A Full Plate

Dreamspun Desires

By: Kim Fielding

Narrated by: Kenneth Obi

Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Bradford “Tully” Tolliver has everything - money, a beautiful condo, and a promising career as one of Portland’s hottest young lawyers. Sure, he puts in long hours and has no social life, but who needs romance when corporations pay top dollar for his expertise?

When a colleague asks if her cousin can live with him, he’s hesitant, but the arrangement will last less than a year, and then the cousin - Sage Filling - will return to his tiny hometown. But Sage is handsome and intriguing, and his cooking makes Tully swoon.

Sage has obligations back home though, and Tully has offers from a persistent - and very wealthy - ex that he might not refuse.

Tully and Sage each have a full plate, but will they make room for a side of love?

©2018 Kim Fielding (P)2018 Dreamspinner Press

Epic narration

Last night, the sad news that Kenneth Obi had passed away reached me. For a while now he’s been one of my favourite narrators and while I might have only known him for his voice that I’ve spent countless hours listening to, he will most definitely be missed. The genre has lost a wonderful voice. So I wanted to dedicate this weeks’ flashback Friday review to one of his earlier works.

Bradford Tolliver, or rather Tully, has it all; the fancy well paid job, the equally fancy apartment and the flashy car to go with it. So what if he doesn’t have a social life or social life to speak of. When a colleague and friend ask him for a favour – housing her cousin for a few months, he’s more than hesitant to comply. The negotiations of the terms for said stay was kind of hilarious. They weren’t lawyers or nothing. Anyway, Sage Filling is in town to help his family out, he’s also the polar opposite to Tully. Against his better judgement Tully agrees to take Sage in. And so begins the love story between him and Sage. They do say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach – and Sage has all the recipes.

This book was all cute and sweet, no angst, no drama and no hot and heavy parts either. But that fits with the quiet romance that built between Tully and Sage. Something that I also appreciated was the lack of drama or love triangle when Tully’s ex showed up on the scene committed to do anything to get Tully back. These things tend to get out of hand, cause major dramas and melt downs and not to forget the big Misunderstandings. I loved how that wasn’t the case with this story – so thank you Ms. Fielding for that!

Kenneth Obi’s narration made you dream away to a faraway land, where a lawyer and a chef move in together. He made your mouth water from all the foods and he made you want for a chef of your own. I love how he has different voices for the characters he’s portraying. It makes it so easy to follow the conversations and story overall. But my favourite talent of his was his ability to convey the emotions of the characters and the feel of the moments. Making the listener feel the tension, or happiness and love makes the experience of the book so much more. You become more invested. He made this story so much more with his lovely baritone voice.

Listening to A Full Plate was a bittersweet experience as his passing is so recent, but it was also wonderful hearing his voice. He will be missed.

A copy of this book was generously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review for Love Bytes.

A Full Plate

~ 4.5 Stars ~
I’m normally not a huge fan of the Dreamspun Desires series of books, because they are usually a pretty low drama and angst, basic romance with nothing that really stands out to make them epic or really truly different from each other. But I wanted to check out this audiobook specifically because I am a huge fan of the narrator Kenneth Obi. And I'm glad I did, he did a great job with this one and I was delighted by the storyline we get in this book as well.

I really appreciated Kenneth’s narration and effort into making this book stand out and separate it from the being just a general romance into something more. He makes this book feel like it’s a true romance story, and his narration gives us the extra feelings we need; like we are right there alongside these characters as they go through and experience everything in their lives. His narration of this book makes me want to check out more in the Dreamspun Desires series to see if maybe this series of books are really just more pleasurable listening to in audio form than they are when just being read.

Tully is a lawyer who seems to have everything he needs in life. The job, the money, the home and cars. The only thing he still needs is to find a solid relationship. Sage is the total opposite of Tully. He’s a line cook (not a chef) and has all kinds of baggage going on in his life, which isn’t really his doing. Life just sucks sometimes and you have to make the best of it, which is what Sage has been doing for years. He ends up moving in with Tully and swaps free rent for some cooking. We get a very, very slow burning lead up to their romance before they even become friends in this book. Then they try to fight their feelings for each other trying to determine what boundaries they still have and will need to bend being friends and roommates. Then they become just a little bit more. And at around 50%, we get a twist in the story that you will NEVER see coming. I was extremely surprised by it and actually gasped out loud when I heard what was going on. I really thought that aspect added more to their story and relationship and finally pushed them in the right direction. We also get a little bit of some “ex” drama thrown in which I actually liked, because it showed these characters had a little more depth to them and their feelings. Also, be prepared when you are reading/listening to this one. There is a lot of really good intense foodie talk going on in this book which made me hungry and want to eat while listening to this book. But, overall, I liked this book and the narration we got along with it.

Lovely

A Full Plate is well-narrated by Kenneth Obi. He provides different character voices, a good emotional range in bringing the text to life, and has a smooth delivery style. His pacing was a bit slow, but overall it was a pleasant listening experience.

A Full Plate is a single, third person, POV, sweet opposites attract romance with low steam, low angst, and a wonderful HEA ending. This is one of my favorite Dreamspun Desires titles and the audio definitely adds that little something extra.