King of Wall Street by Louise Bay

king-of-wall-streetNarrated by Andi Arndt and Sebastian York

Louise Bay is new to me, but not new to Romance – she has several full length, self-pubbed novels, starting in 2014. Her story style is similar to Lauren Blakely, Emma Chase, Sawyer Bennett – young urban professional protagonists, not really angsty (so in my book, not New Adult) and not 100% romantic comedy, but realistic contemporary romance. The heroes in this sub-genre are often very rich, or well on their way to be, and cocky about their business and sexual prowess, and the heroines are there to trip them up in both – but this one has a slightly different feel. The author might be new to me because she’s only released 2 audiobooks so far – the other is Indigo Nights, with the same narration team, and it’s downloading to my iPhone as I write.

Max King is the King of Wall Street, operating the company that the “heaviest hitters” consult to make money in the stock market. He runs this prestigious company by day, and by night he’s a single dad to a teen girl who breaks down all his daytime/work-related confidence, as he can do no wrong on Wall Street but nothing right in her eyes! A junior researcher/employee, Harper Jayne, has caught his eye but he doesn’t mix business with pleasure, so he goes out of his way to either avoid her or just treat her rudely. He doesn’t date, and he doesn’t even get much action now that he’s the custodial parent while his daughter’s mother is overseas for a few years.

Harper Jayne had one goal all through business school: work for King’s company, because she knew she had the talent and the brains and this job was highly coveted. She also doesn’t mix business with personal life – she doesn’t want anything to do with her own father who also operates a business on Wall Street. Of course, her reasons are pretty deep seated, more even than she realizes, in her need for his approval and also to prove to herself that she is worthy. She thinks King is a jerk and questions daily what she was thinking to go to work for him – but she just keeps her eyes on the prize of getting the experience she needs to move up the Wall Street corporate ladder.

Once Max realizes Harper is related to Charles Jayne, founder of an investment bank he has wanted as a client more than anything, he’s conflicted because at this point he’s already staked his claim on Harper and started bending the rules about mixing work and play. And when Harper realizes she’s being played – well, game on.

Harper and Max both have some very human, very realistic baggage to deal with and – not coincidentally – they are looking at life from 2 opposite sides of the same coin. Harper’s dad never married her mom, and as she grew up, he disappointed her over and over while fathering and raising Harper’s half-brothers, all of whom now work for him. She sees Max through those lenses, as if he is just the sperm donor who never committed to the mother of his child. However, Max and Pandora never wanted to marry, even though they remain friendly while sharing custody. Max has to juggle his feelings for a woman whose paycheck he signs and the daughter he fathered and must oversee the rapid climb from toddler to 14-going-on-25 – and his daughter is the most important person in his life, bar none. In importance, it seems, Harper might never rise higher than third place behind the daughter and Max’s business.

Andi Arndt and Sebastian York are truly a narrator dream team of the season – they have partnered on several contemporary romances told in first person from both protagonists point of view, and I’d say they are the best of the lot for this sub-genre. Each brings just the right chemistry – just the right amount of acting and performance to suck you deep into the psyches of the characters, without any overacting. While I wouldn’t say that York develops a totally different sounding character for every hero he reads (yeah, they do all sorta sound the same), it doesn’t really matter, because his delivery is perfect, of both the human, emotional part and the humor and comedy (in this book, it’s the play between his sisters and his daughter that had me laughing). He very easily slips into female voices with no hint of falsetto, and his men are all well differentiated as well. Arndt is also wonderful at being the voice of these 20-something heroines and then delivering the heroes and secondary characters, with a credible lowering of her voice for the men. No, you aren’t going to think she’s male but you know which character she is reading from the range and timbre she uses. Their pacing is excellent, and the characters that they each read are very recognizable from both narrators.

I genuinely enjoyed this story as well as the narration, and maybe even more so because Max wasn’t a reissue of the overly endowed, cocky hero of similar books. He was very human, and flawed, and aware of his downfalls, his inability to be everything to everyone. Harper too wasn’t cookie-cutter; she had issues that she kept hidden even from herself, but she was determined to be as driven in her career as any man in King’s company, even when she was discouraged by Max’s constant criticism. It was a terrific balance of light-hearted and emotional, without going into severe angst. I liked it!

[section label=’Audiobook Information’ anchor=’Audiobook Information’]

Melinda


AUDIOBOOK INFORMATION

TITLE: King of Wall Street

AUTHOR: Louise Bay

NARRATED BY: Andi Arndt and Sebastian York

GENRE: Contemporary Romance

STEAM FACTOR: Glad I had my earbuds in

REVIEWER: Melinda [button type=’link’ link=’http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LXLNF39/?tag=audiogalsnet-20′ size=’btn-lg’ variation=’btn-default’ target=’blank’]Buy King of Wall Street by Louise Bay on Amazon[/button]