Parental Guidance by Avery Flynn - Audiobook Review • Ana's Attic Book Blog

Parental Guidance (Ice Knights 1) by Avery Flynn

Narrated by Tim Paige

RomCom, 1st Standalone in a Related Series

I love the cover for Parental Guidance by Avery Flynn. It wasn’t on my TBR, but I got a really cute box in the mail that included this book and I loved the blurb, so I grabbed the audiobook when I saw it was in the Audible Escape Package.

Caleb is a hockey player who is next in line for team captain. But when a viral video of his younger teammates talking crap about all the puck bunnies they slept with while Caleb sat by silently surfaces, Caleb is forced into a publicity stunt to get back in the public’s good graces. Zara is a miniatures artisan with a dreamer of a dad looking for his next get rich scheme. This lands both Caleb and Zara on a morning show in where they join an online dating site and their parents pick their dates.

Since they were both doing this for the wrong reason, they agreed to go on the 5 mandatory dates, but there would be no real relationship. Suuuure….you know how that always goes!

“It was almost impossible to remember why dating Zara for real was a bad idea. In this moment, he couldn’t shake the idea that there could be more than an agreement between them. That he wanted that. That it didn’t seem like he had a choice in wanting her. That it was too late to try to fight it even if he wanted to.”

Parental Guidance was told in 3rd person POV with one male narrator. Some 3rd person books you don’t notice it’s third person because you really feel like you are in the story, but this one had a very overwhelming third person. I felt like I never truly connected because of it.

It was a sweet and fun premise for a story and I liked both characters, but the reason he had to do these dates made no sense (he was punished for being quiet, and this is his punishment? Huh?)

Likes:

The whole premise of the parents picking the dates.
Her dog.
Unique storyline.
She had an interesting career.
I liked him, even though he is kind of bumbling.
Love the cover.

Dislikes:

Very obvious 3rd person that kept me outside looking in.
The reason they made him do this dating thing really made no sense.

The Narration:

While I liked the narrator’s voice, a male narrator in a 3rd person book may have been part of the reason the 3rd person stood out so much. However, I liked his voice and would like to hear him in other stories.

The Down & Dirty:

With a cute cover and a great premise, I expected to love Parental Guidance by Avery Flynn. I did enjoy it, it was unique and fun, but I just never fully connected, mostly because of the 3rd person POV. While I am OK with third person sometimes, sometimes the narrator is a little more detached from the story as he was here. I also never really understood the reasoning behind the PR stunt which was the point of the story. I enjoyed the characters and the story in general, I just didn’t love it.