Always Have

The Always Series, Book 1

By: Claire Kingsley

Narrated by: James Cavenaugh, Stephanie Wyles

Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Kylie's best friend Braxton is the hottest man she's ever known, with a rock hard body and a smile that melts the panties off every woman he meets.

Except Kylie. Mostly.

Kylie is anxious to get off the dating carousel and find something real. Despite the way Braxton tends to suck the air from her lungs, she knows he's trouble. He's just another player, and she's tired of the game.

But Braxton isn't the man she thinks.

The real reason he's sh*t with women is simple. None of the women he's with are the one he wants. None of them are Kylie.

He wants to love her in every way imaginable, but there's always something in the way. So he stays her friend, watching her date men who are too stupid to realize how special she is. Always worried the next one won't be. The next one will be the man who takes her from him forever.

Loving Kylie risks every fiber of their friendship, but losing her might be more than Braxton can take.

©2016 Claire Kingsley (P)2019 Tantor

Character development and story line were great

Loved the characters from the start, even when they did dumb things. Definitely worth the listen.

Could Not Finish with Audiobook Version

I may finish reading the book, but cannot listen to the female voice any longer. Every sentence she reads has the same inflection and I can’t get through it. Five hours in, but I just can’t anymore. Male voice was good though. Story to this point was good.

Loved it

I'm in love with the performance, I loved everything, the narrators, the story, all the love. It was perfect.

Repetitive

"I say" was in about every paragraph and drove me crazy. Overall it was a cute story, but some parts were annoying. for example, the way Braxton spoke to her at the beginning of mature scenes. It did fit the story all that well.

unique Storyline

interesting story, not a fan of all the talk and comparisons of the two screwing other people getting to the HEA. The female narrator sounded so clinical and not believable and a bit irritating, but not sure if it was intentional. it took away from a flowing storyline.

I really enjoyed Braxton

I enjoyed the male narrator all right, but the female not as much. It wasn’t as bad after I sped up the voices to 1.2.
Braxton has been in love with Kylie since he was a child. He didn't think anyone knew. He his it so well. You know, with all the women. Kylie never dreamed he would ever be interested in her. The two of them along with Braxton's twin sister are inseparable. No one wants to do anything to rock the boat. Especially when his sister is adamant he leaves her alone. What if you can't stay away.

This is why I don’t do YA

Yes, I know they were almost 30, however, they acted like college kids. The FMC was so vapid, especially in the beginning. And the narrator helped that perception. She seemed like she was portraying someone far younger than the character.

The MMC’s narration was much better. His character was also better than the MFC. I definitely tuned in during his chapters and tuned out during hers.

But by chapter 3, I changed the speed to 1.5x faster and blew through the book as quickly as possible to finish.

Friends to lovers is in my top 2 fav tropes. This one just didn’t do it for me.

Almost didn't listen

I almost didn't continue listening to this book because of the female narrator. Her nasally voice is grating. Think fingernails on a chalkboard. I decided to give it a chance, and I'm glad I did. the story was good. A new narrator would go a long way to making this a better listen.

Good, with issues

I did enjoy this book a lot. It kept my interested and I “felt” the love between them. My biggest problem with it, enough that I felt so had to review because I think the author needs to see it, is the stupid way that she wrote the angst/problem at the end before the eventual get back together. *spoiler ahead* It was just so dumb. The characters knew the sister would have a problem….they’d talked about the problem and how they might handle it..,they EXPECT her to have the problem and know they’ll have to figure out how to deal with it. Do when the sister DOES issue the stupid requirement even when she doesn’t even know they’re dating, he folds and breaks up with the love of his life without being truthful with the love or the sister. It is just weak writing in my opinion. Maybe I’ve just listened to too many books and heard too many of these end of book problems and am overly critical, but this one was just so unbelievable that somebody would choose that decision on how to act.

Also - the female narrator was not the best.

Loved Kylie and Braxton

Kylie and Braxton have been best friends since they were kids and Braxton had always had a thing for her but put their friendship over their feelings. They had a long journey of finding their way to each other and the story was good. Stephanie Wyles and James Cavenaugh were both new narrators to me and I enjoyed both of their narrations.