At First Irritation

The Unwilling Adventures of Harlow & Foxx, Book 1

By: Shelby Rhodes

Narrated by: Matt Williams

Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

Welcome, welcome, I can only guess you are here to read about my wonderful adventures. Oh, you don’t know who I am? Well, I’m Foxx Honeywell. An adorable, fierce vampire with a kink for violence. Anywho, this marks the beginning of my story. A story of violence, blood, possibly pain, and love. Though the love part is not so apparent at first.

So how does this story start you may ask. Well, it starts with a simple… Okay, maybe not so simple, law change, and a new job. I, Foxx, join the notorious Hunters Guild. An organization that used to murder my kind indiscriminately. But that was in the past, we move on and forward to better things as paranormals are legal now! Yay, legal….

However, joining this government agency of questionable morals was just the catalyst of it all. Sure, the job is fun, with lots of killing, maiming, blood, and even some explosions. But what is an adventure if you are all on your own? Boring, that’s what. No, the true satisfaction and fun comes not just from the job but from my partner on the job, Harlow Blackmore. The man is a sexy, silver fox of a human, who may or may not be a psychopath. He also possibly finds me irritating as hell. As any rational adult would, I choose to ignore those last parts and focus on the sexy! It will surely all work out in the end!

CONTENT WARNING: This is a slow burn M/M paranormal romance book. There will be violence, blood, gore, and death. Please do not listen if you find any of the previous triggering.

©2023 Shelby Rhodes (P)2024 Shelby Rhodes

Love Foxx and Harlow!

Fox is a walking rainbow and I love it. He loves the thrill of violence so he’s the perfect partner for Harlow. There were some spots where the audio sounded static but not enough to interfere with the story. The narrator was able to have distinct voices and accents for the characters, which I appreciate while listening.

Adorbs

I love the characters, the concept, and the fight scenes. Excellent world creation and working within the parameters of that world. I couldn’t give it five stars though, because the plot didn’t fully satisfy. Don’t get me wrong, the plot that’s there is a good skeleton, with a bit of solid meat; but I wish it were a little more fleshed out.

Loved it

I loved this book. Matt Williams' voice really brings this story to life and makes you love the characters even more. Foxx Honeywell is a adorable vampire who loves violence. Foxx gets a job at the Hunters Guild. His partner is Harlow Blackmore. Harlow isn't happy about having a partner at all. Harlow is grumpy and a bit of a psychopath. Harlow and Foxx will go on many jobs or as Foxx calls them adventures.

Harlowwww

So this book was a great beginning to a hilariously cute/ murdery series! Harlow was beautifully grumpy to Fox’s sunshine. Both are also extremely murdery and sadistic but (and I know this sounds weird) in a cute way! The only thing I would possibly change is the narrator for Foxx, while he was by no means bad or anything it just wasn’t what I had originally thought Foxx would sound like when I did my first read when the ebook came out last year. As always Shelby Rhodes will forever hold a spot on my favorite author shelf and I am frothing at the mouth for when the rest of this series comes out.

I received this arc from the author so thank you Shelby Rhodes for the delightful read.

Ps if I’m not mistaken this will be a four part series for those who want to know and currently book 2 is available but only in ebook for now, the rest of the series is coming soon in both ebook and audio format according to her FB group.

Sass and Fashion

I love the book and was excited to listen to the audiobook.

Foxx is full of sass and a lover of cute fashion that he loves to sew for himself. Harlow is a hunter who saves the sweet Foxx and finds out that he has been paired with the vampire who has applied at the Hunter organization after vampires become legal.

The audiobook is narrated by Matt Williams who does a great job portraying both men. Love it! This has become one of my favorites and has been listened to multiple times.

A great start to the series

I loved the book when I first read it. And the narrator is fabulous and brings Harlow and Foxx to life.
Will be a re-listen for sure!

Another Shelby Rhodes hit!!

Shelby Rhodes is the queen of snarky, lovable characters that aren’t afraid to stake a bad guy! I can’t wait for more of this series!!💜

Grumpy Psychopath meets Sunshine Vampire!

The book was amazing and the audiobook only made it better. I fell completely in love with Harlow, the grumpy psycho older human hunter and Foxx, his adorable little violence loving sunshine vampire partner. Their snarky banter kept me laughing the whole time.

Matt Williams is new a new narrator to me and did an excellent job bringing Foxx and Harlow to life.

This is an wonderful start to the series and I can’t wait for the rest!

Wonderful

I loved this book! I was a little nervous about the narrator as they are new to me but loved his voice and the accent was amazing! I really can't wait for the next book to be on audio! Fantastic job!

😂 I love it!

Matt Williams did an amazing job narrating the characters in this book. I was instantly laughing at the start of the book when the voice for Foxx came up. Matt definitely made the characters more alive. I can't wait for him to narrate the sequel.

For anyone who hasn't read this story before, you're going to love it if you like vampires, comedies, violence, and hot steaminess 😉 It's apparent that Harlow and Foxx have a love/hate relationship going on, but it's also pretty clear that resistance is futile when it comes to Foxx's sweet juicy butt and Harlow's acts of violence. Well, as a reader, these may not be a turn on for you, but Foxx and Harlow definitely have their kinks 😂 Trust me when I say you will get hooked by this story and not want to stop listening.