly where I find myself.

What’s
a girl to do after a drunken mistake? Run. I grab my clothes and get
away from the powerful, irresistible, and best-sex-of-my-life superstar
as fast as I can. His gorgeous green eyes, rock-hard body, and cocky
smile have no place in my world. My life is complicated enough.

Someone forgot to tell him that.

Eli
is relentless. Pushing his way into my heart, wearing me down, proving
he’s nothing like I assumed, and everything I need. But when my world
shatters to pieces, he holds the broken bits together. Unwillingly, I
fall desperately in love with him.

He made me think we’d have forever . . . I should’ve listened when he said we could only own tonight.

• I forgot to mention that this title is the title of a song by NKOTB, so you can enjoy the video to that up above next to the blurb.

 Getting Played (Getting Some #2) by Emma Chase:

Release Date: June 11th, 2019
Source:  Borrowed from Audible.com as part of Audible Escapes program
My rating:  5 stars  

Now, to start off, our love interest, Dean, is good at football, in a band, has a very high IQ, and is a teacher, so that makes this total fantasy, but yeah, sometimes it is good to have that perfect of a guy, I mean I’m reading to get away, right?  I guess I didn’t read the synopsis of the story very well, because I didn’t realize she was going to end up pregnant!  Because that was a big twist I didn’t see coming.  And also, when he offered to just be there for her physical needs if that was all she wanted, and she didn’t want to take him up on it?  What?  That’s crazy girl!  
But I loved the story, it was really good, really sweet, and now, I want to go back and read/listen to the first one.  Also, where is the teacher that I can find to hook up with myself as a school librarian?

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
Head of the class…

Garrett Daniels has this whole life thing figured out.

The
cocky, charismatic former high school star quarterback is an idolized
football coach and “cool” teacher in the hometown where he’s not just a
golden boy—he’s platinum. He has good friends, a great house on the
lake, and the best damn sidekick a man could ask for: Snoopy, the albino
beagle.

Then…Callie Carpenter comes home.

And knocks him right on his tight end zone.

Back to school…

Callie
has a pretty sweet life herself…on the other side of the country. But
circumstances—that she’d prefer to never speak of again—have brought
her back home, helping out her parents and substitute teaching at her
old high school.

Now she’s facing bickering, raging hormones,
constant gossip, awkward weirdness, and drama galore…and that’s just
the teachers.

Just like old times…

When Garrett
offers to show his former high school sweetheart the secrets of his
winning teacher ways, Callie jumps at the chance—and then has to stop
herself from jumping him.

Good friends are all they can ever be.

Or…these teachers just might end up getting schooled—hard—by love. 

The Hooker and the Hermit (Rugby #1) by L.H. Cosway and Penny Reid:

Release Date: June 2nd, 2015
Source:  Borrowed from Audible.com as part of Audible Escapes program
My rating:  5 stars    

So, let’s be honest.  When I first read the title, I wasn’t sure about who the Hooker was, didn’t realize it was a term for a rugby player.  So when the story started, I thought maybe Annie’s neighbor was the hooker since she was obviously the hermit.  But then I learned who Ronan was and I was no longer confused about that.  Now let me say, I LOVED the male narrator’s Irish accent.  In fact I can still hear his voice in my head if I think about how he said her name.  I did get really mad at her for being mad at him towards the end. But as I’ve mentioned many times, I know that is a part of romance so often.  In the end I loved the story enough that I started to download and listen to the next book in the series, but it just wasn’t catching me so I gave up on it for now.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
New York’s Finest
Blogging as *The Socialmedialite*
April 22
LADIES AND GENTS! I have an announcement!

You
know that guy I featured on my blog a few months ago? The really,
really hot Irish rugby player who plays the position of ‘hooker’ in the
RLI (Rugby League International)? The one with the anger management
issues, the body of a gladiator and the face of a movie star? The one
with the questionable fashion choices leading me to ask whether he was
the lovechild of a leprechaun and a hobbit? Ronan Fitzpatrick? Yeah,
that guy.

Well, I have a confession to make…

THE HERMIT

Annie
Catrel, social media expert extraordinaire at Davidson & Croft
Media and clandestine celebrity blogger, can make anyone shine in the
court of public opinion. She is the Socialmedialite, anonymous creator
of New York’s Finest and the internet’s darling. Virtual reality is
Annie’s forte, but actual reality? Not so much.

THE HOOKER

Ronan
Fitzpatrick, aka the best hooker the world of rugby has seen in
decades, despises the media—social or otherwise. The press has spun a
web of lies depicting him as rugby’s wild and reckless bad boy.
Suspended from his team, Ronan has come to Manhattan to escape the
drama, lay low, fly under the radar. Only, Ronan isn’t easy to overlook,
and he can’t escape the notice of the Socialmedialite…

THE PLAN

When
Ronan is sent to Davidson & Croft Media to reshape his public
image, he never expects to cross paths with shy but beautiful Annie, nor
does he expect his fierce attraction to her. He couldn’t be happier
when her boss suggests pairing them together.
What lengths will
Annie take to keep her virtual identity concealed? And what happens when
the hooker discovers who the hermit really is?

The Hooker
and the Hermit is a collaboration between authors L.H. Cosway and Penny
Reid, is a full length 100k word novel, and is a standalone. 

Neanderthal Marries Human (Knitting in the City #1.5) by Penny Reid:

Release Date: May 18th, 2016
Source:  Borrowed from Audible.com as part of Audible Escapes program
My rating:  5 stars   

So, while I’ve read the first and second books in this series, as well as a few others interspersed and out of order, I decided I wanted to jump back into the series and catch up on all the ones I missed out on.  So I decided to start with this one.  Of course there were several times I wanted to go back and reread the ones I had read just because I might not have remembered what was going on or because I just wanted to relive their story now that I had this extra bit of story to go with theirs.  The female narrator on this one really irritated me, she was so slow I had to speed her up.  I’m sure it had partly to do with the character, but then when the male narrator, my favorite, Sebastian York, came on, I had to immediately slow the speed back down to enjoy his smooth, rich voice.  Of course several of the people in the story are ones that are in the Winston Brothers series and I’m working on that series as well.  Filling in the ones I hadn’t read yet too.  One thing I really liked and stood out to me was that bit about how the dress at the end of Pretty in Pink is just awful.  Am I the only one who hated it?  I thought I was, but this story makes me see that I’m not the only one.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
There are three things
you should know about Quinn Sullivan: 1) He is madly in love with Janie
Morris, 2) He’s not above playing dirty to get what (or who) he wants,
and 3) He doesn’t know how to knit.

After just five months of
dating Janie, Quinn—former Wendell and unapologetic autocrat—is ready to
propose marriage. In fact, he’s more than ready. If it were up to
Quinn, he would efficiently propose, marry, and beget Janie with child
all in the same day—thereby avoiding the drama and angst that
accompanies the four stages of pre-matrimony: engagement, meeting the
parents, bachelor/bachelorette party, and overblown, superfluous wedding
day traditions. But Janie, much to Quinn’s dismay, tosses a wrench in
his efficacious endeavors and challenges him to prove his devotion by
going through the matrimonial motions, no matter how minute and mundane.

Will Quinn last until the wedding day? Or will he yield to his tyrant impulses?

Regardless,
one thing is for certain, Quinn Sullivan will have to learn to expect
the Spanish Inquisition (i.e. the unexpected) if he plans to have and
keep Janie Morris as his wife.

This book is not a
standalone. It is the sequel to ‘Neanderthal Seeks Human,’ it is book
#1.5 in the ‘Knitting in the City’ series, and it is a full length, 100k
word novel.

Again, you must read ‘Neanderthal Seeks Human’ first before reading this book.

This book is written in first person, alternating POV (Janie Morris AND Quinn Sullivan; but more Janie than Quinn). 

Love Hacked (Knitting in the City #3) by Penny Reid:

Release Date: May 18th, 2016
Source:  Borrowed from Audible.com as part of Audible Escapes program
My rating:  5 stars   

So this was my continuation of the Knitting in the City series, and I’d already read book 2, Friends Without Benefits, so it was good to get to know Sandra’s story. And Alex, who I didn’t quite remember that much about.  I liked the younger man story, even though she really wasn’t that much older than him.  This book made me totally guess and second guess myself so that I was going back and forth on what I thought might be happening.  I loved Sandra’s t-shirts, I kind of would do that myself as much as I can.  And her “ZINGS!” were awesome.  Another great story, only making me more and more eager to read more in the series.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
There are three things you need to know about Sandra Fielding: 1) She makes all her first dates cry, 2) She hasn’t been kissed in over two years, and 3) She knows how to knit.

Sandra
has difficulty removing her psychotherapist hat. Of her last 30 dates,
29 have ended the same way: the man sobbing uncontrollably. After one
such disaster, Sandra–near desperation and maybe a little tipsy–gives
in to a seemingly harmless encounter with her hot waiter, Alex.
Argumentative, secretive, and hostile Alex may be the opposite of
everything Sandra knows is right for her. But now, the girl who has
spent all her life helping others change for the better, must find a way
to cope with falling for someone who refuses to change at all.    

Heidi’s Guide to Four Letter Words by Tara Sivec and Andi Arndt:

Release Date: September 3rd, 2019
Source:  Borrowed from Audible.com as part of Audible Escapes program
My rating:  5 stars     

You guys, this book is one of the FUNNIEST books I have ever listened to!  I mean I was laughing so hard as I was driving sometimes that I’m sure people in the cars around me thought I was crazy or having a fit.  So much about this that I connected to, like her feelings about teaching at the end of her time, her love of Lularoe dresses, I just can’t even.  But honestly there were so many funny things, Dirty Talking Malibu Barbie, why he was reading the word “pump”, the thing she hears him saying in his house and what she does with the pizza that the delivery kid has, her dirty alphabet, her boobs being sad, reading the book for instructions, so so funny.  Her parents trying the things in the books, her tying him up, oh my gosh.  I think she was a bit crazy to be so mad at him, but again, drama, to go with the comedy in this one.  Loved it so much.  I’ll probably have to buy a physical copy of this one at some point.  Great story.  Also loved narrator Andi Arndt’s Minnesotan accent.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
Cowritten by USA Today
best-selling author Tara Sivec and award-winning narrator Andi Arndt, a
hysterically funny, heartfelt romance about starting over and taking
chances.

Nothing good ever comes from drinking a box of wine
alone. So when I decided to entertain my drunken self by setting up some
hand-me-down podcasting equipment and reading the steamy parts from
romance novels, I never thought anyone would actually listen. The fact
that I admitted my huge crush on my sexy next door neighbor made the
whole thing even more mortifying. But sometimes life surprises you, and
that’s how my podcast, Heidi’s Discount Erotica, was born.

Now I,
Heidi Larsen, a sweet former kindergarten teacher in Waconia,
Minnesota, lead a scandalous double life reading erotic novels to the
listening world. And with each episode, I find myself embracing my new
alter ego more and more. Now I’m starting to feel more comfortable in my
own skin and do things I never would have dreamed of – like kissing my
neighbor.

Look out, Waconia, because Heidi’s on the loose! She’s
in your ears, in your hearts, and down your pants…wait, that didn’t
sound as good as it did in my head. Well, you get the picture, don’tcha
know!