Narrated by Lucy Malone
Layne is one of a handful of relatively new authors of contemporary romance who have really caught my fancy. She writes families/small community in a big city type of romance, where the protagonists have siblings and friends who are next (or previously) in line for HEAs in the series. Her style isn’t humorous like SEP or Kristan Higgins, and also not the opposite – angsty New Adult style either. They are fun, intelligent, true-to-life type stories of two people navigating their ways through life, and their journey to love. In other words, Irresistibly Yours, book 1 of the Oxford series, is one of my favorite kind of stories.
Cole Sharpe is a freelance sports writer for a popular men’s magazine (Oxford) in NYC, a magazine that shares office space with a woman’s style magazine, so there are lots of men and women around that he knows (and that populate some of Layne’s other series) and buddies around with. His best friend is also the boss, so when he tells Cole there’s an opening for the editor of a new sports section at the magazine, Cole figures he’s a shoo-in. Except that he’s not – there’s another candidate, a sports writer from Chicago named Penelope Pope. Penelope is escaping from her old life, one where a colleague she thought of as a boyfriend has just stolen a job from her and revealed he has a fiancée. She’s determined to make a new start in NYC, and does her best to show the Oxford crowd she’s the best man for the job. She’s tough, she’s knowledgeable – constantly impressing the guys around her with her sports trivia – and resolved to get the editor position.
In spite of being rivals for the position, Cole is – well, of course – attracted to Penelope, although she makes it clear up front they are in the Friend Zone because she doesn’t do relationships, especially with drop-dead-gorgeous men who obviously want a someone other than “one of the guys” she considers herself. So, friends it is – and this is what makes this story fun, because they build a real relationship alongside the competition for the job. Even when they move to the Benefits side of Friends with Benefits, Penelope makes it clear that it doesn’t go any farther. Really. No, really.
Of course, there are some minor misunderstandings, the kind we have in real life communications, and some secrets being kept, all of which provide the internal and external conflicts in the story. It’s not rocket science (thank goodness!) – it’s romance!
I liked Lucy Malone’s interpretation of the story. She’s a seasoned narrator with over 100 titles at Audible under this pseudonym (Tantor Audio says she is “one of the most sought-after voices for erotica narration”*). Her voice is pitched age appropriate for the characters, and her pacing is good and natural. She differentiates the characters well enough, although she doesn’t use a lower pitch for men than her own narration (maybe a titch lower). Mostly she infuses her male voice with a slight gruffness, and she delivers the women’s voices a little higher, so there is some small gap between them, making it easy to tell who is speaking. Her love scenes are also good, another couple dozen points for her, no excess emotion that sounds like she’s maybe too involved. All in all, I recommend this as a great combination of author/narrator for those of us who like contemporary romance.
*This book is not erotica in my opinion, although it’s on the hotter side of the contemporary romance spectrum. Here’s a great interview with Arika Rapson/Lucy Malone where she talks about the craft of narrating erotica/romance.
Melinda
Narration: B
Book Content: B
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence Rating: None
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Irresistibly Yours was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for a review.
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