The Hookup

By: Kristen Ashley

Narrated by: Lance Greenfield, Stella Bloom

Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

When the new girl in town, Eliza "Izzy" Forrester, decides to hit the local drinking hole, she's not ready to meet the town's good, solid guy. She's definitely not prepared to engage in her very first hookup with him.

Then Izzy wakes up the next morning in Johnny Gamble's bed, and good girl Izzy finds she likes being bad for Johnny.

Even so, Izzy feels Johnny holding her at arm's length. But Johnny makes it clear he wants more, and Izzy already knows she wants as much as she can get of hot-in-bed, sweet-out-of-it Johnny Gamble.

Floating on air, thinking this is going somewhere, Izzy quickly learns why Johnny holds distant.

He's in love with someone else. Someone who left him and did it leaving him broken. Whoever was up next would be runner-up, second best. Knowing the stakes, Izzy will take what she can get from the gentleman that's Johnny Gamble. And even knowing his heart might never mend, Johnny can't seem to stay away from Izzy.

Until out of nowhere, his lost love comes back to town. He's not going back, but Johnny still knows the right thing to do is let Izzy go.

And Izzy knew the stakes, so she makes it easy and slips though his fingers.

But that's before Johnny realizes Izzy moved to town to escape danger that's been swirling around her.

And that's why Johnny decides to wade in.

That and the fact Izzy Forrester makes breakfast with a canary singing on her shoulder and fills out tight dresses in a way Johnny Gamble cannot get out of his head.

©2017 Kristen Ashley (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Really enjoyable story :)

4-4.5 stars

This was a really enjoyably story. I liked both Izzy and Johnny and liked their story. This review does have one bit of info about the Johnny & the OW that might be considered a bit spoilerish.

Izzy is the director of a database management team and loves her work. She recently started having a longer commute as, after some issues with a slightly psycho ex, Izzy decided to move outside of the city. She moved near her BFF and has a place big enough for her dogs, cats, birds and horses.

Johnny co-owns some businesses with his brother but he prefers not to manage those businesses himself as that's just not him. Johnny is a mechanic...he likes fixing things and is happy getting his hands dirty. Johnny thought he was in love a few years back but it ended badly and he hasn't dated seriously since then.

When the story begins, Izzy is waking up in Johnny's bed. Izzy is not the type of woman that has a hook up so she's really not sure how to handle things. There are some stumbles but Izzy and Johnny do get through breakfast and set up a time for an actual date. Although because of how they started, Izzy is iffy on how serious their date is supposed to be. Johnny is a bit slow to let people in but he's definitely interested in Izzy and exploring the attraction between them. They start spending some times together but Izzy's BFF also warns her about Johnny's Ex so she's worried about getting her heart broken.

And yes, the Ex does come back to town but Johnny (spoiler) isn't happy about it. He does make one mistake that didn't look good when his Ex showed up that had Izzy freaking out but he was pretty quick to confront the matter with Izzy and make sure she was straight on the fact that he wasn't interested in his Ex. Outside of that, the Ex isn't a major part of the story. There's also a bit of drama in the story from Izzy's sister and nephew showing up unexpectedly due to troubles of their own and their addition had some issues but also added nicely to the story. Izzy and Johnny are able to work things out between them, getting on the same page and working on starting a life together, ending the story with a HEA.

This was a really enjoyable story. Izzy was a real sweetheart..sometimes in a slightly unbelievable way (scene with the birds). But Izzy is a good heroine and is also smart and practical and even a bit of a goof, which made her more likable. Johnny seemed a bit unsure about things at first but I think he just had to adjust because he didn't expect to find Izzy. After his one big mistake, Johnny was great...an extremely considerate and gentlemanly hero. My only real complaint is that the story was maybe a bit slow in the beginning. It picked up and actually puled me in after I read into it some but it wasn't immediate. Overall, I really liked both the characters and the story so I'd recommend this story.

* note - Both narrators did fine jobs but I will say that for me, their tones weren't quite what I felt fit the characters.

Great

Another great story by Kristen Ashley, I'm a huge fan of hers. I love that Izzy was a strong character. Izzy and Johnny are such great characters together. Definitely some hot sex scenes going on.

(Member’s Mom) TOOTH ACHE SWEET

Always a fan of Kristen Ashley. This one lacked the drama but it was a good love story.

great!

I've read this book a couple of times so to listen to it was great. I believe that they did an excellent reading.

Impossibly high bar for reality!

I think this may be my favorite yet! How can anyone not want this exact kind of love, no matter the form. True, pure, unconditional & unapologetic. This should be a handbook of how to love. I want to wrap myself in this story!

A true gentleman!

I feel like I am on repeat with my reviews but once again, the beginning was not my favorite. Once the Hero got with the program, I started to love it. The only difference between this and other KA books in the beginning was that for once, the hero was not a jerk to the heroine. In fact, he was very good to her when there was an uncomfortable situation in the beginning and I gotta say, she also handled it very maturely. I love that. I want my couples to be mature adults.

Johnny was actually one of my favorite heroes. If you want to know how a man should treat a women, he is it. But I also struggled with him being in love with an old flame in the beginning of the book. It took a long time for me to feel that the heroine wasn't a runner up for him. I really don't like that for the heroine. By the end, I finally felt like he realized she was the true love of his life. I just don't like to share my heroes. I want them to be with one woman only.

I listened to the audiobook and would recommend it. Both narrators did a really good job.

This book really is worth reading just to see how what a gentlemen Johnny was. If more men behaved this way in real life, they could have pick of any woman they wanted.

Love KA and SB

Love Kristen’s series. So great to listen to while gardening. I absolutely hate Lance tho. His delivery doesn’t fit the character or even the scenes he reads. It’s as if everything is over emphasized and overly dramatic for the story being told. All of the stars are for Stella and KA.

Yay!

Always love Kristen 's writing. This one is great, but hoped for a next installment of one of her previous series. Lance is good but was a little too intense at times and his female voice was naturally not as well done as Stella's. The tone of her male voices was for me preferable. Overall a solid 4 stars.

Moonlight & Motor Oil - Perfect Combo!

Holy Moly! This was such a great listen! The story is sweet and romantic and has enough steaminess when needed. As I was listening I seriously thought that if there was ever a possibility that there was a power to create men I'd give that power to Kristen. Johnny is sweet, romantic, alpha.... and oh so yummy!!

The story is filled with great characters and I'm so looking forward to see what comes! Both the heroine and hero are smart, kind and have a great circle of individuals (both family and friends) surrounding them.

I will say that the blurb is a tad bit misleading but what does transpire is awesome! This is one of those stories where you feel like you're catching up with friends.

Narrators review:
The first time I heard Lance was in Kristen's COMPLICATED and I immediately fell for his performance. I've had the opportunity to listen to a few other of his narrations and loved them all! When I learned that he was going to be narrating Kristen's THE HOOKUP there was a "squeeeeeee" involved! Similar to Lance, I first listened to Stella in one of Kristen's book from the UNFINISHED HEROES series! She rocked those titles and she rocked THE HOOKUP!

Lance and Stella bring to life not only the main characters but also all of the characters. Providing each character with their own tones and tones.


Overall, this was a great story with little drama/angst. You'll want each of the characters to be your friend! I'm so looking forward to the next installment!

The Hookup was a captivating, heartwarming romance

Every time I start a new Kristen Ashely book, I get the warm and fuzzies. The Hookup was a captivating, heartwarming romance. After reading around 50 Kristen Ashely books, I can’t say it was one of my favorites, but I enjoyed it very much!

Johnny and Eliza reminded me of some of the old school KA heroes and heroines. Johnny had that KA alpha attitude. He was sexy, swoony, with a bit of sweetness. Eliza was fun, sweet, and drama free. I loved them together. I loved their chemistry. I loved that there was no over the top drama.

I think most fans of Kristen Ashley will enjoy this book. There really wasn’t anything I didn’t like about it! I listened to the audiobook and the narration was good. It was one of those books I didn’t want to hit pause on. Crossing my fingers the next ‘Moonlight and Motor Oil’ book will be a Toby and Addi book!