Love Me Today

By: A.L. Jackson

Narrated by: Joe Arden, Andi Arndt

Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

A jaded single dad. A woman returning to her small-town roots. Neither was prepared for their paths to collide....

I should have known I was in trouble when I backed my old, beat-up truck into the shiny Range Rover.

The driver looked like a gorgeous fallen angel–one who’d been booted right out of paradise for being a giant prick.

Good thing I’ll never have to see him again.

Except when I show up for my new job to teach a little girl how to ride her horse, I find the same icy blue eyes glaring back at me.

Paisley Dae is completely reckless. She’s also the best trainer in this small town. And Evelyn gets the best.

Protecting the little girl is my one focus.

Only the sassy trainer in her cut-offs and cowgirl boots quickly gets under my skin. Distractions are dangerous, but she soon becomes everything I crave.

One reckless night of giving in, and Caleb and I spiral into a web of passion.

But when I begin to unravel the secrets hiding in this place, I find there is more riding on this job than I thought.

Caleb and Evelyn are worth any sacrifice–only Caleb has to decide what he will sacrifice for me....

©2023 A.L. Jackson Books Inc. (P)2023 A.L. Jackson Books Inc.

Grumpy, broken boy billionaire + wild, fierce girl

4.5⭐️ 3.5🌶️ 5🎧

Narrators: Andi Arndt + Joe Arden
Narration type: Dual
Standard length: 10:47
Listening speed: 1.7x

Tropes: small town, single dad, billionaire, enemies to lovers, grumpy/sunshine, nanny

📖 I really enjoy a grumpy billionaire, add a bad boy vibe with a sprinkle of broken and I’m done for. Caleb Greyson was just delicious. Paisley was recovering from a bad relationship and figuring out how to stand on her own again, but she was wild, fierce, and independent and wouldn’t let anyone push her around, not even a hot billionaire that she really wanted a job from. Those two pushed all of each others buttons and it was really fun! Enemies to lovers always burns hot and their chemistry was fire. Paisley was absolutely adorable with Evelyn, bonding with her immediately and advocating for her always. Caleb struggled to see any good in himself, and for a long time only focused on one goal. Paisley, being the strong and pushy little spitfire she is, kept the faith in him when he didn’t have it in himself, even when his past came back to haunt them. The suspense element and the way she unraveled the details from the past was very well done! My only tiny minor complaint, if you can even call it that, is that Evelyn is constantly called “the child” throughout the book and I kept feeling like I was watching the Mandalorian.

🎧 Andi Arndt is my absolute favorite female narrator! I love the tone of her voice and her speech patterns always feel incredibly natural. Additionally, one thing I absolutely love about her narration is that I can always tell when someone is talking versus an internal monologue, she slightly changes the pitch of her voice. She was also a great fit for Paisley! She brought the fierceness and passion that our FMC always shows. And Joe Arden voiced Caleb. He was perfect for our broody, broken billionaire. Joe has a voice I could listen to for days on end, and frankly I probably have! In this particular audio he showed nice range of emotion and I thought he did an excellent job voicing little Evelyn too! I know that it be tough for some of the male narrators to hit those young childlike voices, but he nailed it.

Amazing story!

I absolutely loved this book... and getting to listen to the audio version was even better. The narrators, Joe Arden and Andi Arnt, are two of my absolute favorite narrators since they just make the story come to life.

Caleb has moved himself and his niece, Evelyn, to Time River into a huge ranch to escape Seattle and everything that happened there. Someone is out to take everything he loves away from him, and he's vowed to keep Evelyn safe. To help Evelyn learn to ride and take care of her horse, he hires Paisley Day. They clash immediately but over time grow closer. I loved Evelyn... and how much love Paisley gives her. Caleb's character grew so much during this book since he was really horrible at the beginning.

Overall, this is definitely a book I would recommend. It's absolutely fantastic!

I received an ALC for my honest review!

Love me today

My Heart!!!♥️♥️♥️
My favorite author and my favorite two narrators this one could possibly go wrong!!! I absolutely loved it and can’t wait for what comes next!!

A 2023 favorite!

My favorite day! Paisley and Caleb’s enemies to lovers was a fantastic start to a new series. I absolutely loved their growth as a couple and their banter and steam? Come on. AL Jackson writes small town the way it should be written and Love Me Today did not disappoint!

Paisley and Caleb

I adore all of the small town, single dad, suspenseful goodness from this book! Loaded with lots of emotion and tension, an adorable horse loving girl and a grumpy closed off guy with his perfect match, this book told an excellent story that was steamy and thrilling with lots of twists and turns.

Things heated up with Paisley and Caleb a little abruptly but it still was played out in a very believable way. It was nice the way they got to know each other and their secrets. And Evie was the star of the show, I loved her so much!

Andi Arndt and Joe Arden tell this story wonderfully. They kept it interesting and made me not want to ever stop it. The suspense was captivating and I was constantly surprised at what happened next. Pieces were revealed bit by bit until the xplosive ending.

Perfect for fans of small town romances.

A.L. Jackson always hits the spot with the emotional small-town romances. And Love Me Today will absolutely check all the boxes for A.L. fans or just small-town romance lovers. 

I've always enjoyed going back to Jackson's books and definitely an author I can rely on when I'm looking for something specific. Love the emotions this pulled out of me. The single parent element was great to me. 

Just a couple things that kept me from loving it and while it's a me thing, just not a fan of third-act break ups for safety reasons. 

Another solid read!

Narration: I'm no stranger to Andi Arndt and Joe Arden. Always have enjoyed their narration and it was a solid performance from these two.

Love Me Today

My first book📖🎧by A. L. Jackson and it won’t be my last. Loved the narration, Joe Arden is amongst my favorite male narrators & Andi Arndt is pretty good. I wish it had more smexy times & that they had made it a little more smuttier. The storyline was good, I enjoyed pretty much everything about this book. Is it worth the credit? YES, yes it is!!!

Wow!

Wow! This book was so good! I listened to the audio and Joe Arden and Andi Arndt were absolutely fantastic! This was my first book by A.L. Jackson and she did not disappoint! I loved the small-town suspense aspect of it! I love when that is mixed into romance books! Love me today was everything and so much more!! I absolutely loved Paisley, Caleb, and Evelyn!

Love me today is the first book in the newest series by A.L. Jackson. Caleb is looking for someone to help train his little girl Evelyn with a horse. Caleb has a dark past that he working on redeeming. When he meets paisley, they start off on the wrong foot, but as he gets to know her more and sees her with Evelyn he knows he will have to suck it up and deal with her.

The narration was fantastic! Andi and Joe are amazing together! They both are fantastic expressing the emotions of both characters! Joe had me tearing up at some parts as Caleb was going through so much and he expressed that pain so well!
The chemistry and tension between Paisley and Caleb were absolute fire!! I loved Paisley’s relationship with Evelyn it was so sweet! When Caleb started to let his guard down, I was absolutely swooning!

I highly recommend this book if you like:
Single Dad
Grumpy-Sunshine
Enemies to Lovers
Protective MMC
Broody Billionaire
Small Town Romance

Phenomenal

I loved every bit of this story. The writing, narrating, EVERYTHING! Already downloaded #2 and can’t wait to dive in! And wow, can I say, this was the best performance from Joe Arden I’ve ever heard. He hit it out of the park with this one.

Love Me Today: Time River Book 1

PERFORMANCE REVIEW & RATING: 4 STARS

Joe Arden & Andi Arndt are a force to be reckoned with when they come together to narrate a story. They are both incredibly talented and did a good job bringing this story to life for me. Although Joe still tends to sound like he’s trying to “beat the buzzer” when he narrates, it didn’t happen throughout his entire performance with this title so that’s progress :)

Thanks to Valentine PR and their team, I had the pleasure of both listening and reading this story with an early copy of both formats. Some of you might be thinking this just means I *read* the story twice, but it is so much more than that.

Listening to a story incorporates narrators who may or may not change your perception of the ”who, what, where” of it all for the better, worse, or none at all. It has happened to me time and time again and ever since the first time I experienced a stark contrast in my ”experience” with a story, I have sought out both formats whenever possible.

Obviously, if you’re reading a story only for the ”mechanic” of it, this wouldn’t pertain to you, but if how a story makes you feel is also part of what you, as a reader, consider part of the full experience of a story, these are my 2 cents on that subject. Do with them what you will :)

As for which format, I would recommend, I’d say which ever one you prefer will do just fine. This is not one of those times where there was a stark difference in my experience.

STORY REVIEW & RATING: SOLID 3.5 STARS with just enough to justify a round up to 4 STARS (because half stars are not a thing)

There are two things that kept floating in my head while listening to this story that just made me twitchy. One was the past circumstance between Caleb and his sister and the other was Caleb’s past and his upbringing as a whole. Caleb used his past circumstances to define who he was today to the point where it actually became a bit repetitive in his inner monologues. The repetitiveness of it all made me want to experience his past in more ways than a couple of flashbacks because it was important in how he defined himself as a person and his actions and reactions to present day circumstances. It was a missed opportunity, in my opinion, to make this story more powerful, which is what I’ve come to love about A.L. Jackson’s style of writing. The second plot-point I felt should have been fleshed out in more in-depth was his relationship, or lack of, with his siter, especially because of Evelyn. We only got bits and pieces about their relationship or lack of, but the mystery surrounding this storyline very much surrounds his sister. I can’t say I have an opinion on how it could have been done because I’m not a writer lol but the reader in me felt that particular plot point too superficial for its impactful consequences. Maybe a full-length prequel? UGH, I don’t know, but something!!

The story did hold the passion I’ve come to expect from an AL Jackson story and the chemistry did not disappoint. But here again, Caleb held out on his attraction and feelings because of the person he perceived himself to be and the baggage he didn’t want to ”touch” anyone else but as a reader I couldn’t connect with his turmoil because I just didn’t know it. Again, one or two flashbacks just weren’t enough for me to believe he was this persona he kept telling us he was. There’s a difference between being told something and being shown and in this case, being shown would have been more impactful, in my opinion. *shrug*

I appreciate being surprised by the who behind the mystery surrounding this story. Yes, the actions (you’ll have to read the story to get details) were somewhat predictable, but I did not see the who coming for nothing! Well done in that respect.

Sidenote: Sometimes the most benign and innocuous things get me all riled up and here’s one for you LOL This isn’t a single dad romance. #fightme