I’m In No Mood For Love by Rachel Gibson

Narrated by Kathleen Early

I’m In No Mood For Love is the second in Rachel Gibson’s Writer Friends series – I read it in print when it first came out and I remember it fondly. Sometimes it’s fun to revisit older books on audio and sometimes what happened in 2006 should stay in 2006. While I didn’t exactly regret my decision to listen to this one, it had more of a chick lit than romance vibe for much of the book and for that reason, it wasn’t as enjoyable the second time around.

Clare Wingate is a historical romance author and one of the four writer friends upon which the series is based (Lucy is the mystery writer, Maddy writes true crime and Adele writes SFF). Lucy found her HEA with Quinn in Sex, Lies and Online Dating and the other writers are bridesmaids at Lucy’s wedding.

Unfortunately, on the day of the wedding, Clare discovers her live-in fiancé having sex (literally and figuratively) in the closet with the Sears repairman. Not only is Lonnie cheating on her, he’s also apparently gay (there was no mention of bisexuality – from the context it does seem he was likely gay) and everyone but Clare saw it way before it was (literally) in her face.

She puts on a brave facade at the ceremony and ties one on at the reception, ending up in the bar of the Doubletree Hotel, very, very drunk.

She wakes up the next morning, hungover, to find herself in bed wearing only a tiny pink thong. The shower is running and before she can make her escape, Sebastian Vaughn appears wearing only a towel.

Clare comes from wealth and her mother’s gardener/handyman is Sebastian’s father. Sebastian’s parents were divorced and he spent some summers staying with his dad as a child. A year older than Clare, he got her into trouble often by drawing out her wild side.

Clare is usually buttoned up tight and only occasionally lets go. It’s clear early on that Sebastian enjoys the less restricted Clare and actively provokes her any way he can to get her to loosen up.

There is attraction and chemistry between them but it takes a while before a) the truth of what happened in that hotel room the night of Lucy’s wedding is fully revealed and b) they get together. Partly this is a good thing because Clare did love Lonnie and she wasn’t anywhere near ready to bounce into a new relationship the day after she caught him cheating. The first half to two thirds of the book are about Clare’s journey of self-discovery and healing, with the occasional meeting with Sebastian thrown in to indicate the fire is still smouldering.

From a romance point of view, it takes a bit too long to get to the good stuff. And, when it does, it’s pretty much conflict free apart from the fact that they agree it’s a “friends with benefits” relationship (albeit exclusive), Sebastian doesn’t do relationships and commitment, and Clare falls in love. The ending practically writes itself for those who know the genre.

I enjoyed Kathleen Early’s narration in The Trouble With Valentine’s Day and I did again here. One of my fellow AudioGals reviewers is not a fan of Ms. Early. She notices odd pauses which throw her out of the story and drive her up the wall. But I actually don’t. I tried to pay attention for it in this listen but, for the most part, I found her pauses appropriate and not at all irritating. Which just goes to show one listener’s gem is another’s wallbanger (and not in the fun way).

I like the way Ms. Early voices her male characters. I was impressed with the way she depicted Leo, Sebastian’s dad, who is 65. At one point Leo had a cold and she even managed to make him sound stuffed up, nasal and hoarse.

I also liked the way Ms. Early brought the emotion to the story. When the text called for her to laugh, she did it the way I like – while speaking the dialogue. I get irritated by [dialogue] + “heh heh”. I vastly prefer a burble of laughter through the speech to convey that feeling. But there was not just laughter; there was also anger, choking tears and frustrated annoyance – all where it was supposed to be.

It’s likely that if the content had engaged me better I’d rate the narration higher but while good, Ms. Early’s performance is not quite good enough to elevate the text beyond its limitations.

I hadn’t remembered Sebastian being such a jerk at the start of the book. I liked him better by the end but I think my reading sensibilities have changed since 2006. There was also some gay stereotyping ‘humour’ at Lonnie’s expense which made me occasionally uncomfortable and which I think dates the text a little.

Once the romance actually got started, I liked the story well enough but it took a little too much time to get going for me.

Kaetrin

Narration: B/B+

Book Content: C+

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: None

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Blackstone Audio

I'm in No Mood for Love was provided to AudioGals by Blackstone Audio for a review.