A Guy Walks Into My Bar by Lauren Blakely Review

A Guy Walks Into My Bar by Lauren Blakely

Narrated by Joe Arden, Shane East, and a full supporting cast.

Standalone loosely related to other Lauren Blakely books.

Let me start by saying m/m is not my usual genre. I have enjoyed the few I have read, but I guess I like to picture myself as the heroine because it isn’t a genre I keep coming back to. But I AM a huge Lauren Blakely fan, so I knew Lauren would make me love it—I just didn’t realize how much!

First of all, Lauren Blakely has said that she wrote A Guy Walks Into My Bar with narrators Shane East and Joe Arden in mind and it shows. So while I am sure this book would be great in any format, listening to it was more immersive. It was so natural sounding for these narrators, it’s very hard for me to write a review without the narration affecting my feelings. It was just that good.

The author’s note at the beginning set a great tone. A Guy Walks Into My Bar takes place in a (sadly) fictional world where everyone agrees #loveislove and there is no prejudice or discrimination. #dreams

If you are a fan of Lauren Blakely, you have met Dean, the British bar owner, and Fitz, the American hockey player before as side characters in other Lauren Blakely books, but they never met each other until Fitz, in London taking his sister to school, walked into Dean’s bar.

“Look, I’m going to be blunt. You are pretty much the hottest thing to ever walk into my bar. You’re like one of those memes for a hot guy walking into a bar and all the ladies tossing their knickers at him.”
“I don’t want their panties.”
“Yes, I’m clear on that, Fitz.”

Dean and his partner Maeve have one rule. In fact, they put a wager on it. No hooking up with customers. So as hot as Fitz is, he breaks Dean’s #1 rule. But Fitz is forward and sexy and leaving very soon to go back to America and start the NHL season.

“So that’s where the hard body comes from. Professional hockey. And if his arms look like that, I can only imagine what the sport has done to his chest, his abs, his ass.”

Fitz is fun and light and flirty. He has a pact with his teammates: no sex during preseason, so he’d like to have his last fun in London. And his sights are set on the hot bartender. Dean knows it has to end in a few days so they both break their rules and spend the time together.

I’m already an inferno just from looking at him. His jawline, his eyes, his lips, his body. “Take your shirt off,” I tell him, my voice a raw husk already.

Holy moly. Lauren always writes HOT sex. But this was on another level. Men are just so much more brazen and hornier, and they don’t worry about being polite about it. These are two men with a very high sex drive, and they couldn’t get enough of each other.

“I want to enjoy every second of it. I want to feel you deep inside me. I don’t want a quickie. I want to be driven mad with lust as you fuck me to the edge of pleasure. And that’s going to take more than thirty minutes.”

But despite the abundance of sex, there was so much story! I never felt that anything was sacrificed in that area at all. I loved how these two complemented each other despite being opposites in so many ways. For sure though, my favorite part of the book was the easy acceptance everyone had for them. I love Lauren’s rainbow-colored glasses and I so wish the world was like that.

Likes:

The world with no prejudice.
How different they were but how they complimented each other.
Two healthy, strong men having sex vs. a man and a woman are very different, and Lauren made that very clear, in a very HOT way.
The connection between them was electric.
I love how honest and open they were most of the time about their feelings, and how they never had to worry about not seeming “manly” enough.
It was a feel-good romance.
I loved the side characters.
The narration was perfection.
The epilogues.
The interview with Joe and Shane at the end.
I love the bloopers!

Dislikes:

Not a thing.

The Narration:

A Guy Walks Into My Bar was written specifically with the narrators in mind and it showed. They were both perfect in their roles and I loved how other characters were narrated by so many other voices. It was never overwhelming, and it seemed much more natural than some of the other duet and full-cast books I have listened to.

The Down & Dirty:

As someone who doesn’t usually gravitate towards m/m books, let me tell you, it didn’t matter. I loved every word of it! There was a LOT of sex in this book, and holy cow it was hot! But that wasn’t what made me love it. It was the connection between the two heroes. It just leaped off the page despite that they were so different, and I couldn’t help but fall in love as they did. I love the world of acceptance that they inhabited where #loveislove and all their friends and family were rooting for them to find it.

Lauren is hands-down my favorite audiobook author (and one of my top 3 authors in general) and with A Guy Walks Into My Bar she just added more love from me. While I don’t want Lauren to completely jump over to m/m, I hope she does more because I loved every word.