French Kiss

Flying into Love, Book 1

De: C F White

Narrado por: Piers Ryman

Duración: 6 h y 21 m

Resumen del Editor

Can a French kiss persuade an uptight Englishman to leave his city behind and start a new life in rural France?

Clean-cut London businessman Dale Calverley doesn’t do relationships.

Rugged French handyman Valentin Aubrey doesn’t do city men.

When Dale hires Valentin to help him fix up his inherited farmhouse estate in rural France and sell to the highest bidder, sparks fly.

Complete opposites, can they really expect their insta-lust to last beyond the storm that forces them together?

But how can Dale walk away from a man so alluringly rogue as Valentin Aubrey?

And how can Valentin expect a man so money-orientated to throw away his career and stay in the wilderness with him?

French Kiss (Flying into Love, Book 1) is a contemporary, opposites attract, age-gap, forced proximity MM romance featuring an uptight English businessman with a preference for nameless hookups and a rugged half-French handyman with a checkered past.

©2022 C F White (P)2022 C F White

Night and day

Story: From the very first pages of the book I was really intrigued how the author would bring the MCs together when they could not have been more polar opposites if they tried! Yet, it worked! It worked and felt like the most natural thing in the world.
I loved the premise of the story and the original location a lot! CF White's writing style has very unique qualities that always enable me to fully picture the scenes. The words never fail to resonate with me and my imagination in the best of ways, this book fully included. A great read and I cannot wait for more in this series!
Narration: Piers Ryman is one of my favorite narrators. Splendid job!

Loved this so much!

Piers Ryman does it again! He made CF White’s words come alive for me and turned a story I loved when I first read it with my eyes, into something I loved even more. I loved hearing him speak French. ❤

Both Dale and Valentin have things in their past that have shaped who they are now. Valentin did a lot of different things to survive after being orphaned and he never wants to go back to that life. Dale grew up without feeling any love from his father, especially after his mother died. He was betrayed by a boyfriend many years ago and these two things caused him to stay in the closet and never allow himself to form a lasting intimate relationship with anyone.

Dale and Valentin couldn’t be more different from each other. Valentin loves the simple things and living off the land suits him. Dale is a city boy through and through. As Dale spend time with Valentin, he beings to see the allure of living simply and their attraction to each other won’t be denied.

I loved how wonderfully complex this story was while at the same time being very simple: two men with vastly different life styles forging a bond that will eventually bring them both happiness. I knew it wouldn’t be all hearts and flowers for Dale and Valentin – CF White does like to put her characters through hard things – but in the end what they suffer through is always worth it and makes their HEA that much sweeter.

A complimentary copy of this audiobook was provided to me at my request but my review was voluntary and not influenced by the author and/or narrator.

Love and Lust in the beautiful French countryside.

This book was an unexpected delight. Excellent narration and characters. Well worth the credit. Look forward to other books in this series.

Favorite trope 👍

An opposites attract story about a city guy and country recluse forced to be together and rehash/rediscover the tangled feelings to the deceased father.

Love the Story

I loved this story and adding the narration made it even better. I can't wait for book 2

I received an ARC and this is my unbiased opinion

Lovely opposites attract romance

I have to start by complimenting Piers Ryman. As someone fluent in both English and French, it’s frustrating when narrators butcher either language. I know they do their best, but sometimes their French is incomprehensible. Ryman wasn’t like that at all – I understood all the French clearly, so I have to say well done.

Now to the story. I do love opposites attract and, wow, these two men couldn’t be more different. Dale is all suave sophisticated London while Valentin is rural France with no phone or internet. I live more like Dale, but I very much want to live like Valentin – so I related to both men.

Dale inherited a property in rural France when his estranged father passed away. His father wrote sweeping romance novels and Dale never quite related to them. His parents had a grand passionate affair and Dale’s never been privy to that kind of love. He doesn’t understand it, and he certainly can’t understand why his father holed himself away in this hovel without access to the world.

Valentin understands Dale’s father completely. He lived a hard scrabble life in the city and he hates it. Truly detests everything Dale represents. So how can the two men possibly get along? Well, sexual chemistry helps. So does open dialogue. You know – talking about feelings? They’re not always great about it, but when they get it right, truth spills out.

Now, I honestly didn’t know how the men would get their happy ending. Both were firmly entrenched – it was obvious Valentin would be miserable in the city, just like it was obvious Dale couldn’t function in the middle of nowhere.

But find a solution they did and I got my patented CF White happy ending. Now, I noticed this was book 1 in a series. Normally CF’s books center around one couple for three (or more) books. But these guys have truly settled everything. I snuck a peek, and the other books have other couples. Can’t wait to read those.

Lovely story, loved the narration!

I really enjoyed the story. Dale, a successful portfolio manager, has to go over to France to see to the affairs of his late, estranged father. There he meets Valentin, a friend/companion to his dad. Dale finds out a whole new side to his father through Val, while Val slowly changes his opinion of Dale (from the stories told by the father). They learn to work through their differences, especially in terms of their backgrounds and past histories.
Piers Ryman made this an easy story to listen to. Loved his overall narration, particularly the accents for Val and his slightly city/snobby voice for Dale. All characters, no matter their role, had a distinct voice. Great way to enjoy the story.

City/Country opposites attract

Fun tropes here: Opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine, Insta-love, and little bit of forced proximity vibes. While there’s an age gap, it’s mentioned a few times but not really a central theme. Minus a misunderstanding, I also found this to be fairly low angst. Dale and Valentin start off kind of at odds, but agree to work together. Immediate attraction means an intense physical relationship - personally they’re both hindered by bringing their own past hurts and completely different lives.

I enjoyed how White brought these two together and helped them heal from their pasts. The story takes place over less than a week and felt a little rushed relationship-wise for me, but I enjoyed the ending. Plus a cute epilogue to solidify their HEA.

Narration:
Piers Ryman was enjoyable here. I think this is the first time I’ve heard him do a French accent and it was great. As always, he brings White’s writing up another level. Easy listen.

I received a copy of the audiobook from the author and am leaving an honest review.

Good story. Great narration.

The romance certainly had passion, and the sex scenes had plenty of heat. I enjoyed getting to know the characters. Both Valentin and Dale have interesting personalities, but I felt a little distanced from Valentin.

The conflict in the story had some very emotional moments. The emphasis on the ideals of materialistic city life versus simple country life was pretty strong, and the vividly depicted setting is an important part of the story.

Piers Ryman's performance was lovely. His interpretation of Dale's bad French accent was adorably cringe worthy. Sigh. Valentin's accent was just fiiiine.

This is a lovely romance with some character self-reflection, a bit of poorly spoken French, and excellent narration.

Great writing, beautiful story and awesom setting.

This was my first book from author CF White. First of all I must say I have a weakness for British authors, written in British English, so this one was right up my alley! Add in the setting in rural France, with quite a bit of dialogues in French, and I was in book heaven.
This is not just an opposites attract story, but rather a COMPLETE OPPOSITES attract one! Dale and Valentin are so completely at the total opposite sides on most everything, from clothes, to appearance, to lifestyle, that most of the time I was wondering how anything between them could even work. If it wasn’t for the fact that they somehow seemed to fit together perfectly, like matching pieces of a puzzle!