3.5 stars really.

So, I’m going a little bit backwards with this series! I started with book 2, then read 2.5, then book 3, and now I’m back reading book 1. I’m actually having a little bit of a hard time with this review though. I jumped at the chance to listen to the audiobook, because I definitely enjoyed the other two in this series that I listened to, and I had time to fit it in with all my scheduled review books. And I do like the story, and the characters. But I did have some issues with both the characters, and even the narrators a little. And I hate saying anything bad about the narration, because I know one of the narrators is the author, and the other is a narrator I usually enjoy. Ugh! But I also want to be honest. So that’s what you’ll be getting with this review.

First, the story. It was definitely excited to go back and learn Will and Kate’s story, as they had parts in the other books that I’d already read later on in the series. So that was neat, and I enjoyed that. However, I had a lot of problems with both Will and Kate and how they dealt or reacted to certain things with each other. First, I totally understand why Will had his issues with what Kate did, and also with money. And really, the author gives us a really great in depth look into Will’s past with what his father really did, and how his mother actually reacted to all of it. But his stubbornness with Kate’s job and then his antiquated ideas about not letting the woman pay for anything, that got really, really old. It was to the point where if I’d been Kate, I wouldn’t have cared about how great his kisses or the physical part of the relationship was, I’d have been done with him.

Now, Kate was a weird issue for me. Um, you know the guy you are dating is an actor. You know he is playing a character in a play, and I believe a Shakespeare play, so a really old story, not something new that someone just wrote, and his acting makes you think he is like that? I mean, had Kate never watched tv or movies or plays or read a book, or anything? And then, towards the end of the story, she sees him get killed on stage, again, part of the play, and she cries and gets really upset? Huh? However, I have to say in the end, when they really finally got to talking and figuring things out after they’d been through their own self discovery moments, I did really like the way the author brought them back together at that point. That part did give me a lot of emotions.

Since I listened to the audiobook, I have to mention the issues with that. Now sometimes I really like the female narrator’s voice. At times it was perfect! And she actually does the male parts very well. But there was something about the voice at times that all I could picture in my head was an old lady who smoked a lot, not the young women characters in the story. That’s the only way I can describe it. The male narrator is one that I like usually, but I noticed this time that he’s not necessarily the greatest at the female parts. One thing that stood out is that he tended to say their lines as if they were questions, I don’t know how to say it. Going up in inflection at the end? You know how you’d read a question out loud? Go ahead, read my last two sentences as questions out loud and see what I mean.

Side characters also really made the book. I loved reading the introduction to “Hot Steve” in this story after really reading his HEA in Like It’s 1999, as well as Alice, Kate’s best friend also in that book. It was also nice getting a little bit of an introduction to Ben from Forget About Me. And finally we got a little bit of time with Jessica from You Spin Me. So really for me that was the best part of the book. I would say this first one isn’t my favorite in the series, but definitely it had a story that was worth reading and taking the time to get into this world.

Review first posted on Lisa Loves Literature.