Ashley

A masterful bland of eroticism and romance

Reviewed: 11-28-21

Ms. O’Brien has written a captivating story that dances along the delicate lines of female emotions and sexuality. She has a deft hand and her words have done justice to what this delicate dance can become between two beautiful damaged souls.

TSTND is a slow burn romance that builds and builds amidst pages of sex.
Every. Single. Sex. Scene. carries the plot forward and the emotions tangled within those scenes are expertly described. Couple that with the variety of sex positions and acts …I was never bored.

I absolutely loved the femme/femme dynamic.
O’Brien usually writes butch/femme, so I was happy that she chose to showcase a femme/femme relationship. The characters were deep, unique, and felt realistic.

Narration was Brittni P.’s best yet. She really captured the emotion of the scenes.

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1 person found this helpful

Wonderful read

Reviewed: 09-26-21

Love a good enemies to lovers, slow burn, sexy romance. This is it. I didn’t think Trina was too much… she warms up, eventually.

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Would not recommend

Reviewed: 09-19-21

I think it’s important to review books that you don’t like. This book was a first for me from this author. I really liked the premise of the story - age gap/ taboo relationship etc. And the cover is beautiful. But, I would not recommend this book. I had a very hard time getting through it. My main problem with it was that the author was repetitive, and did so much telling of how she wanted the characters to come across. It felt like she was telling the reader about an idea for a book, rather than writing a fully fleshed out version. I was not invested in the relationship and didn’t feel any tension building up between them. It was just so much of the characters saying the same thing in a similar way. I would have liked to have heard about their interactions and actions more as a vehicle to the story. In a way, it’s like the author doesn’t trust the reader to grasp the concepts she is trying to portray so she spells them out repeatedly,

Narration was good.

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3 people found this helpful

Good story great narration

Reviewed: 09-17-21

This was my first read from Harper Bliss and I chose this specifically because it was low/no angst. I don’t regret the purchase.. but I wasn’t blown away by the story either. It was predictable and cute. Dialogue heavy too. Bordered on preachy regarding the coming out process.

I also wasn’t fully sold on the romance between the two women. Fay’s emotions/thoughts about Ida didn’t exactly seem realistic to me. Her thoughts, at times, felt like a narration of how the author *wanted* you as a reader to see Ida. At the end, I didn’t feel like I truly got to walk with Fay in her journey to her decision - how she got there.

Overall, it was a good book that I don’t regret purchasing. I’d buy another book from this author. Abby Craden did a fabulous job narrating.

Also, just a note for those looking.. some people say this author is steamy. I can only speak for this book, but I didn’t find it very steamy. It had a two good scenes, but… I personally would not say it was particularly explicit… probably middle of the road. Definitely not FTB though,

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5 people found this helpful

Wonderful and enjoyable

Reviewed: 08-22-21

I did not read the first two books in the series. The subject matter was too deep. TBH, I wasn’t that big of a fan of turbulence either. But this book, oh wow. I’m very impressed with the character depth, dialogue, and descriptions. EJ is a wonderful writer. This is among my top 10 books. The intimate scenes were beautifully written and moved the plot forward.

Kelsey Navarro’s voice was pleasant and matched the femininity of the characters. She was able to convey emotion and drew me into the story.

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Great story

Reviewed: 08-17-21

Beautiful fun story. Low angst but good tension. Kris Bryant’s writing is always beautiful!

I’m a fan of Britini Pope. I love her voice. But this narration was sub par for her. Audio quality was inconsistent, she lacked emotion in some really important scenes- just route reading, and she misnamed the main character and misread some words a couple times.

Would still recommend this audio because the writing is beautiful and the narrators voice is still pleasant enough. But having heard Britini previously, I know she can do better!

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Wrong narrator

Reviewed: 08-13-21

I really had trouble getting into this book because of the narrators voice. It was very nasally and sharp to me. Nothing sensual or sexy about it. I listened to the clip and though it was okay, but the MC voices are not featured heavily in the preview so I misjudged it.

I made it through the book, and the story was good. But I would not recommend this audiobook version. I would love to listen to more books by this author but it seems many of Anna Stone’s books are narrated by the same person and thus not the right style for me.

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Loved it

Reviewed: 07-06-21

I absolutely loved this book. The characters were wonderful built out and I felt like I knew them! Even the 6 year old.

Narration was very good. Brittni’s voice is beautiful reading the book. Like some reviewers said, the two main character voices weren’t super different, but once the book got going I could hear slight changes between them. Though I would have liked a little more emotion in some scenes. Regardless, context clues and the first person writing style were enough to prevent it from detracting from the story. I would 100% listen to another book by Brittni.

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The narrator

Reviewed: 06-29-21

The story was great I really liked the character development and the side characters. I loved the I knowledge gained about ballet.

The narrator ruined it for me. She sounds as if she’s trying to project her voice on the stage of an amateur Shakespearean play. I couldn’t handle listening to her. I made it through the book because the story was good. But, many times I was drawn out of it because of her voice. Her character voices didn’t sound like a real person… more like a caricature. She had the same voice for the men as she did for Victoria and making it hard for me to tell them apart. I was also frustrated with her intonation. I don’t feel like they went with the story.
On a positive note, her voice would really go well for children’s books.

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