Shameless King

By: Maya Hughes

Narrated by: Jason Clarke, Emma Wilder

Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's Summary

A deliciously steamy enemies with benefits romance.

Declan McAvoy. Voted Biggest Flirt. Highest goal scorer in Kings of Rittenhouse prep history. Everyone’s impressed, well except one person.... 

After a blow out in high school, Makenna Halstead and I were happy to never have to cross paths again. Except life has a way of knocking you straight in the teeth with a puck when you least expect it. She hasn’t just returned to my life, she crashed into it like a wrecking ball...into my college kingdom, into my class, and smack dab into the seat next to mine. My new lab partner to be exact.  

For years we hated each other.... I may be King on the ice, but she is the Ice Queen. She has no problem calling me out, doesn’t back down, and her piercing blue eyes have me picturing more than than just my arms wrapped around her. 

Now we’re stuck with each other, and there’s no getting around that fact that we have to work together. My hockey career hangs in the balance. Problem? Oh, yeah. 

I can’t deny it. I want her. More than I ever thought I could want a woman. I’ve got one semester - only four months - to convince her everything she thought about me was wrong.  

Will my queen let me prove to her I’m the King she can’t live without? 

Only one way to find out....
 

©2018 Some Kind of Wonderful Publishing LLC (P)2019 Some Kind of Wonderful Publishing LLC

Sweet, college romance

This was a sweet, quick read/listen. The angst was fairly low, which I find appealing in a new adult romance, as the genre too often tends towards characters which blow things out of proportion. The main characters knew each other in high school and were often at odds, but find each other again fours years later; this was another element I liked about the story - that Declan and Mak were almost finished with college (seniors) as opposed to just starting out. Both characters are single-minded in pursuit of their larger goals, but their reunion knocks each a bit off track and it is enjoyable to watch as they come to know themselves and each other better as a result. There was the requisite heat between them, but also a deeper connection that made for some sweet moments.

Hughes has also set up Declan’s fellow Kings of Rittenhouse, some of the leads to come in subsequent books. The reader gets enough of their individual personalities and tight-knit group dynamic to pique her interest in what’s in store in future installments.

Jason Clarke was as amazing as always (he’s a perennial favorite of mine for a reason! 🐉); Emma Wilder was new to me, but was also excellent and I will definitely look for more of her work. Both were well-cast here and gave dimension to Declan and Mak in a way I might not have fully appreciated had I merely read the book alone. I find strong audios can often lift a story up and set it apart from those with similar plots and characters. In a saturated market like romance, that is especially helpful towards making books and authors more memorable. I hope Hughes brings the other books in the series to audio.

Overall, well worth a listen/read and I will definitely continue with the series, especially if the rest come to audio.

Read thru KU; listened thru Audible.

@JasonClarke

If your name isn't Jason Clarke keep going.
My dude. Your heavy intake of breath between every sentence literally ruined this book. JFC. I feel like that's all I could hear. heeeehhhh. heeeehhhh. you have a great voice for narration but the heavy breathing was just too much. it was too much. how did you not have cotton mouth from breathing so heavily? that loud intake of breath was just awful. itll probably give me nightmares for the next month. awful

TWO HORNY COLLEGE KIDS

Campus loverboy, Declan, and nerdie College girl, McKinley, are hard at studying....... The nerd loses out on premed BA (?) program because Declan forgot to set the alarm so they could make it to a class to turn in a special project. Causing Mac to to get a B minus. Not good enough to pursue her planned goals. I didn't like the way Mac freaked out. She breaks up with Declan and he goes into a depression. I think ya'll like the audio. Makes me yearn for my younger days. I mean they were like rabbits.

Loved Makenna & Declan

Shameless King was a wonderful enemies to lovers romance. I liked the characters a lot and enjoyed the banter between them. I really felt for Makenna. It hurt my heart to hear what happened when she was younger and how she dealt with it.
This was definitely a story about not just taking things at face value but looking deeper.
I can’t wait for more. Look forward to listening to the next book.

Great!

Loved! Hoping to hear the rest of the kings books in the future. The narrators were perfect!

pretty good

This was pretty good but nothing addicting. I have been trying to find something similar to the off campus series. This is similar to that but the characters were just not there for me.

very good

Loved it !! this story. the narrator is so fantastic it's like your really there!! good overall

A waste of time, empty and boring

Don't waste your credit and time on this one it's just bad and empty. The ennemy to lovers plot lasted 3 scenes before being forgotten and then it was just sex scenes and no devellopement beside that.

A good read!

I listened to this book because I heard it would be a good choice to read if you liked the off campus series by Elle Kennedy, so I gave it a go and I was not disappointed! The story was sweet and steamy enough but I will admit the off campus series is way better in every way possible, the characters, the story, the way it was written and the narrators were a lot better but I still really enjoyed this book! I do feel like they could’ve picked a better male narrator this just wasn’t the part for him. I will for sure be reading the other books in this series though!

Arch enemies 2nd chance

Great story. could not wait to finish to find out if they told each other their own demons

Loved it!

Gah! I adored this book. It's got a lot of my favourite things: enemies-to-lovers, college, and sports. I loved the chemistry between Makenna and Declan. Once they started getting closer, the passion between them was INSANE! They were so hot together! Makenna is so focused on her future - for what some might think all the wrong reasons - that she starts getting skittish when things between her and Declan heat up. Declan is so passionate about Makenna, and so determined in his pursuit of her. I loved how invested in her he felt, and how much he wanted her to reciprocate the feelings he had. I loved that what you saw on the surface of both characters was most definitely not what you got. Both had things going on in their lives that their public personas didn't project. This was a great first in a series, with a good introduction to other characters. A fab read and thoroughly recommend if you like the NA genre. The narration was spot on. Absolutely love these two narrators. The brought the characters and story to life perfectly. I’m so looking forward to listening to the rest of the series.

Another great story

4*
Mackenna has changed college to be closer to home after her father's diagnosis.
Declan is surprised to see Mackenna in his college and even more shocked they get paired together on a project.
Neither can afford to fail.
He's a hockey player she's a book worm two complete opposites who have a history.
Seeing more from the characters after listening to Kings of Ritten was fabulous.

Declan and Mak!

All Declan wants is to get through his last year of college so that he can achieve his dream of becoming a professional hockey player so that he can do right by his mother. Makenna is a driven and serious student who has recently transferred from Stanford to the University near her parents so that she can be there for them.

Declan and Mak went to high school together and have perfected the art of driving each other crazy. When they find themselves in the same class they are dreading that they have been assigned as partners but as they work together Mak realizes there is much more to Declan than his easygoing attitude while Declan sees the whole Mak not just the serious student and the heat between them is off the charts but will one mistake destroy everything?

I received a complimentary copy of the audiobook and believe that the narrators made a great story even better.

hooked

hooked from the word go , could just not stop listening to this audiobook ! narration was perfect the characters chemistry was off the charts and the writing/story line was brilliant ! cant wait to listen to the rest of the series