Camera Shy

De: E.J. Russell

Narrado por: Greg Boudreaux

Never assume….

…That your uber competent personal assistant will get it when you announce your (fake) engagement to him during a live on-air interview with your archnemesis.

Never waver....

…From your plan to punish your arrogant celebrity boss for his presumption by turning your (fake) wedding into a reality competition for event planners.

Never admit....

…That the feelings blossoming between the two of you through seven (fake) engagement celebrations, six (fake) bachelor parties, five (fake) wedding party luncheons, and four (fake) rehearsal dinners are about as (real) you can get.

Camera Shy is a boss/employee, fake-engagement, right-in-front-of-your-nose romantic comedy featuring a former child model-turned-PA who is so done with cameras, a cocky LGBTQ activist/talk show host who does not lose, more scarves than midwinter in Boston, and banter. So. Much. Banter.

©2022 E.J. Russell (P)2023 E.J. Russell

Interesting Characters + Sweet Story

Greg + EJ for the win! Sweet story with solid setup for a series... can't wait to see more TTK books come out!

Cute!

It’s my first EJ Russell listen and I enjoyed listening to this one.

It’s light-hearted and great palette cleanser after listening to high angst books.

Greg Boudreaux is such a talented narrator and his name is the draw for me.

Very Sweet Romance

I really enjoyed this listen alot. Greg Boudreaux did a great job bringing the characters to life and making them distinctive from eachother. I love a good fake romance turned real and I thought this one pulled it off in an original way. Ari and Dustin both have communication issues when it comes to their feelings so this story was definitely a slow burn with all the miscommunications and things unsaid but it was still a very entertaining listen.

I Enjoyed It!

- - UPDATE 4.15.23 - -

I had the opportunity to listen to this on audiobook and I fell in love with it- probably more than when I initially read it. It was narrated by the fantastic Greg Boudreaux, whose voice and narrations I am completely in love with! He does an amazing job voicing the different characters and bringing them to life. As much as I enjoyed reading this book, listening to it was a wonderful experience that made the whole thing feel new.

Overall: 4.5 stars
Performance: 5 stars
Story: 4 stars


- - Original Book Review 9.24.2022 - -

I really enjoyed this book. The premise snagged me and I found it to be an interesting read. The concept of a fake wedding/reality competition was fun and I loved the dynamic reversal for the two characters. I loved Dustin- he was smart, very capable, and wasn't one to back down.

I did not like Ari very much at first. He was arrogant and entitled- but not obnoxiously so. It was like he didn't realize it until the tables are turned against him and he began to see things from outside perspectives, and see that he's messed up and needs to change. He grew on me and had good character growth.

An interesting and fun read. This is the first book I've read by this author and I would read more. 4 stars.

Cute story

Not a lot of depth, but a good fluff piece. Greg's narration always comes thru.

Enjoyable

This was a fun enjoyable listen. This is a fake relationship romance that has a fun storyline and good characters. I enjoyed the storyline and the way it ended. The narration was good.

Delightfully Entertaining~Great Story & Narration

E.J. Russell puts her own unique spin on a fake engagement, boss/employee, enemies to lovers romantic comedy. The story is entertaining and it drew me in right from the start, grabbing my attention and captivating it straight to the end. Dustin Fremont, former child star and model, left that part of his life behind him, reinvented himself and became a personal assistant to talk show host, Ari Dimitriou, and he is very good at what he does. He would never mention it, because he knows Ari is a player, but he has a secret crush on him. Before taking the job, Dustin made sure there was a stipulation in his contract that he would never have to appear on camera, it was something he never wanted to do again. He prefers to work behind the scenes and keep his past life exactly that, in the past. Ari Dimitriou is a supporter of LGBTQ rights and he is not happy to have Jesse Sandusky as a guest on the show, they have bonked heads over marriage equality and other things. Ari was told to keep his cool, but when put on the spot he comes up with a fake engagement idea and names Dustin as his fiancé. Dustin was livid, but he is smart, resourceful and quick on his feet, and he puts an idea in motion and the powers to be go with it, a reality show and contest for wedding planners. Ari thought Dustin was a safe choice, but he was so wrong and the man could not see who and what Dustin really was to him until he lost him. This beautifully plotted story is well written with the perfect balance of drama, humor and wit, a touch of angst, heartfelt emotions and a slow burn romance. E.J. Russell, thank you for another fabulous story and emotional rollercoaster ride.

🎧📚🎧And for the wonderful narration, Greg Boudreaux is a superbly talented narrator and a versatile voice artist. He did an amazing job bringing these characters to life and did so with a complete understanding of who he was portraying, gave each their own unique voice, one that suited that character perfectly and was believable in every role he played. He set the perfect tone for the story, handled the witty back-and-forth dialogue with ease, switched roles effortlessly, never missing a beat. You could hear how much heart he puts in to his performance as he captures all the character’s emotions and projects them into his performance. Boudreaux is an entertaining storyteller and a pleasure to listen to. Thank you for another amazing listen. 

Adorable

Okay, this had no right to be so cute.

I will say, this is not my usual cup of tea, but I saw EJ Russell audio, and I couldn't resist. This had all the charm and humor I've come to expect from EJR, and I found myself surprised by how much I adored it.

-Fake Engagement
-Work-place romance
-Virgin
-Insecurities

Excellent closed-door romance

I've found with Audible that I will follow a voice actor/performer as often as I will an author, and it has led to a lot of new-to-me author finds and things I wouldn't have tried otherwise. Greg Boudreaux (or his hetero pen name, Greg Tremblay) is the top of this list, somehow making even a brand new to me author a comfort read the very first time.

It helps when the author is awesome, of course! Part of what I love about Greg's voice performances is his solid characterization, and the depth of emotion he gives them (without blowing your eardrums out. Talent, take note: even if a character is yelling, YOU do not have to!). It makes the book easy to understand by tone alone and it's always clear who is speaking. Considering some voice actors seem to have never read the book before they start recording, and others have sing-song or flat, emotionless patterns they fall into no matter how heated the action (in any way!), and I've come to recognize how incredibly talented Greg is.

That talent added to excellent writing? Well! You get books like this. I really enjoyed this book, and not just for the main story (although, quite frankly, I adore that too. It kind of reminds me of The Swan, about transwomen for whom the top prize was full coverage for all surgeries they chose to transition with. I think that should be a universal right rather than the prize of a reality series, but that show was about a decade before its time). The representation shown in the characters is wonderful, the choices for things such as gender identity to not even be mentioned 3/4 of the way through for one of the secondary characters in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it way, women in all the roles of power, BIPOC women as the heads of the companies -- it was fantastic. In LGBTQ++ books, the T and Q and such often fall by the wayside (or under the bus) and it was fantastic just to see so much representation here of Enby, transmen (whom everyone seems to forget exist?), and an entire cast of people just... people-ing. The way we do.

It felt like home, as I've lived in the gay Village of Montreal for 10 years and on Church Street in Toronto for another 10 since. I've fought hard for things like marriage equality, and some very interesting arguments are raised in the book (but not really capitalized on). The character development is very strong from both main characters, which I really appreciated as it would be so easy to let Dustin fall back and have Ari keep the spotlight. The rude jerk he is at the beginning is sort of necessary to show just how far he comes and just what it takes to get him there.

There are mentions of some sexual acts (and fluids) but there is no on-page sex, it going to closed doors before things get any spicier. There is also a TON of swearing in this book (I know that matters to some people) but overall it's a PG-13 read. That doesn't make it any less in terms of emotional investment or enjoyment, though!

As a note, I loved hearing about network television from the production side. Sometimes we get books about actors and the like, but an Executive Producer is pretty awesome. I work in an adjacent industry and I'm always interested in how we may have re-invented the wheel several times because we didn't have anyone with a television background early on, heh.

Loved this read, will listen to it again. If it moves slowly I couldn't say I noticed, I listened to it all in one sitting and was never bored. Very pleased to have a new-to-me author who writes the kind of books I want to read, if this is any example, so I'm excited to look into their backlist and see if there are more books with this pairing of wonderful author and world-class voice talent.

Very good with an actual romance

Fair warning, I read this one in ebook form and wrote a lengthy review for it on Goodreads so go there with my username and you can see it.

So in here we have Dustin and Ari. These dingdongs were made for each other though it took them awhile to get there. If you have read any EJ Russell books, except for the earlier books, they are not really romance, but are really good. In this one, we get a really good story and a really good romance.

Greg Boudreaux did such a good job with this one that I was sucked in immediately.