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October Round Up

Monthly Mini Review

Illustrated/cartoon style cover of a pair of historical/Regency young men leaning in for an embrace. One man is leaning back against a desk and has a watch behind his back.A Thief in the Night by KJ Charles – B+ At just under 3 hours of listening time, this little delight was easy to squeeze into my listening schedule. Those of us who’ve read or listened to The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting may remember that siblings Marianne and Robin were missing a brother – Toby. He’d left home suddenly some years before after a falling out with their father and, while they understood why he’d left, they missed him and wondered what happened to him.  We listeners need wonder no more as here he is.

Toby isn’t so much a thief as someone who steals things when “needs must”.  He’s happy to work for a living but it’s not always easy to find work and there have been times where he’s stolen or sold himself to survive. While his preference would be not to do either of those things I got the sense that he doesn’t let what he has to do sometimes get him down too much. As the novella begins, Toby meets a handsome aristocratic man in a tavern. They have an enjoyable encounter in the dark and Toby has real regret when he later steals Miles’ watch and pocketbook – but, needs must.

Miles has just returned from the war and is on his way home. He had been estranged from his own father and had hoped they could reconcile but he’s found out he’s a week too late – his father suddenly passed away. When Miles, now the Earl of Arvon, does make it home, he finds a house in terrible disarray. The land has been sold off, there’s only one horse and the house is full of junk – his father was a hoarder of sorts.

April Round Up

Monthly Mini Review

illustrated cover of a white couple on a bus, he's napping and manspreading and she's kind of embarrassed but smilingSeatmate by Cara Bastone, narrated by Amanda Ronconi, Zachary Webber, Josh Hurley, Carol Monda, Corey Allen, Allyson Johnson, Eric Yves Garcia, Dina Pearlman & Tanya Eby – C I enjoyed the first two audio novellas in the Love Lines series – Call Me Maybe  and Sweet Talk – so I was keen to listen to book 3, Seatmate. Unfortunately I didn’t find it as charming or engaging as the earlier two novellas which both were about the B+ range for me. Seatmate is a different story altogether. Rather than most of the relationship being on the phone as is the case with the earlier two books, this time, most of the plot takes place over about 5-ish hours during a journey between Boston and New York – first by bus and then by other means of transport. This time there is also a full cast rather than just the dual narration of the first two novellas. Seatmate was an almost real-time novella, whereas the other books take place over a greater period. For me, this meant that the boring bits were skipped in the first two books but not so much in the third one.

February Round Up

Monthly Mini Review

red ribbon with the end in a loveheart shape and a black and white photo of the head and upper torso of a handsome white man with fair hair and a neatly trimmed beardWrapped Up In You by Ella Frank & Brooke Blaine, narrated by Wesley Paul – B I picked up this little novella (it only goes for 1 hour 17 minutes) in the Audible Plus catalogue when I searched to see what else Wesley Paul had narrated. He’s narrating a Kristen Ashley book I had my eye on and I wanted to try a sample before one-clicking. It’s a Valentine’s Day short featuring a gay couple who have been together for about 3 years. One half of the couple is Vaughan, an ER doctor and has also spent time overseas with Doctors Without Borders so he’s often away or working during holidays. But this time, to Carter’s delight, Vaughan has something special planned.

The story takes the listener over the course of the day and includes a few flashbacks to how they met, their first date, etc and leads up to a big romance (which I’m sure folks can probably guess but I won’t give it away here even so). It’s soft and fluffy, has no conflict at all and in that way is a perfect little bite if one is in the mood for those things (I was).

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