Stirring Up Trouble

By: Z. A. Maxfield

Narrated by: Biff Summers

Length: 4 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Toby Andrews is cooking up more than a little trouble for Evan Blankenship. Because of pranks, indiscretions, and plain bad timing, his ability to work in New York's temples of haute cuisine is a thing of the past. When Toby's sister tells him he should look up an acquaintance whose restaurant - Le Potiron - is failing, he doesn't have much choice.

Pretty soon he's in bed, literally, with a cook who hates people, trying to save a restaurant that only the neighborhood mothers seem to love, and on the verge of another - possibly painful - lesson or two about what it means to be successful.

Evan hates everyone but Toby. Toby likes to stir things up. See what's on the menu at Le Potiron in Stirring Up Trouble.

©2011 Z.A. Maxfield (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

I'm sorry but what a shitty sister

I liked Toby generally but the sister screwed with his life a lot and not one apology. A lot of mistakes on names during narrations. I finished because I have ocd with unfinished books but it was cringe worthy, sorry.

Could have been good.

By chapter 7 I knew I couldn't care less about any of the characters. If all of a sudden they got hit by a bus it wouldn't have made the book any worse. The premise had potential but fell flat with severely underdeveloped characters.
The narration was at times jarring. A women character is introduced and apparently she is an 80 year old chain smoker ex drill sgt. with throat cancer, while men sounded higher pitched and more feminine. During sex scenes he did a "sexy voice". When there are quotes around that term it never ends up sounding sexy. I skipped all sex scenes because the voice pitch and speed made me seriously cringe.
If you just need background noise this would work fine because it won't grab your attention for long.

Narrator's reading is way too campy

I abhor people who do not take responsibility for their actions and this story brimmed with them. The protagonist is completely self-absorbed and entitled. Most of his problems arise because he does not think of the consequences of his actions and how they impact others. You are entitled to screw up your own life but you have no right to make short-sighted decisions where others pay the price for your mistakes. But it seems to run in the family because his sister is a selfish asshole, as well. The way she stuck Toby with her kid borders on neglect and as an attorney she should know better. Her and her husband needs to put their child first, not their jobs or their parents. If they had such time constraints, they should have hired a nanny or waited to have kids. Those are the major problems I had with the story and characters. I had a bigger issue with the narration. It was way too campy so it was hard to engage with the characters. The narrator's performance made the main character sound like a bobbleheaded, superficial twink, made his best friend sound like Harvey Fierstien, and most of the female characters sound like drag queens. For the sex scenes he used his "bedroom voice", it was not as titillating as he might have hoped.

Eh...spoilers

Okay. This started out cute but that changed when Toby met Evan. From the get go, Evan laid out his boundaries(he doesn’t like people, it’s his restaurant etc) IMMEDIATELY Toby brings someone into Evan’s space(his kitchen, which is sacred). Toby continuously pushes Evan around and just does what he wants and acts like he owns the place instead of Evan. They tentatively mention a partnership,literally in the same conversation after Evan opened up about his horrible partnership, and here comes Toby, taking advantage and makes major reconstruction to Evan’s restaurant. Toby also decided that Evan, who has long hair and probably actually likes it , needs a haircut. All in the name of Toby being a selfish, childish prick who wants to make a food critic regret blacklisting him. This book is so gross in that way and I hope people don’t actually treat people this way. Toby just flies in and disrespects Evan’s everything and somehow they fall into a relationship. I made it almost halfway. I’m glad this was included in my membership and that I didn’t actually spend money on this.

A few pronunciation issues, but great story.

I understand that there are certain words that aren't in common usage, and therefore most people don't know how to pronounce them. However, if your job is a Narrator, and you happen upon one of those words, you should certainly take the time to find out how those words should be pronounced. Not only does that help educate the listen to that word, but it also prevents people who know that word from balking at the egregious mispronunciation.

Other than those few issues, this is a really cute story.

Definitely worth a listen!

Horrible narration, poorly drawn characters

I don't have the Kindle book to compare, but the wrong characters' names were used repeatedly (Tony instead of Toby, Deb instead of Steph). Other words were horribly mispronounced. Character voices, as other reviewers said, were annoying and ridiculous (a young mother isn't going to sound like she's been chain smoking for 80 years and I hated Toby's whiny voice). Moving to the writing, the sister in particular, as mentioned by others, is selfish and very unlikeable. I was not invested in either MC. And if Toby is in love with Evan, he should know when Evan's twin is not Evan. That's "Loving a Twin 101." Don't waste your money or even an Audible credit on this.

entertaining

Did the story keep me engaged: yes
Were there any parts I found annoying: no
Did I feel an emotional connection to the characters: not really
Would I listen to it again: there are others i'd listen too before it, but i'd listen again if i were looking for something short.
Story comments: Was entertaining enough, but I would have preferred more back story on Evan.

Narrator comments: Narrator did a good job, there were a couple of slips (eg: Tony instead of Toby - but this could have been in the text). I had no problem distinguishing any of the characters and inflection was in all the right places - overall I have no real issues.

I like this idea better than the actual story

There’s a seed of something good here. I like the relationship between Toby and Evan. I love how they are with Toby’s nephew. I want to send it back with notes. I think it could become something really good if the story was longer and a little more developed.

I don’t care for this narrator. There is so much top-tier talent narrating MM romance/erotica today. I’m spoiled, and this doesn’t measure up.

I think I’d recommend reading rather than listening to this one.

Sweet & Savory

When you're not only fired from top notch restaurants, but the biggest food critic takes personal interest in ruining your career, you find yourself on the doorstep of a soon to be out of business tiny cafe with a French name and only brunch items on the menu. Somehow you find a way to get hired and along the way try to learn how to not be so impulsive. But that will probably take a lifetime.

Not for me

I gave it a fair shot and made it to chapter 5. I just couldn’t get into the story or the main character. It was slow and irritating. I do love this author, but this book just didn’t hold my interest