The Hookup

A WHIRLWIND OF WICKEDLY WONDERFUL FEELS

For twelve hours and twenty two minutes I was in Heaven, happily lost in Kristen Ashley’s heartwarming new love story of two characters who’d known heartache, who’d known loss and who’d known drama in their lives. But slowly these sweet beautiful caring characters found each other, found their soulmates, found love and found their HEA. Along the way there were walls to crumble, hurdles to get over, battles to fight, family members and friends to meet, romantic words and scenes to share, passions to ignite and threats from the past to overcome. And this hero and heroine did it in true KA style.. with feeling, with strong emotions, with hot sex, with compassion passion and possession, with torture and tenderness.. and with deep undiluted love.

I was mezmerized, sucked in and blown away by Izzy and Johnny’s unfolding love story, by their quirks, their personalities, their backstories, their family values and their emotions.. and I just wasn’t ready to leave the small town of Matlock Kentucky - even after the sweet sweet Epilogue. This is a well loved author who seriously knows her stuff, who knows how to pace a story, how to inject tension and drama at just the right time, how to pull at your heartstrings, how to write about a possessive alpha male and how to write a beautiful love story. Also, Stella Bloom and Lance Greenfield are two talented narrators who give five star performances, who bring characters and their stories to life, who inflect project and inject the emotions needed to stir, to soothe and to sate the many flavors of each scene.. and who made it a joy to listen to this audiobook.

Worth a credit? Well, as I bask in the afterglow of an entertaining enjoyable and loved listen about a damaged hero, a random hookup, the return of someone’s lost love (with all its complications) and a heartmeltingly beautiful hot love story.. there’s absolutely only one answer to give.. and that folks is a big fat YES that’s oozing with droolworthy sighworthy happiness.

51 of 55 people found this review helpful

OMG Worst male narration EVER

The story dragged in a lot of spots with not enough conflict. I found it hard to believe that this stunning woman who was supposedly so amazing had made it to her 30's without ever "falling in love" and having a serious boyfriend.

The story is waaaay tropey. Brooding, millionaire, alpha male MC. Quirky female MC who doesn't "know how beautiful she is". Some of the forced things she did to make Izzy quirky made my eyes roll. Cooking breakfast while wearing muck boots with a canary on her shoulder? Why? To trek horse poop and bird droppings through the kitchen? Stop trying so hard.

By far the worst part was the male narration. It literally sounded like it was narrated by Batman. When I realized this was who he sounded like, I couldn't stop laughing. It was terrible.

41 of 47 people found this review helpful

Sorry Kristen

I have found very few Kristen Ashley books I do not like, this is at the top of that list! Needs more story to it. I love her love scenes but this one needs more story line leading up to it. Just a hard to listen book in my opinion! Won’t let it get in the way of my love for her books. They can’t all be perfect!!

15 of 17 people found this review helpful

***4.5 stars***

The story was great the narration was a little disappointing.

I decided to listen to The Hookup as well as read. This worked really well for me. Morning reading, listen while in transit to and from work and then a mix of reading and listening when I got home. SUCCESS!! It was actually a really enjoyable way to experience this story.

You know how sometimes you’re reading a book and you are stumped how to pronounce a name or a foreign term? Well, the narrators do the hard yards for you. I thought that was pretty cool.

Anyways… I really enjoyed The Hookup. The storyline was interesting, the main characters were my favourite type of Alpha meets Quirky, and it was HOT!! Seriously, these guys do not take long to show us that they are very, VERY well suited to each other.

I loved that Johnny was pretty straight with Izzy. He had baggage and didn’t hide it. Johnny knew that his heart was damaged but pretty quickly realised that Izzy may be the person to fix it. He made it clear he was interested, kept the communication open and always tried to be considerate of her feelings.

I’m a sucker for a blokey bloke that likes to look after his woman. I have no problems with a hero who steps up to help with chores whether they are mowing the lawn or washing the dishes. When he states that *He’s her man, and she better get used to having him do...* BE STILL MY HEART!! I dream of my hubby saying something like that to me.

Now, Izzy, she’s the kind of quirky that I like. She’s independent, strong and determined while also an animal lover, protective of her family and loves a good bargain. Izzy’s had some bad things happen in her life but she always picks herself up and moves on. She’s a self-confessed prude who steps out of her shell for the first time with Johnny because she just couldn’t help herself. He brings out the sexy in her…and she likes it.

The Hookup was a very easy story to settle into. Most of the drama is around the couple with them fighting it together, which is the way I like it. I can't wait to meet them again hopefully soon.

I’ll be honest, Stella Bloom did a fantastic job narrating and I probably would have enjoyed it more if she did it by herself. I’ve listened to Lance Greenfield narrate before and enjoyed it but this time his voice was a little overdone. I also struggled when he did two males having a conversation as he didn’t change his voice which made it hard to tell when characters changed and who was speaking. It was mostly OK, just not the best I’ve ever heard.

Kristen Ashley is still my favouritist author in the whole entire world and I loved stepping into Matlock, Kentucky with the characters she created. I was desperate to start and unfortunately read it too fast which means I was sad when it was over too quick. The trials and tribulations of a Kristen Ashley Addict.

I can't wait for more of the Moonlight and Motor Oil series.

15 of 17 people found this review helpful

The Hookup

This was a so-so read. I heard the audible version and the reader was not ok for me. The book needed some serious editing for length.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Worst male narration I've heard.

The story was great - classic Kristin Ashley with a sweet hero who's not too dark. The male narration absolutely destroyed the book for me. The ridiculous urgency used for every single breathy word he uttered was unbearable. I gritted my teeth and rolled my eyes through it only because I don't have time to pick up the paperback and because it's the first in a new series. If the same narrator reads book two I will skip it for sure. I recommend not listening to this one - read it instead.

13 of 15 people found this review helpful

Wrong genre for male narrator

The last half of this book was very hard to listen to. The story was pretty good but didn't live up to every other KA book I've purchased.

8 of 9 people found this review helpful

I loooooooved it!!!!

This book came to me at the exact moment I needed it, and that is rare. I guess that's why I loved it so much.
Izzy is a great character. Strong but fragile at the same time. Quorky and funny. Sweet and honest.
And Jonnhy? What I guy! At first I wanted to hate him, him still hung on his ex, but then he manned up and faced his mistakes and turned out to be one of the sweetest, hottest, most protective and understanding alphas I've read.
The story is simple but endeering and it moved me deep in some parts while in others I couldnt stop laughing.
Definitely a new favorite one. Especially on audio!
On that: Lance Greenfield does a great job, as usual, all sexy and manly and intense, so, love him!
But the female narrator? OMG! Does anybody else get the feeling that Stella Bloom and Susannah Jones are the same amazing narrator? Or is it just me? Either way, this woman is soooo good, she does an unbelievable job with the main female character and at the same time makes me believe there is a guy there doing the male parts. WOW!!! I ADORE HER WORK!!!!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Completely Unsatisfying! and Completely lazy!

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The author needs to stop using sex scenes as a filler. Use them when necessary. Use all characters fully! I was looking forward to seeing how the crazy ex boyfriend would make a appearance and to see how the hero would Alpha up and defend his girl but NO!

This story was just one mindless sex scene after another until the very end when it was quickly wrapped up when the baby nephew gets snatched by some random dude and they get him back after like 20 mins! so boring! This story was incredibly lazy! There was not even some good development with the secondary romance characters and that had so much potential too!!

Has The Hookup turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, but I will definitely be treading more carefully. I use to buy KA books without even thinking about it but after this disrespect, never again.

Which scene was your favorite?

Nothing memorable at all. Any scene she could have written, the author never completely omitted and instead replaced it with disgusting jazz worshipping sex scenes...seriously...that was the kink that was suppose to get the readers hooked on the sex scene...so sad.

What would have made this romance irresistible?

Seeing the heroine's crazy ex boyfriend make multiple appearances in the story and having the alpha hero step up in a big protective way...DUH! I wanted to feel suspense and be taken on a rollercoaster ride when the obsessed ex boyfriend messed with the couple throughout the story, see the ex get close enough to his target, him thinking he has her and then see a close call before getting saved and not even get to the climax yet!

Show the romance growing between the secondary characters. All of a sudden we were suppose to believe they were falling for each other...why? What about each character was endearing to the other in any way?! nothing, KA just forced it for no reason. So half-baked.

I wanted to see the hero's ex-girlfriend try shameless bitchy things to get her man back and then see her get deliciously owned by Margo and her husband to put her in her place.

I wanted to see the rich father that abandoned the heroine and her sister come back and start making insane financial demands and seeing her new family dress him down too and send him packing!

KA use to be so GOOD delivering these pivotal important gratifying scenes but she completely leaves the reader hanging.

Any additional comments?

The author should have never made this one. This story is a great disappointment because it has building up to some great plots and then she seriously dropped the ball at throughout, missing opportunities she could have used and ignoring characters that could have been used, all while building up to a great big goose egg of a climax and ending.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Usually I love KA books, but this one not so much

I really struggled with this book. The narration at times felt forced and felt like the male narrator was yelling at me. I don't know if it was the writing he was trying to imbue or if that was his tone of voice, but he made me put the book down several times. Not to mention, if you're listening to this somewhere - you need earphones because it went between breathless whispering to shouting in an instant and the f-word was rampant. This book to me was a redo of Complicated and I couldn't believe it was the same narrator. Had I listened to this first, I'd never pick another book up to listen and I know that sounds harsh, but when you're listening in bed and all of a sudden someone screams in your ear - and not in a good way!! It's alarming!! Needless to say if you've read one of the authors other books like Complicated, then you have no need to read this one because nothing really ever happens. I miss the days of Rock Chick.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful