Date Me Like You Mean It

By: R.S. Grey

Narrated by: Luci Christian, Teddy Hamilton

Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

I’m good at hiding my feelings.
Having to pretend I’m not in love with my best friend?
Pfft. That’s child’s play.

Here’s how I do it: I avert my eyes when he walks out of his room, shirtless in all his toned glory. I squash the butterflies that fill my stomach every time he slowly unfurls a dimpled smile. And, most importantly, I keep an arsenal of “personal massagers” in my bedside drawer. Wink. 

Not to brag, but Aiden Smith isn’t hard to resist if you’ve been doing it for as long as I have. In fact, we might have continued as best friends forever if not for the fact that I needed him to play the part of my fake boyfriend. 

Date me like you mean it, I told him. Nudge nudge. C’mon, just go along with a little lie, help a girl out, and then we can all return to life as we know it.

Except he veered from the plan.

He crossed the line.

Flirting with me when no one else was around? Pinning me down and kissing me like that? Okay, how exactly is taking off my bra part of the ruse, Aiden?!

I’d ask him about it if I could, but well...things got ugly and we’re not best friends anymore.

In fact, we’re the exact opposite.

Now, I have to play nice even though I want to crush his heart in the palm of my hand.

Pretending not to love Aiden was the easy part.

Pretending not to hate him?

Well...I might need a little more practice.

©2020 R.S. Grey (P)2021 Audible, Inc.

DNF

Story: Two best friends who are also brother and sister in law (heroine sister is married to hero’s brother) are roommates. The heroine has had feelings for the hero since meeting him at the sisters wedding, but neither of them have acted on it....until now. I’m a sucker for friends to lovers and with Teddy Hamilton as one of the narrators, this was an auto click for me. Sad to say though, I didn’t finish this.

Luci is new to me as a narrator and while her voice is pleasant for both male and female, her inflections were off and it became distracting. It felt like she was reading, not performing -if that makes sense-. I couldn’t really get a feel of the characters through her, and for someone like me who likes to imagine the scenes and feel each emotion through the presentation of the narrators, this became a problem 60 mins in......I guess I’ve been spoiled by females such as Andi Arndt and Erin Mallon who excels not only in bringing out that raw emotion when they narrate, but bringing the characters to life with it.

Also, for all the Teddy Hamilton fans such as myself, he doesn’t appear until the second half of the book and even then his part is extremely limited. I didn’t get to his part, I just know based on how the chapters are laid out. Part 1 of the book is all Luci and the heroine...what’s her name (yes, I can’t even remember her name 5 mins after calling it quits to write this review LOL). Part 2 is both Luci and her heroine, and Teddy and the hero. Teddy narrates maybe 1/3 (I’m being generous) of the second part of the book. Side note: I hope he’s not getting so popular he only take roles in a limited capacity, because that would be sad, he’s too great a narrator, but I digress. Anyway, as I was saying, this book has 24 total chapters and an epilogue, of these chapters, Teddy narrated 6 short chapters, yes only 6! That’s one of the biggest reasons I decided to return this audio and purchase this to read instead. I like the story, just can’t get pass Luci’s narration without Teddy’s to provide a balance.


P.S. I just looked up Luci Christian thinking she was new, she’s been doing this at least since 2012. I find it sad that with so many years in the business she hasn’t gotten better as a narrator. Looking back on some of the great narrators that I know (Andi Arndt and Erin Mallon...my female faves) you see the growth in their art, Luci hasn’t improved from what I can tell. Maybe it’s time for her to do some voice lessons and focus on her inflections...it goes a long way in telling a story and keeping the audience engaged. If she can lock that down then she would be perfect. Her voice is sweet, and she can be funny and fun (there were peeks of it in the hour I listened to her), but her inflections kills her narration. If you can ignore narrators and focus on the story, then yes, it’s worth a credit. If you are like me, living/experiencing the story through narration, then save your credit, not worth it.

Love

Loved this story have listened to it several times and never fails to make me smile.

I Absolutely LOVED It! 💕

OMGosh, OMGosh, OMGosh!!!! Each and every page... 😍😍😍

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel from the first page until the very last. It has been a very rare occurrence that I could just pick up a book and read it in one day; but, I was captivated by these characters and their amazing love story instantaneously.

Really cute story

I thought this book was really cute! It didn't have the instalove that a lot of romances have. The characters have known each other for years before they got together. They knew everything about the other, so it was easier for their relationship. It was really cute and we all love a happy ending!

When do they actually 'date'?

After having read other reviews, I thought that I'd made a mistake with this cute friends to lovers story. The narration was fine with me. I thought Luci Christian possibly didn't care for the character of Maddie and did an A- job with her. Maddie was a whiny brat. She went from obsessive to possessive to needy to apologetic after she got what she wanted. I didn't care for her. Aiden deserved a more supportive 'friend'. Maddie's all "Follow your dreams... as long as they're local."

That being said, the title throws you off because the couple never dates! How did R.S. Grey come up with this title? Maddie has Aiden pretend to be her boyfriend on a trip, where they aren't dating. Cute story nonetheless.

Cute friends to lovers romance

Good narration, although I would have liked more Teddy Hamilton. The story was a low angst, cute, friends to lovers romance.

Great Read

This book left me with a great feeling! with the narrators, I feel like I could picture the characters more. Predictable in ways, but I loved it!

I liked it

I don't know if it was one of my favorite R.S. Grey stories but I did like it, especially after reading something that had me more on edge this was a pallet cleanse so to speak. Narration cannot get better than Teddy Hamilton and Luci Christian. This was a best friend to lovers trope with good banter, humor and of course a HEA.

So sweet

This is a wonderful friends to lovers story. There’s the element of “will they, won’t they” that kept me guessing and hoping right up until the end.

Friends to Lovers ❤️

The one thing I love about Rachel’s books is that they always bring a smile to my face, and I have needed that the way things are these days.

I have always loved stories of best friends becoming in love with one another. I think that’s a great foundation in a relationship because it doesn’t start out sexually. Maddie knew everything about Aiden, and she loved him, but couldn’t tell him. I know I’ve seen reviews where readers have criticized that fact, but I know I am a lot like Maddie. I would not have had the courage to tell my best friend I was in love with him. In fact, I would have probably told Aiden to take the job in New York as well because that would take away the hurt of knowing he chose to leave because he didn’t feel the same way. I know it’s all about communication, but sometimes it’s a difficult thing to do, especially with the ones you love the most.

This didn’t have as many laugh out loud moments as many of her other books, but it still was a feel-good story. I think both the narrators did a great job with their parts. Luci always does a good job when she has to bring a character like Maddie to life. Maddie was ditzy, awkward, kind, and smart, but at the same time very insecure. She built this wall around her so that she wouldn’t get hurt.

The only negative is that I do wish we could’ve had more of Aiden’s POV in the first part of the book. We don’t hear from him until the second half of the story. It would’ve been nice to hear more from Teddy because he’s terrific at what he does and makes Aiden sound so much hotter.