Nobody Does It Better by Lauren Blakely

Performed by Joe Arden and Erin Mallon. Additional parts performed by Andi Arndt, Jason Clarke, RC Bray, Carly Robins, Savannah Peachwood and Virginia Rose.

A Collection of novellas follows the main story. Nobody Does It Better is the 3rd standalone in a related series.

Nobody Does it Better by Lauren Blakely is Vanessa and Shaw’s story from the Lucky In Love Series (Best Laid Plans, Feel Good Factor). It’s a short but very satisfying standalone novella, but if you get the audio version (which I always suggest from Lauren Blakely, she’s the queen of audio) you get a few bonus stories!

It’s amazing how Lauren can use common tropes repeatedly and each time they are fresh, sexy and new. Nobody does it better is kind of a reverse best friend’s little sister theme. Vanessa is Perri’s best friend, and Perri warned her brother Shaw to stay away or watch out for his nuts.

“If it’s important to Perri that my dirty hands stay far, far away from Vanessa, I can abide by that. I can resist sexy, alluring, flirty Vanessa. Witty, clever, oh, look, there’s mistletoe above us Vanessa.”

Well, maybe there are a few minor slip-ups over the years, but for the most part, he has kept his feelings locked up tight.

“I’ve mostly stayed away, and that’s not been easy, so give a man some points for stellar restraint. Especially since I’ve had it bad for Vanessa for years. As in decades.”

I loved Vanessa, and her two best friends Arden and Perri (from the first 2 books).

“I love bowling, I love retro clothes, and I love people.”

She has always had it bad for her best friend’s brother, but her friendship was more important than anything. And anyway, she thought he wasn’t interested. WRONG.

The Book Club ladies think it’s time that Vanessa finds love, and the meddlesome cupids set her up with the most gorgeous and perfect guy. Will that help Shaw make his move? Or is she going home with someone else?

Likes:

I love that she is of Hispanic heritage. We don’t see enough non-stereotype ethnic characters in books.
Sweet, sexy and fun.
Visiting with the previous characters.
Great banter.
I loved both of the main characters.

Dislikes:

The book club ladies made it kind of cheesy even though they are fun. I think that the audiobook accentuated the cheesiness.
I love when Lauren has guest stars in her audiobooks, but in this case, in the bonus scene, we had different narrators for the characters in the first two books. While I understand the reasoning for it, it just kind of confused me.

Bonuses in Audiobook

Once Upon A Red Hot Kiss is Macy and Kirby’s story from The Heartbreakers Series. I loved that series, so I was excited to revisit the group for a bit. Jason Clarke and Erin Mallon did a great job narrating, and it was a perfect little Valentines Day story. I had already read it in the Be Mine anthology (no longer available), but listening was even better.

Too Good To Be True came next. This is a novella related to Come as You Are (this features the hero’s sister). This is Herb and Olivia’s story. It was refreshing to have a real name for a guy, and I loved how Lauren addressed it. At first, I thought she wouldn’t! I enjoyed the story, but the male narrator wasn’t my favorite. I like RC Bray for sci-fi or mystery, but he just doesn’t do it for me for romance. As always, Andi Arndt is amazing.

Last we have Caught Up In Her, the prequel to Caught Up In Us, which I immediately bought after listening to this, if that tells you anything. I loved the story and wanted more. Jason Clarke is one of my favorite male narrators, but Carly Robins felt like she was over-acting a bit more than usual, and the narration felt a little choppy and pieced together, just not as perfect as Lauren’s other audiobooks.

The Down & Dirty:

As always, Lauren Blakely made me listen to the whole book with a goofy smile on my face. Nobody Does it Better was short, yet fulfilling, which is kind of rare for a novella. Though the book club grannies were fun, they sent it a little too far into cheesiness for my taste, and I think the over-acted narration of those ladies accentuated that. Still, all-in-all, I loved the fun and sexy Lucky Falls story. As an audio lover, I was so happy to get THREE bonus novellas with some new voices from Lauren Blakely. Honestly, while the performances of Lauren’s books usually enhance the stories, some of the narration just didn’t work as well for me in these. It was still fun to listen to and I downloaded another book immediately after listening, but they changed the way I felt about the story a bit. Lauren Blakely is a must-listen-to author for me. I will not miss an audiobook from her, because frankly, they are all amazing. She is the second author I have had to implement a special scale for, or every one would be 5 stars. Though Nobody Does it Better wasn’t my favorite of her books, I still loved every single second of listening, and very much recommend the series if you like lighter, slightly cheesy (but not in a bad way), sexy small-town romances.