Smut

By: Karina Halle

Narrated by: Lidia Dornet, Shaun Grindell

Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's Summary

All Blake Crawford wants is to pass his creative writing course, get his university degree, and take over his dad's ailing family business. What Amanda Newland wants is to graduate at the top of her class, as well as finish her novel and prove to her family that writing is a respectful career.

What Blake and Amanda don't want is to be paired up with each other for their final project, but that's exactly what they both get when they're forced to collaborate on a writing piece. Since Amanda thinks Blake is an arrogant jerk (with a panty-melting smirk and British accent) and Blake thinks Amanda has a stick up her (tight, round) bottom, they fight tooth and nail. That is, until they discover they write well together. They also might find each other really attractive, but that's neither here nor there.

When their writing project turns out to be a success, the two of them decide to start up a secret partnership using a pen name, infiltrating the self-publishing market in the lucrative genre of erotica. Naturally, with so much heat and passion between the pages, it's not long before their dirty words become a dirty reality.

Contains mature themes.

©2016 Karina Halle (P)2016 Tantor

Male narrator butchers it

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, but not the audio version. Lidia Dornet was fabulous, as always, but Shaun Grindell ruined the entire listening experience for me. I looked up his bio and it says that he grew up in England, but he sounds Australian in this audio version. (The character he is portraying is supposed to be British.) More annoying, however, is the homogenous cadence he uses -- every sentence has the exact same inflection. If I could have reached through my headset and punched him in the throat I would have. Aaargh!!! SO distracting!

What did you like best about this story?

Great "Cheetos for your brain" listen.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Lidia Dornet and Shaun Grindell ?

Lidia Dornet's performance of the male character was strong enough on it's own -- no need for a male narrator!

Any additional comments?

The tag line for the audio book should be "Death By Hemorrhaging Ear Drums".

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Satirically good!

What I loved about this story is that the characters are aware of how cheesy and predictable romance novels can be.I could easily see this being a situation that plays out in real life. I love that the author doesn't take herself or the genre too seriously; so much so that she openly some of the classic tropes in contemporary romance. There were so many funny parts and of course steamy love scenes. The characters were very lovable and realistic and I found myself routing for them. Would definitely recommend. Very lighthearted and enjoyable story

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Funny and sexy

the female narrator was great. totally felt emotions thru her words. male narrator, not so much. just didnt care for his style of narration.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Gorgeous!

This was GORGEOUS! A true romance. There is good character background, friendship build-up (in this case hate to love), and the chemistry rising and rising so that by the time of the first kiss you (the reader) are practically floating around happily clutching your heart. So it’s a slow-burn romance and when the physical relationship starts it is scorching, daring, enthusiastic, youthful. There is great emotion, love, storyline, character development including that of secondary characters, laugh out loud humour, and a secure feeling that the happy ever after will be brilliant long after you are finished with the book.

While listening, I spooked a few people with my spontaneous barks of laughter - because of the humour in the novel; and I was accidentally bumped into from behind when I unexpectedly stalled mid-step with hand to my heart and sighed - because of the beauty of the heartfelt scenes (especially the first kiss) and other romantic/sexy moments.

The narrators Lidia Dornet and Shaun Grindell did a marvellous job of bringing all the characters alive off the page. The protagonists, Blake and Amanda are in their early 20s. I felt that the narrators' voices resonated beautifully for the youthful characters, as well as the older secondary characters. I am so impressed with Lidia Dornet’s characterization of the heroine’s housemate Ana who is a 40 year old thickly accented Estonian woman with a hilarious personality and some of the best laugh out loud lines. What a challenge when English Blake, Canadian Amanda and Estonian Ana are in the same room! The transition between all the accents was wonderful. You should hear Shaun Grindell do a Chilean spider! Hilarious!

The audible version is a wonderful romantic experience. I recommend it.

Great Characters

I loved the premise of this book and fell in love with the characters. The opening scene not only hooked me, but cracked me up. Halle does a great job of threading this throughout the rest of the story. I loved and feared Fluffy - such a unique piece of the story and great comic relief. Good sex scenes, good character bonding, overall a fun read.

Funny, sweet, and fucking hot :))

I have no idea how this reads on the page, but it was a great story to listen to. I LOL’d quite a bit. I really liked the gimmick of an erotic romance about a young pair of erotic romance writers. Lidia and Shaun did a great job. Their typecasting was spot on.

Enjoyable read of enemies to lovers

I really enjoyed this book. It was a fun read of enemies to lovers type of genre. Blake and Amanda’s relationship starts off being put into a position that they have to work with each other, when they find one another annoying and within working with each other they begin to realize the other one isn’t so bad. When a chance to write again together comes up, I enjoyed the moments of tension between them that kept building up.
I think that Lidia Dornet does a good job with her female and male voices, there were times were she would make a long pause in the middle of the reading, but it didn’t detract to much from the story. Shaun Grindell’s narration was alright, his audio would sound far away sometimes. I have heard him before in The Pact, and I enjoyed his narration way more in that one.

Wonderful

I love books that make you laugh. This one did not disappoint. Even as you wanted to shake your head at their choices, I was still chuckling. Happy listening

One of the cutest, sexy romance books ever!

2nd time I have listened to this book. It has great narration and truly laugh out loud moments. I also enjoyed the geeky stuff. I really liked this author's work! A light-hearted, fun book with some pretty hot moments too! Definately one of my favorites!!!

Witty, Funny, Entertaining

The story was different, interesting, usual. I loved the way these two characters came together, first out of a requirement and then out of need. The chemistry discovered from the first forced combination that made the second by choice work. And I'm not talking about sex either, although of course THAT was amazing on its own scale.
The author wove the main characters' back stories and family dynamics into the plot, causing either chaos or support, in places where it was needed. The whole book was well written. Another great example of talented writing by Ms. Halle.

And lets not forget the narrators who were on point. These two were new to me, but I thoroughly enjoyed listening to them. They were snarky, sexy, and perfect for the parts. And the British accent...yummy!