Seatmate by Cara Bastone | Audiobook Review • Ana's Attic Book Blog

Seatmate (Love Lines Book 3) by Cara Bastone

Narrated by Amanda Ronconi, Zachary Webber, Josh Hurley, Carol Monda, Corey Allen, Allyson Johnson, Eric Yves Garcia, Tanya Eby, and Dina Pearlman

Made for audio. Completely stands alone. Clean Romcom.

The first two audiobooks in the Love Lines series, Call Me Maybe and Sweet Talk by Cara Bastone made the top of my Best of 2021 list so I was so excited when I found a third in the series, Seatmate. These Audible originals are different from other audiobooks in that they were written specifically for the audio format, complete with sound effects. Use headphones for the best experience.

These books are about 90% dialogue with a full cast in duet format, so it’s like listening to a TV show or play. I listened to all three with a HUGE smile on my face. But warning: these are super sweet, a little cheesy, and have no on-page sex at all.

Gwen and Sam meet when they get stuck in the last two seats on a five hour bus ride from Boston to New York. Of course, the last two seats are right next to the bathroom. It was a perfectly adorable meet-cute.

“Note to self: When you’re lucky enough to sit next to a very attractive woman on a long bus ride, maybe don’t bring up your mother so much, and probably don’t give an extremely detailed overview of why you’re a bad date.”

The whole story took place over one day, and the antics and adventures that happen along the way to NYC were so much fun! The narration and production are what really take this story up a notch. It never felt like they were reading lines, it felt like I was a passenger on the bus eavesdropping on this couple’s conversations. The delivery felt so real that I still wonder if the narrators may have ad-libbed a little, the timing and their awkward laughs just felt too real.

We had a sweet cinnamon roll momma’s boy and a smart and spunky heroine, but the side characters we meet along the way are great too. I think I may have to listen to the whole thing again, because it was just so light and fun.

“Everyone’s relationships are weird if you look closely enough at them. I have a theory that if your relationship with someone isn’t weird, you don’t know them well enough yet.”

I’m not going to do likes and dislikes, because honestly, there wasn’t anything not to love. While I usually like a little sex in my books, it just wouldn’t work in this series, being that the background noises and sound effects are such a part of the story. The sound effects of a lovemaking scene would not be something I want to hear lol.

The Down & Dirty:

The full cast narration and the production of this “audioplay” is what made Seatmate a 5-star read for me. The storyline was cute and I loved the characters, but it wasn’t a deep, epic romance, it was a sweet and fun novella. Listening to it with headphones made it a full experience, and Amanda Ronconi and Zachary Webber felt so natural. I really felt like I was eavesdropping on a real conversation, and it just made Seatmate by Cara Bastone another 5 star favorite.