I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
You Spin Me by Karen GreySeries: Boston Classics #3
Narrator: Vanessa Edwin, Eric Michael Summerer
Published by Home Cooked Books on July 30, 2021
Genres: Adult Contemporary Romance
Source: the author
Format: Audiobook
My Rating:
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Synopsis:
Some scars go further than skin deep…
1988 doesn’t end well for Jessica Abraham. In just one week she turns thirty, loses her day job, and loses the role of Ophelia to a younger actress. Rallying, she goes after a part at a theater outside of the city, but the director’s plan to hide her beauty behind hair, makeup and wardrobe from Cosmo’s “Don’t” column shakes her confidence to the core.
For the first time in her acting career, she won’t be able to rely on her carefully managed physical charms. Only her craft will count.
On a snowy night early in January 1989, a woman calls into DJ Callihan Alonso’s alt-rock radio show at the end of her commute. He asks her to call back the next night, and the next, just so he’ll know she’s home safe. There’s something about her voice that has him wanting more, but the longer they talk, the closer she gets. Compromising each and every wall he’s built around his heart.
If two lonely people fall in love over late-night phone calls, will meeting face-to-face make them, or break them?
In this heartfelt, slow burn retro romcom, it may be the end of a decade, but it’s the beginning of a love story.
My Review:
Honestly, I adored this book. You probably saw my narrator reveal earlier this month, and I can tell you how much I loved the male narrator’s voice for sure! I think if you just read the e-book or paperback though, you probably are missing out on how much fun the beginning of each chapter was with the little radio spot intros to get them started. But besides the awesomeness of the audiobook, the story itself was just so wonderfully written. The characters were so compelling. I fell in love with both of them right away. Cal’s story that starts us out, wow, just wow. And then Jess was such a sweetheart, so much about her so realistic.
The interaction between them started with the phone call, and their chemistry was off the wall. I loved how Cal told her she had to call him when she was driving so late so that he would know she had made it home safe. What’s so fun is that because this takes place in 1988, there weren’t really cell phones for people to call into the radio station while they were driving. So all of the phone conversations had to take place after they’d reached home or work or wherever. It was fun to think about that time.
When the two of them actually met face to face, that was an emotional moment. But the author wrote it so perfectly. Jess didn’t come off as too over the top accepting of Cal’s burns and scars, however her reaction and thoughts were perfect. There was one line I really loved, and I think I’m quoting it correctly, listening to the audiobook means I don’t have it in front of me to copy, but it was “My words write a laugh.” So descriptive, I love it!
The personal dilemmas each of them faced were enough but then putting them together to overcome those really made for a lot of things going on. But in a good way, it all made for such a perfectly well rounded story.
My only teeny tiny problem, well it has to do with what Jess’s big dramatic obstacle at the end is. I can’t say much without giving it away, I just feel like while we had little things sprinkled in from other characters mentioning to her things they were noticing, there didn’t seem to be much on her side of her not doing things that caused the big problem. But I wonder if that really is a better way to write it. If the person who is in denial of something like that wouldn’t be mentioning anything about it in their thoughts as they went about their day to day business. So that could have been a good or bad thing.
In the end I just have to say this was really a great story, and I definitely recommend the audiobook if you are someone who likes to listen to books. I think it probably way outdoes the others just because of the radio station aspect.
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I find that audiobooks really do help me get a lot more out of books, with the characterizations and voices. The opening radio-style spots for each chapter here sound fun!
Sometimes they do. I think it just depends. Thanks for visiting!