About That Fling by Tawna Fenske

Narrated by Kelly Mizell

I’ve had mixed results with some of Tawna Fenske’s earlier books (ebook, not audio) but About That Fling looked fun so I decided to give it a go. It wasn’t as funny as I expected – my impression of Ms. Fenske was that she writes romantic comedy but I think now that might not be right. While there is some oddball humour in this book, for the most part it is kind of serious.

Jenna McArthur is the PR face of Belmont Health System in Portland, Oregon. The company is going through a fraught industrial dispute with its employees over wages and conditions and, in the not too distant past, was involved in a scandal where the (then) CEO’s wife was running a brothel. As another character describes Jenna’s job, she is paid to “cover things up” and she is, both personally and professionally, concerned about appearances (but not in a snobby way).

Adam Thomas is brought in by BHS to mediate the industrial dispute. He is a former attorney who now specialises in corporate mediation and counselling. (By the way, the scenes when Adam was teaching people how to communicate effectively were authentic and I found those parts really interesting.) Adam is also the ex-husband of Jenna’s BFF, Mia.

The BFF Mia is heavily pregnant and newly married to Mark. She and Mark moved to Portland from Chicago two years earlier, after an adulterous affair (while she was married to Adam), to make a fresh start. Jenna and Mia met in a pregnancy loss support group when Mia first arrived in Portland and became fast friends.

When Jenna first meets Adam, she has no idea who he is. They hit it off and have a wild night of passion and plan to see one another again. When Adam walks into the company conference room a few days later, Jenna is gobsmacked. Professionally she is in a conflict because the company has a “no fraternisation” policy for those who work closely together and personally she is in a conflict because Adam is her best friend’s ex!

To top it all off, Jenna’s beloved Aunt Gertie writes popular erotica under a pen name and they both pretend the other doesn’t know – mainly because of Jenna’s fear of scandal for BHS and the potential for career fallout for her personally.

Adam and Mia split up partly because Adam was a workaholic but after the divorce, he reassessed his life and decided he didn’t want to be that guy anymore. He made changes, including getting his qualification in counselling. But whatever went wrong for Mia, Adam is catnip to Jenna. They get along great, make each other laugh and have wonderful chemistry. Despite knowing it could all blow up in her face, Jenna can’t resist Adam and they find themselves coming back to one another again and again.

I was seriously wondering how the author was going to pull off a HEA for Jenna and Adam without ruining Jenna’s friendship with Mia too. I thought the resolution was a bit fast and mostly it was down to another character’s actions, not really Jenna’s or Adam’s. I was a little disappointed in how it all panned out, even though I could not be disappointed with the result. In the end, the resolution was a little too perfect and much too fast.

The narrator, Kelly Mizell, is new to me. There were aspects of her performance which were great and others which were not so great. Throughout the listen however, there was a nagging sense of something not quite right but I struggled to put my finger on it. The best I can describe it is that sometimes she sounded very staccato and those sections of dialogue sounded stilted and unreal. It most commonly happened when Jenna was talking (though it wasn’t all the time) and, because Jenna is the main character, the one I was supposed to cheer for, it made me a little disconnected from her at times.

On the other hand, her portrayal of Aunt Gertie was very good and she really sounded like an old woman.

Mia was distinctly different from Jenna, as were the other female characters. Male character voices were not quite as well done though. Adam’s voice was okay. It wasn’t very deep but there were clear vocal cues so I didn’t mix him up with Jenna. Mark and Adam sounded very similar however. (Thankfully, they didn’t share space in the book very often.)

About That Fling is a contemporary romance with moments of gravitas and moments of absurdity. It wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever listened to but it was entertaining and I liked Adam and Jenna enough to want them to get their HEA.

Kaetrin

Narration: B-

Book Content: B-

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in, at the hot end

Violence Rating: Minimal

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

About That Fling was provided to AudioGals by Brilliance Audio for a review.