Audiobook Review – Part-Time Lover by Lauren Blakely

Part-Time Lover by Lauren Blakely

Narrated by Shane East and Grace Grant

Standalone Contemporary Romance with RomCom elements.

I feel like I start every Lauren Blakely book review the same, wondering how the hell she does it? She releases about a book a month and each one is amazing! I don’t even read the blurbs to Lauren’s books anymore. Because the cover for Part-Time Lover cover seemed to go with Come As You Are and I had that one already, just hadn’t listened yet, I read that first, thinking they were related (review to come). They weren’t, but Wanderlust was related! In fact, we first met both main characters in Wanderlust. Elise was Joy’s friend, and Christian was Griffin’s friend. BUT you do NOT have to read Wanderlust first!

Part Time Lover begins in Copenhagen. Elise and her friend are on a boat tour when they pass (and take pictures of) a hot naked guy doing yoga and handstands on the riverbank.

They try to meet, but due to some mixed messages, they don’t meet up again for another year, this time accidentally in Paris. But that didn’t stop Elise from ogling the photos she took for the past year. In fact, they each thought about the other a lot over the year, so when they do finally meet, the chemistry is off the charts.

Christian is half Danish and half French and Elise is half American and half French. They have a lot in common, most importantly, neither is looking for anything serious, especially Elise, and Christian is happy to go along with whatever she wants, as he enjoys being her Friday night lover.

“I’m only half French.”
“Which half?”
“Which half of you is British?”
“My cock, of course.”
“My tits are French then.”
“I love French.”

They were great, coasting along with this part-time love affair until Christian’s brother ran into a business problem and was about to lose the family business. The only person who can save it is a married sibling. Since Christian is a genius at helping her business, Elise agrees to marry him for three months. He helps her business, she helps his, and then after 3 months, they both walk away. But you know how that goes, right?

The falling is complete. It’s here. It’s happened, and now I’m in love with the woman in my arms.
But this woman needs me to be the kind of man who doesn’t fall so easily.

While in Wanderlust, Paris was almost another character in the story, this time we still got the rich descriptions and quirky finds, but the focus was more on the characters and less on the city, and it was a great balance. I also loved how Elise got down and dirty with the banter and never seemed overly girly and delicate. She was a very independent woman.

My favorite thing in most books is flirty banter and text banter. Part Time Lover had both and of course, it was my favorite thing.

“It’s bloody brilliant. You know what else will be brilliant?”
“What?”
“Finally getting you naked and under me tonight.”
“You’re assuming I’ll put out since it’s our wedding night, are you?”
“Hope springs eternal. So does my cock when I look at you.”

Likes:

The setting and vivid descriptions of both Copenhagen and Paris.
The banter.
How successful and independent Elise is.
The tie-in to Wanderlust without you needing to have read it first.
Made me smile like a goof the whole time.
How even though you know the turnout, you love the journey.
The creative use of her blog posts to give insight into her past.
Shane East’s narration! That accent! YUM.

Dislikes:

Can’t think of one.

The Narration:

Shane East is absolutely perfect for the part. Grace Grant has that every-day girl sound. She’s bit tougher and snarkier sounding than most narrators. I listened to an arc of this audiobook that you can’t speed up. I wouldn’t want to speed up Shane, but found Grace spoke very slow compared to him. She NEEDS to be sped up, and he doesn’t. I love the way they both did the other characters in the story, never doubting who was who. I also loved that the messaging was done duet style. It was great narration.

The Down & Dirty:

Once again, Lauren Blakely delivers a sweet, sexy, funny, romantic, scenic, juicy, fun book. I always recommend Lauren’s audiobooks first because it feels like her books are written for audio. She pays attention to the audio aspects from the beginning and also gives the narrators more direction than most other authors do. The sexy accent is just a bonus! While I was listening to this one, both my husband and son asked several times what the silly grin on my face was for. They didn’t see the airpods in my ears and just kept thinking I was walking around with a swoony grin on my face. I think whether reading or listening to Part-Time Lover, you are bound to enjoy the trip.