Sweet story

This was a nice, sweet story of an out and proud interior designer meeting an in the closet soccer player. A little angst and a little family drama, but mostly sweet. If you like this author's other works, you will like this one. It only lost a star because I really never warmed up to Michael and really didn't like his uncle. Michael just didn't seem very warm or likeable to me. The story is told from Luke's POV, so maybe if I had heard Michael's POV, I would have felt differently. I loved Luke, and his best friend Brandon. They were funny, witty and wonderfully supportive of each other. I just didn't think Michael deserved Luke, even though the author had him FINALLY do the right thing in the end, it felt awkward. The narrator does a wonderful job bringing the characters to life.

4 people found this helpful

too many giggles for a not funny story.

too many giggles for a not funny story. typical comfort hurt healing and coming out.

1 person found this helpful

Absolutely dire - avoid, avoid.

I'm really surprised this book ever got published. The plot is tedious and poorly constructed - nothing much happens for the first half of the book. The sex scenes are tepid and slightly cringeworthy and the main love interest is very unappealing. The narrator does a decent job but with such a poorly written novel to begin with..... I wish I had not invested so many hours of my life to listening to this.

1 person found this helpful

Good narration, fairly good book

Luke is just out of an abusive relationship. He’s an English major who found design as an unexpected career change where he’s got the talent but needs a job. He gets a hook up for a job through a friend to renovate a house of a professional soccer player, Michael.

Michael is an injured pro who is deep in the closet. He’s got an ex who is blackmailing him for money by threatening to “out” him.

At first Michael resists the renovation, but later changes his mind after meeting Luke. They keep the relationship strictly professional at first, but the attraction can’t be denied.

Between the blackmailing, Luke’s issues, and Michaels reluctance to be an “out” professional athlete their relationship has a rocky start but the story ends on a very sweet, and romantic note.

**

I fell in love with Lane Hayes through her Better Than Series. I’ve enjoyed some of the other books in the Right and Wrong Series especially book two. I guess you could say she’s hit or miss with me. I either really resonate with her characters or I don’t at all.

Unfortunately this falls more in the latter. Though I really liked Luke (we see him in later books in the series) I didn’t care for him as much here. He was a little too harsh in his judgment of Michael. Though he gave lip service to letting him come out on his own, I felt he really pushed that decision on him without giving him time to adjust.

Michael was a nice enough guy, though nothing about his personality really stood out for me. He felt a little bland. The story was sort-of a generic closeted athlete meets out and proud twink. I wanted more of his Hispanic heritage to leak through, especially considering how important that ends up being to the final decision to come out or not.

There were blocks of info-dumping (i.e. when Luke tells Michael his “story”) that felt stilted and less like a real conversation between two people and more like a way to get the story out to readers.

In general, I’m still a fan of the author and am excited to read the next installment, but this one just didn’t do it for me as much as some of her other work.

Audio
The narrator did a mostly great job with this. On the one hand Michael Ferraiuolo clearly demonstrates his ability to use a Spanish accent and to speak the language but he gave almost no accent to Michael. I’m not sure if that was intentional or not, I thought (and I could be wrong) that he’d have had more of an accent. I loved some of the other inflections he used – especially for Brandon and I think he has a great grasp of emotion and inflection while doing the dialog.

I think that the audiobook is the way to enjoy this book because he does add to the experience with his narration.

1 person found this helpful

Highly Recommended

I 'read' this book via audio book. The audio is narrated by Michael Ferraiuolo who did a sterling job!

THE STORY - this story brings together a star athlete (soccer) and an interior designer. It's a great pairing. I loved Luke, adored his friend Brandon, liked his mum Mara, and saw the appeal of Michael. The story is told from Luke's point of view and is a slow build of the relationship between him and his celebrity client, Michael. It's an exploration into Luke and the way he falls head over heels for Michael but tries to pretend he's okay with a short lived romance. There were no huge drama, rather a gentle story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

THE NARRATION - I believe the story was particularly well suited to narration. Maybe it was the first person POV and the fact it was told solely from Luke's point of view? Anyway, I love the voicing of the narrator and the accents. He chararacterised each of the MC's very clearly and I LOVED Michael's sexy accent, and when he wasn't speaking English? Couldn't understand a work but drool-worthy.

I would highly recommend this book on audio. Now I'm looking forward to book 2.

(Reviewed for Divine Magazine)

1 person found this helpful

A heartwarming story!

This story was well written. I loved the friendship in this story and how the romance slowly built. I liked watching how a person can learn to understand what really matters. It was well worth listening to and I'd highly recommend it.

2 people found this helpful

DNF around 50%

I really liked the narration and the idea of the story. But, Luke. It was like reading a romance novel about Jack from Will and Grace. Completely self-absorbed, complete with howler monkey tantrums with zero empathy for anyone but himself.
When it got to the part where Luke manipulates Michael into going into a gay bar I was done. There’s no respect there.

Good story. Good narration.

Lane Hayes has a talent for creating characters that are easy to relate to. Luke is definitely one of those characters. He has encountered his share of ups and downs in life especially in relationships, but he keeps moving forward looking for ways to be improve his life. Meeting pro soccer player, Michael Martinez, in the middle of his own relationship problems could turn out to be either one of those up moments or a disaster.

Sigh. This is a wonderful story if you are looking for a "love perseveres" read, and some well performed narration.

Narrator the only saving grace

Narrator was the only thing saving this book, and I'm so thankful he didn't "giggle" every time the main POV character did. What grownup giggles unless alcohol or genuine hilarity are involved? The POV character Luke is unlikable, the other main character Michael is enigmatic. Luke's whiny, alternately pushy and a pushover, and unsympathetic even with an abusive ex. Also, he's SoCal born and bred but doesn't know how to eat a tamale? Michael is less annoying however his perspective is thoroughly lacking. I wanted to know more about him. The story might have worked if his POV was included. The only things we know about Michael are he plays soccer, has a strict Catholic religious Mexican family, is obviously hot, has a crazy ex, and apparently has no problem hooking up with people he's paying for other services. We really have no idea what makes the guy tick. I have no idea what either character saw in the other, there was no connection. The main POV character hates sports, hates exercise, and is at a minimum culturally unaware, so I didn't get why he was such a catch for the other main character. I generally like this author but this book was painful to finish.

Great story

I’ve read this author before. I listened to the audio book. Mm contemporary story set in the USA. Main characters are Luke an aspiring interior design who recently left an abusive relationship and Michael an injured, closeted soccer player. I’ll read more from this author and series.