Wallbanger by Alice Clayton

Narrated by Heather Smith

Wallbanger is a mix of chick lit and contemporary romance/romantic comedy. Like chick lit, the story is told in first person, from the point of view of a young, single, career-oriented woman. Like romance, the main story of the book is the relationship between Caroline, an interior designer in San Francisco, and her neighbor Simon, the Wallbanger, ending with an optimistic future for their relationship.

Simon and Caroline share a rather thin wall between their apartments, in both bedrooms as it turns out. And Simon apparently has a string of friends with benefits whose bed sport is clearly amplified into Caroline’s sleep time during the first week after she moves in. It turns out she is sub-letting from her boss who not coincidentally has wanted to set her up with Simon – but the boss didn’t know about his “harem”.

Besides having a loud neighbor, Caroline has another problem that is causing her to take a hiatus from dating: A string of bad dates, ending with an unfortunate sex experience, has robbed her of orgasms. And while she is attracted to Simon, she also doesn’t want to be just another woman on his list of meaningless hookups.

When her BFFs get involved with his buddies, Simon and Caroline are thrown together in social settings. They declare a truce over the bad feelings generated by his late night wall-banging sex, and begin to develop a real friendship. The story then becomes a friends-to-lovers plot.

It’s light and funny with a touch of emotion, and it’s a great summer/beach read. The narrator has a good chick lit type of delivery for this book, sounding age-appropriate and very in-the-moment. She differentiates all the characters well, using differing tones and accents. She gives Simon a sort of growl with a little gravel on her voice rather than trying to lower it to a male pitch, which works. I didn’t find any other books narrated by her at Audible or in Google, however, which actually makes me wonder if this is a pseudonym! (that makes me then wonder if she used a pseudonym because it was chick lit… I know, I’m projecting, but she’s good so why doesn’t she have more books?)

and PS: what about that weird cover?

Melinda

Narration: B+

Book Content: B+

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: none

Genre: Contemporary Romance – chick lit/romantic comedy

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio