Managed by Kristen Callihan

Narrated by Rupert Channing & Charlotte North

I was delighted to see Managed come up on my Coming Soon search and the bonus was the narration team of Rupert Channing and Charlotte North. I’ve had recent experience with Charlotte North in particular and she is my new favourite.

Managed can be read as a stand alone but I think it works better with the context of Idol, the first book in the VIP series. Kill John are a massively popular rock band with four members – Killian, Jax, Whip and Rye. Killian and Libby’s story is told in Idol. Managed (as the title suggests) features the band’s manager, Gabriel Scott.

Kill John used to be into sex, drugs and rock n’ roll, particularly the drugs part and some time ago, Jax, attempted suicide. This shattered the band and the series starts are they are trying to put themselves back together.

The action in Managed starts on a plane. Sophie Darling is heading to a job interview as a social media advisor and photographer. She doesn’t have much by way of detail because of the celebrity of her potential employer (no prizes for guessing who it is of course). Much to her surprise, she lands in first class on the flight from New York to London, where the interview will be held. If she’s successful, she will travel with her new employer within Europe as well. She’s on a big adventure and she’s excited. (I travelled in business class some years ago on an international flight. It was fantastic so I know how she feels here.)

Gabriel usually books two seats on the plane because he’s a grumpy, closed-off kind of guy who doesn’t like to fly (or show any weakness) so he’s unhappy his “spare” seat is taken.

Sophie is a sunshiney one to his grumpy one (and don’t I love this trope!) and over the course of the flight she teases and cajoles and baits him into conversation and connection. Gabriel, known to everyone except for Sophie as “Scottie”, doesn’t know quite what to make of her.

Of course, it turns out that Sophie’s interview is with Kill John’s publicist, Brenna (sister of Killian) and Sophie does end up on the band’s European tour with them. There’s a hiccup though, involving an ex-boyfriend and a former job which has an unpleasant relationship to Jax’s suicide attempt and some photographs that were taken of him then. It’s a thing that comes back as the story reaches its conclusion but in the early stages of the book, the issues it raises are fairly quickly resolved.

Gabriel is a solitary man, notwithstanding he’s been with the band from the beginning. He’s obscenely wealthy, being a wiz with finances, meticulously organised and exacting. He doesn’t let people close (he has reasons) and he’s completely unprepared for the whirlwind that is Sophie coming into his life.

I didn’t mind it as a device because it got me where I wanted to be (forced proximity for the win!) but I did need to suspend my disbelief when Sophie and Gabriel end up sharing a bed because neither of them seem to be able to sleep without the other.

Over the course of the tour, Gabriel resists taking things further with Sophie. It did get just a titch wearing. The tension between them was drawn out just a little too long for me but boy oh boy, once they let go, things get very hot and heavy in the best ways.

There is of course a dark moment where everything goes wrong. It was based on a kind-of big misunderstanding (my least favourite trope) where neither Sophie nor Gabriel were clear and direct with one another about what happened, to the point where they break up. I understood why each character acted as they did but I still find it a little frustrating when a direct conversation and a little swallowing of one’s pride would resolve things. Still, where the conflict went wasn’t exactly where I thought it was going to go and I’m grateful for that. I’m also glad that it was resolved quickly and not drawn out.

I loved the banter between the band members and the found family vibe of the story. I loved Sophie and Gabriel, both separately and together.

The narration was so good. I am so impressed with Charlotte North’s performances. I’ve started buying books almost solely on her name being listed. Gabriel is English and of course has the accent to go with it. Ms. North gives a believable and consistent British accent and has a nice depth to her tone for male characters. Each band member was slightly different; some of them had a touch of Irish (but only a little), some were more American and others were a mix of American/British – something which was consistent with the text as well. Ms. North is very easy to listen to, has great timing and emotion and helped bring Sophie to life.

Rupert Channing was very good also. He is, I believe, a native Brit. He also does a fine US accent and softens his tone well to deliver female character voices. My only real complaint about the narration was that there were times when Mr. Channing sounded a little staccato in some phrases. It was not all the time and it was always or almost always when he was speaking in an English accent (commonly when Gabriel was speaking or thinking) but it felt a little off kilter to what the text called for. There are times – when someone is speaking very deliberately for example – where this kind of cadence is just right but for the most part that’s not what I heard here. It’s not a huge deal but I did notice it. Otherwise, his narration was excellent.

Managed is a big recommend from me.

Kaetrin

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