The Single Dad's Guide to Recreation

Welcome to Climax, Book 1

De: Karen Grey

Narrado por: Grayson Owens, Carly Robins

He’s the big-city corporate VP slashing costs. She’s the sunny, small-town toddler-whisperer in his crosshairs. It should be easier for them to keep their hands off each other.

The new guy in town may be a hot single dad–we’re talking total, mouthwatering eye candy here–but that isn’t stopping him from shuttering my favorite program here at Climax Parks & Rec.

Nor does it stop me from being blinded by lust and tripping over my own feet every time I see him, even though we’re completely wrong for each other.

He’s all business; my job is to play.
He’s moved upstate from Manhattan; I’ve returned to my small town roots.
He’s overwhelmed by his two adorable kids; doctors told me I’ll never be a mother.

Oh, and did I mention that it’s his job to “re-org” (aka ruin) everything I love about my job?

Despite all this, he’s got me dreaming of something I told myself I’d given up on: a family of my own.

Warning! Do not listen to this audiobook unless you love:

• Uptight heroes who are silly with their kids
• Sunshiny, Cinderelly heroines
• Nosy, interfering, small-town bureaucrats
• Possibly magical clock towers
• Parks and Recreation and Schitt’s Creek vibes

To the listener: my romance novels are all lighthearted and humorous, and the main two characters are guaranteed to find a happy ending. However, they may run into a few obstacles along the way, as well as need healing from incidents in their former lives.

If you’d like content guidance regarding sex/nudity, death, mental health and/or reproductive health challenges, you can find them in detail at karengrey com/contentguidance

©2025 Karen Grey (P)2025 Home Cooked Books

Absolutely fantastic narrators & a great story

Updated for audio: I was beyond thrilled when The Single Dad’s Guide to Recreation was released as an audiobook. Author Karen Grey’s stories are wonderful, amazing, terrific, etc., etc., etc. and as audiobooks – no words. They are just so much fun to listen to. Especially when you have two fantastic narrators. Pace, tone, emotion – all perfect. Carly Robbins’ performance always makes you forget it’s a performance and instead feel like you are just listening to the character live this life. You laugh and cry and just feel like you are right there. Grayson Owens? When you listen to a lot of audiobooks you develop favorite narrators, but then realize while listening to a performance by a different narrator that you cannot imagine anyone else telling you this story, being this character? I’ve only listened to a few audiobooks narrated by Owen (so far) but he is one of those authors. There is just something about his voice that makes you want to listen to the audiobook over and over. He is now on my “search” and “favorites” lists. An enjoyable, satisfying read made more enjoyable and more satisfying by these talented narrators. I both purchased and received a copy of this audiobook. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own.

The Single Dad’s Guide to Recreation is so . . . so . . . so Karen Grey. If you are a long-time fan like I am, you’ll see it right away. It’s not that all her stories sound alike, they most certainly do not, but it’s an almost indescribable feeling you get. The story just seems to blossom and unfold before your eyes: the setting becomes alive and vibrant, the characters are developed dimension by dimension and the plot just rolls along, gathering emotion, humor, will-they, won’t-they to its very satisfying conclusion.

We come to Climax, New York via author Grey’s contribution to the Bedd Fellows Farm four-book series. Familiar characters and animals and we had just a little peek at Josh Harmon.

Josh’s life blew up about a year and a half ago when his wife Lisa died. He’s still overwhelmed and he’s come to Climax so his parents can help with his two small children. Avery Mills was born and raised in Climax but left to work in the big city. After a brutal betrayal she came back to heal, and when she realized the state of her parents’ health she stayed to care for them. When they meet, it’s typical Grey: touching, sweet, funny. Josh has been stumbling and slumbering through his life, more asleep than awake until the first time he sets eyes on Avery, or more accurately when she literally falls into his arms. It’s like a bucket of ice water to the face – he’s awake now. And Avery? It’s as if she looked up and Prince Charming was standing there, except instead of curtsying like a princess would she tripped and fell into him. One look, and one feel of those arms around her, and her life is suddenly Before Josh Times and After Josh Times. She sees a ring and thinks he’s married, then that he’s still wearing the ring because he’s still grieving, but her pesky subconscious won’t let that attraction go. What is wrong with her? And Josh wonders what is wrong with him. He can’t decide whether to take that ring off or not, but there was a lot of turmoil and sadness in his marriage and these emotions he’s feeling around Avery are new to him. Maybe he has Before Avery Times and After Avery Times?

Josh needs his job. Avery needs her job. And Josh’s job is to get rid of Avery’s job. This isn’t going to be conflict-free, is it?

His job is the only thing Josh feels certain of, capable at, and he needs it to support his family. Avery’s “big city” dreams went away when she decided to stay in Climax and her job at Climax Parks & Rec, her friends, her family are everything to her. And especially important to her is the parent-toddler class called Playgroup, created and run by her mother before she became too ill to continue.

Josh works for Trede Corporation, founded by Elijah Ransom (maybe a little hook there for the next book?) who spent time as a young man in Climax and decided to establish headquarters there and invest in the community, but part of the deal is to upgrade facilities and programs and make improvements to serve the entire community. Playgroup is very valuable and very popular – but serves only a tiny portion of the community, and logically it should be first on the list of cuts. This makes Josh and Avery enemies – but they’re not. Not when those clock tower bells ring whenever they are close together. In fact, they are very, very compatible except for the Playgroup thing.

Grey expertly populates the story with colorful family and friends, relationships that have gone awry, tough decisions that have to be made and with humor and tenderness and a whole lot of spice running through it all. Imagine those bells, Avery’s hilarious word substitutions to avoid using naughty words around the toddlers, an exciting, sexy work trip (yes, you heard me) and scene after scene of pure reading enjoyment. If you can only take one trip this year, take it to Climax. You will love your time there as much as I did. I received an advance copy of The Single Dad’s Guide to Recreation from the author. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own.

This series is going to be amazing!

Story - ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Spice - 🌶🌶
Narration - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Single Dad's Guide to Recreation is book #1 in the Welcome to Climax series. This series is a spinoff from the Farm 2 Forking series and I'm so excited for all the new stories and the tie-in with the old! Karen Gray is such a great writer, telling tales of people with real situations with a splash of humor and spice. Avery cares for her parents and is licking her wounds from a relationship that left her broken. Josh is a widower with two adorable kids, now living with his parents for the extra help and to get his life back together. Two people who aren't trusting or even looking for a relationship find themselves drawn to each other even though they try to keep the relationship "professional". If you are a fan of "Parks and Recreation", then you will be as excited for this series as I am!

The narration was so perfectly cast with Grayson Owens and Carly Robins. They brought the reality, the humor, and the passion to Josh and Avery (and the great kid voices!). Loved this duo. 5/5 stars!

“If the bell tolls, someone found their one true love.”

This was such a fun and sweet listen. And the narrators were absolute perfection. They did such a great job at bringing all the characters and emotions to life, especially with so many different characters, including small children, being involved.

Avery works at the town's recreation center, and she literally bumps into Josh when he and the rest of his team come to the center to meet with the director about their company basically taking over. The attraction between the MCs is instant, but Avery is now avoiding Josh because, one, he's wearing a wedding ring, and two, he's basically now the enemy since he's in charge of gathering information to see which departments can or should be closed. What Avery doesn't know yet is that Josh is not married, and after spending time with his son in Avery's class, he doesn’t want to close that department.

I absolutely loved Avery's personality and her quirks and fake cuss words. I also loved how comfortable Josh's kids felt with Avery, and how she took the time to get to know and understand them. And the town's legend around the clock was so freaking cool, ngl I was geeking out a bit with that.

The story also has some deeper topics that broke my heart a little, like Josh's guilt and struggles with wanting to always be there for his kids, and Avery's past relationship and misdiagnosis which I will not get into to avoid spoilers.

Quote: “You are precious to me. You've brought hope to my life when I never thought I'd feel that again. You make me a better dad, a better man. I don't want to live my life without you in it.”

Funny and fantastic with amazing narration

This may be my favorite book from Karen..definitely her funniest! Her creative curse words will have you laughing out loud. So many amazing tropes- small town, single dad, enemies to lovers, and grumpy sunshine. The side characters are fabulous and the town of climax is filled with nosy and meddling neighbors! Josh and Avery bring all the emotions, laughs and feels to this story. They both have some baggage they are working through - although they are advisories they develop a beautiful romance. These two have amazing chemistry, banter and are great confidants for one another. There are laughs but also serious topics that Karen writes so beautifully. A fantastic read! Hoping there are more books that take place is Climax! Grayson Owens and Carly Robins delivered a fantastic performance! They gave perfect voice, personality and emotion to all the characters. I previously read and loved this book…but I love how narrators take authors words and create a whole new experience. Their voices are full of joy, seriousness and love. A fantastic listen!

Great Together

The Single Dad's Guide to Recreation is a small town, widower, steamy romance. Avery & Josh are cute together or they would be if they could get together. This book is an easy listen and very enjoyable. I really like Karen Grey's writing, I've read all her books maybe I'm bias. I'm surprised this book isn't based in the 1990's. I like the getaway, It turns out all funny. Grayson Owens and Carly Robins did an amazing job bringing this world to life. I like they're voices, hope I hear them together again.

Finding Balance

The narrators Carly Robins and Greyson Owens did a truly fantastic performance, 5 stars all the way. I could really feel all the emotions of Josh and Avery. I originally read and reviewed this book and when given the chance to listen to it, I couldn't pass it up. I devoured this audiobook in one sitting. Below is my original review.

This is a wonderfully written single dad rom-com based in the city of Climax. Josh and Avery meet and have this intense, instant attraction when they meet at Climax Parks and Rec. They both have lots of baggage which leads to lots of misunderstandings but it all is very realistic and makes you root for them even more. It is a slow burn but all the characters have depth and the story is pretty emotional at times. I definitely shed a few tears and laughed a lot. Avery has a very creative vocabulary that made this even more enjoyable. Definitely a 4.5 star must read and I can't wait for the next book.

I was sent an advanced copy from HCB and am voluntarily leaving this honest review.

I fell in LOVE with Josh & Avery!

I'm so thankful I found Karen Grey last year when I read the Farm 2 Forking series! I have enjoyed her writing and was so excited when I saw she had a new book coming out. This book was so much fun to read. I was hooked from the first page. OI was laughing out loud right away and knew I was in for a good time. I was excited to learn more about the town of Climax. This is a very interesting town with a little bit of magic to it.

Josh and Avery are such great characters and you will instantly fall in love with them both! Avery is just trying to take care of her parents that have health issues and keep their community center program going. Josh is trying to raise his kids and help make the community center into a better place with the company he works for. You will love his two kids. They are absolutely adorable and you'll die laughing when you here his son say his own name! LOL

Josh and Avery have instant chemistry and I just loved how everything unfolds. Your in for a fun ride with these two! There were so many laugh out loud moments in this book. Thank goodness I was alone most of the time because people would have thought I was crazy! LOL...There's some spice, moments you will be smiling and in the end just falling in love with the beautiful ending! I can't for the next book in this series. I would highly recommend this book.

small town drama

Funny, cute with small town drama. Enemies to lovers with likable characters that banter keeps you hooked. Totally recommend but be sure to read the trigger warnings.
I first read the book, then went back and listened to the audiobook. I loved the audiobook even more. Hearing the characters banter pulls you in so much more.

Funny and real

The Single Dad’s Guide to Recreation is the first book in the series, but it can be read as a standalone.

Avery was always looking out for her community while taking care of her parents. Josh was a single dad, and had his own struggles when it came to his kids, but he did his best.

The two of them were so good together. There was the push and pull, but they couldn’t deny their feelings or chemistry.

Also, Avery wasn’t the nanny, but she still bonded with his kids. And it was so cute.

There was some angst, banter, and funny moments.


Narration Style: Dual

The narrators did a great job bringing the story to life. There were some mispronunciations but not enough that it bothered me.

Heartfelt, Hilarious Single Dad Romance

Happy sigh…The Single Dad’s Guide to Recreation by Karen Grey was a feel-good small-town romance that had me grinning from start to finish. I adored everything about Avery and Josh’s single-dad romance and their stumbling meet-cute that was simply meant to be. Karen always creates heartfelt characters in memorable places, and I’m already intrigued with the town of Climax.

Carly Robins and Grayson Owens perform this audiobook in dual narration. Both narrators fully embodied Avery and Josh, creating an undeniable pull and meant-to-be chemistry between them. Carly’s bright, expressive voice captured Avery’s sunshiny and passionate personality, emphasizing her wants and desires perfectly. Grayson’s warm, soothing tone encompassed Josh’s vulnerabilities, doubts, and swoon-worthy demeanor, brilliantly making you feel every single emotion from Josh. Both narrators made this an entertaining and immersive listen.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. If you are a fan of a small town romance with a hot broody single dad, a devoted employee of CPR, Schitts Creek, and Parks and Rec vibes, a clumsy meet cute, a trip to Bedfellows farm, dad jokes, weekend romantic getaways, saving important programs, kid scares, motherly advice, healing from the past, intimate conversations, love declarations, grand house gestures, and a HEA that will guide its way into your heart, then you will love Avery and Josh’s story. I always look forward to more from Karen Grey.