Narrated by Tavia Gilbert
The Law of Attraction is a fun, sexy rom-com about a public defender (Yale grad, age 25) falling for an assistant district attorney (Harvard grad, age 26). Boy meets girl, hijinks and love ensue. It is told in first person POV by Gabrielle Ginsberg, the PD, who has been crushing on Braden Pierce, the ADA, for a few months. They get together through a pretty funny “negotiation” at a bar with their work buddies – she wants more than a one nighter with a meal plan (one of the characters notes “I’m stealing that line, by the way”). They negotiate four dates, including game night with his buddies and a fundraiser for his parents’ foundation.
The conflict comes when Gabby starts getting anonymous letters threatening the relationship and in a turn worthy of Lucy and Ethel, as well as Nancy Drew, she decides to investigate them herself rather than accuse any of Braden’s acquaintances. Sure, it seemed like a good idea to crash an illegal, underground sex party to get a handwriting sample from a state senator.
There are also several quirky court cases, where Gabby and Braden sit on opposite sides of the courtroom, that keep the level of laughter high. And when Braden fulfills Mr. Ginsberg’s wish for a guard dog for Gabby, keeping in mind the apartment building’s rule that all pets must be under twenty pounds, well, the result was totally expected and hysterical anyway!
Yeah, the one star nay-sayers at Amazon should get their humor bones checked by a doctor! I laughed all the way through the first read, in eBook, a few months back. When I got a chance to review the audio, I jumped at it.
Actually, I was listening to a different contemporary romance, narrated by a new-to-me narrator that seemed sort of ok, and I just could not put my finger on why her narration wasn’t really working for me. The notification that The Law of Attraction review copy was available came after I was about one hour into this other (to-remain-unnamed) book, and I switched. Wow – what a difference a really talented and experienced narrator makes! Tavia jumped right into Gabrielle’s story, complete with fully-formed, funny characters and an easy-to-listen-to narrative mode that had me laughing all over again. She wasn’t just reading the story with some inflection thrown in, like Unnamed Narrator – she was giving life and breath to the story. She had a believable lower register for the male characters, all of whom were easily identifiable by sound. Gabrielle’s roommate Jess also had a very different voice from Gabrielle; all of Gabrielle’s New York relatives had just the right touch of regional accents to be believable but not cartoony. (Ok, well, not any MORE cartoony than Silber wrote them, anyway!) Her pacing was completely natural – this is what an audiobook is supposed to sound like!
One objection: Gilbert’s reading of love scenes. OK – acting, right? But I don’t actually want to hear the narrator perform That Scene from When Harry Met Sally, if you know what I mean*. I felt like I was an audio voyeur – it crossed the line for me. And I must say, Silber writes some very, very hot love scenes (which are also pretty amusing at times) – I just don’t want to hear the narrator panting and gasping as if experiencing them in real time.
This is a fun, light, hot read, that has a full HEA ending, however there is a Book 2, also featuring Gabrielle and Braden, plus a couple of novellas and a few more full-length novels featuring other characters in the series. I’d love to hear them all!
(*What, you’re too young to remember Sally performing a public orgasm in the diner, to prove to Harry she could fake it?)
A short riff on “grade inflation” – I struggled with a letter grade for Book Content. In my personal review of the eBook, I gave it five stars because I enjoyed it so much. But if I had to compare it to, say, Laura Kinsale’s The Prince of Midnight, well – it doesn’t really compare. Is the writing as good? The plotting? I can’t really make that comparison because the books are so different. So, when it comes right down to it, I ask myself – on a scale of 1-5, how much enjoyment did I get from reading it? It’s not a perfect system…
Melinda
Narration: A-
Book Content: A
Steam Factor: For your burning ears only
Violence: None
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Post Hypnotic Press Inc
The Law of Attraction: Lawyers in Love, Book 1 was provided to AudioGalsl by Post Hypnotic Press for review.
Thank you for the review, Melinda. This book wasn’t on my radar before, but I might give it a try. I’m glad someone else thinks the same way I do about Tavia Gilbert’s performing of the love scenes in books these days. I wish she would go back to the way she read them in the earlier Jeaniene Frost books. The last couple of Vlad and Leila books have had scenes like that, and I’ve been fast forwarding through them. Otherwise, her narration can’t be beat.
You know, I went back to listen to be sure – in this book, the characters talked a lot during the love scenes, and maybe if it was just during the dialog, it might make (some) sense to act out an orgasm, but no – she also does the panting and gasping during the narrative part. [squick] and otherwise her narration was EXCELLENT!