The Empire State Series: A Week in New York, Autumn in New York, Summer in Manhattan by Louise Bay

Narrated by Saskia Maarleveld and Sebastian York

Having recently listened to Louise Bay’s King of Wall Street, which I picked up on the strength of Melinda’s review, I was keen on trying more of the author’s work. The Empire State Series caught my eye because of the narrator pairing; I’ve listened to and enjoyed Saskia Maarleveld in a few historical romances, but I’ve never listened to her in a contemporary; and Sebastian York… yeah, well, he could probably make the phone book sound sexy, so I was sold.

A Week in New York opens with Londoners Anna and Leah, at a bar in New York on a night out. Anna has recently come out of a bad relationship and Leah has travelled with her fiancé on a business trip and both are determined on a week of hanging out, retail therapy and soaking up some culture. Anna is approached by an unutterably gorgeous man who makes his interest in spending the night with her very clear – and Anna thinks “why not?” – and decides to go for it. One night stands aren’t her normal style, but the guy is hotter than hell and, she’s sure, knows his way around a woman’s body. She insists on a few rules though; no real names (which he refuses to go with – after all, he doesn’t want the woman he’s in bed with screaming any other name than his own!), no personal details, no exchanging numbers or email addresses; just one night of steamy sex. Other than the names thing, the guy – Ethan – is perfectly happy with all of those things, although he scoffs at Anna’s choice of name – Florence – and insists on giving her a better one, deciding upon – Anna. She can’t deny that’s a bit weird – that he should somehow have hit upon her real name, but doesn’t dwell on it. There are better things to do, after all.

The sex is every bit as hot and satisfying as Anna had hoped, but while she wakes alone the next morning, it’s clear that Ethan hasn’t left, as his clothes from the previous night are still there. Still, it’s for the best – this way, there’s no awkward morning after chat – and she leaves, heading back to Leah’s place to change and get ready for their lunch date.

When Ethan returns from his early morning run, he’s oddly disappointed to find Anna gone. He doesn’t do complicated – he has sex, but not relationships – but something about Anna’s uninhibited, genuine response to him the night before makes him want more. She’s in New York for only a week and will then be going back to London, so where would be the harm in spending some more time with her before she puts an ocean and 3,000 miles between them? He tracks her down to the restaurant she’s booked for lunch with Leah, and things progress from there, with the pair of them spending most of the week together, usually ending up in his hotel suite screwing each other senseless.

The night before Anna flies home, she insists on deleting their text messages and phone numbers – from his phone as well as hers – as that was their initial agreement; a week of fun and mind-blowing sex and then goodbye.

Yet it’s clear that both of them have changed since that first hook-up, Ethan especially. They both remind themselves and each other that ‘this’ is just sex, and their mantra is “no bullshit” – so they’re pretty honest with each other – yet before the week is out, they each admit to themselves that there’s something more going on than just sex. But their time is up, and Anna leaves as planned.

Over the course of the next two stories, Ethan and Anna find each other again and decide that they want to spend more time together. They adhere to their no bullshit rule, and the fact that they talk and are (mostly) honest and open with each other is extremely refreshing, even though there’s the sense that Anna is still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Her track record with men has not been stellar – she describes herself as a “shit magnet” – so she’s almost always holding something back from Ethan emotionally, even though physically she’s completely open to him. Ethan senses this, but isn’t sure what to do about it – after all, he’s never had an actual relationship, so he’s new to this boyfriend thing (although of course, he’s awesome at it!). Anna’s reluctance to let go of that last bit of her insecurity and allow herself to commit to Ethan as wholeheartedly as he is willing to commit to her did get annoying and I admit I wanted to smack her; but at least she is self-aware enough to know what she’s doing, recognise she’s being irrational and want to do something about it. The real emotional meat of the trilogy is in Autumn in London, as this is where the relationship develops into something more than just sex, and in the final novella, Ethan and Anna are an established couple wondering how they can sustain a relationship when their lives are on separate continents.

The story is well written, the central characters are easy to like (Ethan is just dreamy), the dialogue is great and the sex scenes are steamy and plentiful. But there’s a problem right there, because while I’m as big a fan of a well-written, well-performed sex scene as the next woman, each story very quickly turns into a seemingly endless succession of Anna and Ethan going at it like bunnies, and I actually found myself wanting to fast-forward through All The Shagging so I could get on with the plot. Which is actually fairly thin now I come to think about it, and would probably have been sufficient to produce one short novel/long novella had some of the sex scenes been removed – plus there might have been space for a less abrupt ending.

But this is one of those times when the audiobook is saved by the narrators, although fans of Sebastian York – and I include myself in their number – may be surprised when I say that he is outgunned by the smallest gnat’s whisker by Saskia Maarleveld, whose American accent is flawless (to my ears) and whose interpretation of Ethan is every bit as sexy as her co-narrator’s. The natural huskiness in her tone really works here, as she gives Ethan this lovely, gravelly growl that almost makes you forget you’re listening to a woman. The other aspects of her performance are just as strong; her pacing, differentiation, characterisation and variety of expression are all spot on.

Where she really scores, though, is in her voicing of the British characters, because although Mr. York is fantastic at bringing to life these rich, hot, alpha males and while he is undoubtedly able to bring the sexy like few other narrators can, accents clearly aren’t his thing. It’s probably for the best that he doesn’t have a great deal of dialogue as Anna, because although he pitches the female voices right – no falsetto, just a slight raise in pitch and softening of tone – his British accent is… not good. But with that said, it’s only a small part of his narrative overall, and for the bulk of it, he delivers the sort of accomplished, emotionally nuanced performance we’ve come to expect from him.

If you’re looking for a sexy (with lots of bedroom scenes) contemporary romance that is relatively angst-free, then The Empire State Series might be just the ticket. The audio is clearly divided up into three sections, so it’s easy to break up the listen if you want to and both narrators are excellent.

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Caz


AUDIOBOOK INFORMATION

TITLE: The Empire State Series: A Week in New York, Autumn in New York, Summer in Manhattan

AUTHOR: Louise Bay

NARRATED BY: Saskia Maarleveld and Sebastian York

GENRE: Contemporary Romance

STEAM FACTOR: Glad I had my earbuds in

REVIEWER: Caz [button type=’link’ link=’http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MY2F93S/?tag=audiogalsnet-20′ size=’btn-lg’ variation=’btn-default’ target=’blank’]Buy The Empire State Series: A Week in New York, Autumn in New York, Summer in Manhattan by Louise Bay on Amazon[/button]