Clashing Hearts

An Enemies to Lovers, Gay Romance Novel (A Hometown Jasper Novel)

By: Nicky James

Narrated by: Nick J. Russo

Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

Easton

There is nothing I hate more than when some big-city outsider stirs trouble in my peaceful little town. When Mr. Arrogance himself waltzes in and thinks he can slap a price tag on my land, he doesn’t know what he has coming. I’m not just a hick cowboy who’s going to bend to his good looks and charmless personality. No, sir.

I don’t care how smart he looks in his fancy suits, all he cares about is money.

I just wish I’d known who he was before I kissed him.

Lachlan

The last thing I wanted was to get stuck in a small town with a plethora of quirky people. If the stubborn cowboy doesn’t see sense soon, I don’t know what I’ll do. Failure is not an option. I was sent to make a deal, and I’m not leaving until it’s done.

I don’t care how hot he looks in his low hanging denim, boots, and hat, he wouldn’t see a good opportunity if it smacked him in the face.

I just wish I could get the taste of him off my tongue.

City and country collide in this enemies-to-lovers, opposites attract, low-angst MM romance novel.

©2020 Nicky James (P)2020 Nicky James

A sweet and steamy enemies to lovers romance!

This was such a sweet, swoon worthy enemies to lovers romance.

Easton and Lachlan are opposites in every way and clash when they first meet. Their chemistry is intense and palpable and their instant dislike to eachother is apparent.
But their desire for eachother is stronger than their differences and they realize that they have much more in common that they thought.

This was a feel good, cosy low angst Listen. Nick J. Russo performed a stellar audio delivery as always!

Wow...

This book was amazing! I admit that Lachlan was really hard to deal with in the beginning. He was arrogant, rude, impatient, and super pretentious. However, I just knew he’d have to have a huge character arc to end up with someone like Easton and boy did he ever. He ends up doing a complete 180, so if you start this and he puts a bad taste in your mouth, keep going because I PROMISE you will love him by the end of this book.

Easton was such a great man. I absolutely loved his relationship with Percy and everyone in his family. His loyalty to his farm and anyone he cared about made him the best kind of person and one of my favorite types of characters to read about. He was confident and strong and he really put Lachlan through the ringer when it was needed. He brought out the best in Lachlan and, in turn, gained someone he could count on.

The book itself had a lot of great moments. One of the most surprising and interesting aspects was Easton's epilepsy. As someone who suffers from the same fate, it was nice to have that kind of representation. Not to mention the almost completely accurate depiction of it. I think the only thing that was unrealistic was when they hooked up like 20 minutes after he had a seizure because that would not at all be possible because of the severe level of exhaustion. Not to mention the amount of pain you're in the next day from working every single muscle in your body. Although that's kind of insider knowledge and me just being picky. ;) That being said, that was only a minor issue for me and did not affect my enjoyment.

There's not much mention of the steam factor in other reviews so I'll mention that for those interested. There's only a couple of steamy parts and they happen way later in the book. If you're looking for a lot of sex and hookups, this isn't the book for you. However, the steamy parts held no punches and were definitely worth it when they did occur. If you're a Mariana Zapata fan, this book is like the m/m version of her stuff.

Nick J. Russo was amazing, as usual. I picked this one up specifically because of him and I'm so glad I did. I absolutely love his narration and so far he can do no wrong.

Overall, I definitely recommend this book and I will 100% be listening to it again in the near future.

Great Couple and Story to Start a new Series!!!!!

I loved this story the first time I read it. Rich city fella comes to small but close knit country town, thinking that his money, looks and educational will have this town and especially the owner of said land he wants to purchase eating out of his hands.

However, he is the one that is thrown on his axel.

Nic Russo does a PHENOMENAL job bring the character's of Easton and Lachlan to live for me through his readings! I felt like I was getting to know them all over again through him!!

It was great taking the journey with Nic back to Jasper, to when it all began and getting little glimpses of future couples.

Excellent narration

I loved the book on its own but love the audio even more. Nick did a great job giving different voices to each of the characters and really brought the story to life.

One of the best enemies to lovers story ever!

I really loved listening to this one. One of the things I watch out for when listening to enemies to lovers stories, is the author would bring the two characters together, overcome the dislike and animosity. Nicky did that with such masterful storytelling, at a pivotal moment and emotional scenes.
I might have gotten teary eyed on some areas and had cringed on some other parts. But I'm glad Nicky didn't push a lot of angst on this one. There's already so much feels running around.
I also found the accurate representation of epilepsy interesting.
I love everything about this book and I want more of Lachlan and East. Maybe I'll catch more of them as I listen to more of the series.
Nick J Russo did an incredible job narrating this story. This one deserves more than 5 stars!

OMG! So good! ❤❤❤❤❤

This was my first book by Nicky James and oh my what an introduction! Easton and Lachlan are one of my favorite couples ever! The writing is skillful and inviting and full of warmth and all the feels. I couldn't stop listening and finished it in two days. That's nine hours of listening y'all! On to the audio performance of Nick J Russo... I have listened to so many of his performances and when I see he is the narrator I know I'll love the performance it's an easy click. I thought his performance of Beneath the Stain was my all time favorite but this was equally good!!! He embodied these characters and made me melt throughout the entire book every time Easton spoke! It was sexy soothing perfection! I was a willing captive of this fabulous world Nicky James and Nick Russo created! What a collaboration and when I saw the rest of the series is narrated by Nick I was ecstatic!!!! On to book two! Thank you both!

Nick J Russo's country twang is pure Sin.

If you only get to purchase one book a month, make this it!!! I cannot stress the urgency or recommendation for this book. This story from Nicky James is touching and so full of those heart felt emotions that.... God it gave me butterflies and I never get butterflies. I pride myself on controlling my emotions but this tore at my insides in the best way possible. Truly Hallmark worthy Christmas movie special. And please, please, please if they ever ask for the rights, force them to sign Nick Russo to Easton's character. That man's voice does things to me that I never thought a voice can do and his country twang for Easton is both sexy as well as endearing. this is the second book I heard Nick narrate and now I need to search this site for more from him.

Don't hesitate, best purchase of 2022 I've made yet! You won't regret this.

So good!

Definitely going on my top 5 favorites of all time. I always prefer two narrator books so there is distinction between the characters, I just feel it makes it easier to listen and follow and much more dynamic, but Nick goes back and forth between the characters voices so seamlessly and you almost forget it’s only one person doing both characters, truly awesome narration.

I am a sucker for enemies to lovers trope and Nicky does an excellent job of making you REALLY dislike a character and essentially going on the same journey with East to grow to like and eventually love him. Not sure if that was the intent, but truly such a good story!

Cowboy and Cityboy Joy!

This is my first Nicky James book and was reading the book when I wasn't listening to it!.. The story is captivating, I absolutely loved the characters,, Very emotional story, pushed all my buttons! I totally hated Lachlan's dad.. I also loved the interaction between the main characters from the time they met, and Percy... omg .
I am on to the second book in the series!

Would recommend. Great story and narrator.

Story line was great! The author really pulled me into her world. I really enjoyed the plot and where she took the story. The narrator was very pleasant. I really enjoyed his different character voices. Would recommend!

Good writing, strong characters and good audio.

Everything works in this modern cowboy novel. A rare find in current MM fiction where sub standard commercial writing is to be expected.

One of my favorite!

The best enemies to lovers story I've listen to so far. It's not far-fetched. For so many of this type of stories the characters suddenly change their behavior to become lovers. Here it makes sense and it works! There are other events happening, it's not only focus on the 2 main characters fighting with each other wich makes this book complete.
It's the second time I listen to it and enjoyed it greatly again.

Great narration by Nick J. Russo once again. If you like cowboy accent you're in for a treat ;)

I big 5 starts for me, I highly recommend it!!!

Heart warming

Love this story enemies to lovers with a happy ever after and a dear little boy all adds up to a heart warming story and it's well narrated to add to the pleasure.

Home Home on the Range

Satisfying romance on a horse farm. Sweet MCs in a sweet tale of ups and downs with excellent narration. No cringing or shenanigans here. ENJOYABLE

Nailed it!

I've listened/read so many 'city boy falls for the cowboy' type stories but they've all felt contrived and lacking in some way. This was perfection. I felt empathy for all the characters and the main characters felt naturally drawn together with the events of the story. I haven't read this author before but I will definitely read more now! Excellent story I'd definitely say hands down better than any other story of this type. It flowed so beautifully and of course Russo brought it to life perfectly as always.

Fantastic, Brilliant book by Nicky James 💞💞

Love... Love.. Loved.. This so good pulls you in from start to finish they hate each other but the pull and attraction these two feel for each other is beautiful, the connection they feel Easton & Lachlan I do love these two and percy is such a little cutie and Nick j Russo did a brilliant job off bringing it all together as though you are there with them the way he did Easton is so draw dropping so good recommend so much beautiful and heart warming 💖💖💖💖💖

Loved it!

I was so excited about this audiobook and it was really, really good! The narrator is new to me, but he did a really amazing job with the voices, he gave life to the characters and I loved listening to this story.

I loved reading this book and now it was more perfect while listening to it. Easton and Lachlan's story is so good, you can easily fall in love with them.

I fell for Lachlan and Easton. And for Easton's life style with the horses and that beast of a dog - Logan. And that kid, awww, Percy, he was a cutie, loved him too.
And I have to mention Josiah - LOL - he was something else. Josiah and the way he spoke, just OMG I can't! Hilarious.

Easton and Lachlan both were really complex characters and I loved watch them became more and more. Especially Lachlan. He came a really long way to become this super cute and caring man who loves the farm life too. I loved his insecurity and loved how they called each other names (I loved when Easton called Lachlan city). The tension between these two was so HOT. Really enemies to lovers, and so so amazing.

Two alpha male, the exact opposite of each other, but still, they fallen in love, and in bed too.

Loved the audio.

Wonderful!

Some stories just grab you, pull you in and you just can’t put it down until you know how it ends. This book was that for me. When I saw this was going to audio, I was so excited. I knew this was going to be a must listen! Nick Russo did a great job in bringing Lachlan and Easton to life for me! His narration really pulled me back to Jasper and I was immediately was drawn into Lachlan and Easton’s story. I’ll admit when I read the book, I found myself wondering if I would ever start liking Lachlan! Nick Russo’s narration of him endeared me to him sooner than I remembered from my read! I loved the push and pull of the sexual tension and the hate-hate relationship Lachlan and Easton had going on. I loved seeing Lachlan’s emotions evolve and as he began to really see the beauty of Jasper through East’s eyes. These two, and Percy, really pulled on my heartstrings and I loved seeing them get their happily ever after. As usual, Nicky James tells such a beautiful story, with wonderful characters and emotions you can feel. Nick Russo really did a wonderful job conveying her words and the emotions of the characters. I’m eager for the rest of this series to come out in audio as each book was fantastic!

Enemies to lovers and cowboys? Sign me up!

I loved this book when it first came out on Kindle, but getting to listen to these characters come to life under Nick Russo's talented narration took it to the next level. The emotional moments in this story felt so much more real when I could hear the frustration or fear or passion in these men's voices. I could tell that Nick really understood the characters he was narrating by the way he so accurately interpreted their personalities, all the way down to their city vs. country boy accents. On top of the fantastic narration, the actual story was incredible. I've always been a fan of enemies-to-lovers style romances, and Lachlan and Easton provided the perfect combination of hate-filled stares and simmering lust. Add in the small town landowner vs big city developer conflict and there was no chance of me putting this book down.

If Easton was an immediately likable character, then Lachlan was the dark horse, swooping in later on to steal my heart away entirely. Sure, at the beginning Lachlan was materialistic, ruthless, and ambitious, but as time went on it became obvious that he didn't choose that lifestyle. As he spent more time in Jasper, his harsh edges softened and I began to see hints of a genuinely good person buried underneath that expensive corporate shield. I love stories that involve a lot of self-reflection and character growth, and in Lachlan's case it was particularly satisfying to see. From exploring empathy to taking care of Easton during his roughest moments, Lachlan proved his worth to me every step of the way. By the time Lachlan realized he was in love, his entire persona had been transformed and he seemed genuinely happy with his life in Jasper--completely unlike the stuck-up city boy I met in chapter one,

In a book with such stand-out main characters, I was impressed by how incredible all the side characters were. Percy in particular brought so much dimension and life to this story, showcasing Easton's kindheartedness and revealing Lachlan's inner sweetness early on. As if this story didn't already have enough things going for it, I was super invested in the actual storyline and finding out what was going to happen to Easton's land. Nicky has such a knack for pacing out a story so that everything falls into place in unexpected ways, and the conclusion to this book was no exception. As I was reading the epilogue I caught myself tearing up with happiness because everything worked out so wonderfully for their little family and I adore them so much!

**I voluntarily listened to a free copy of this book. This review expresses my honest thoughts and opinions.

Absolutely loved it

The story, characters, environment and everything was created so well. I loved how it started, the dynamics between the MCs and how they change and developed. I got irritated, I smiled and I cried big tears during the process.
The narration is great but I just loved Nick’s Easton.