Audiobook Review – Where I Belong by J. Daniels

Where I Belong (Alabama Summer Book 1) by J. Daniels

Narrated by Stella Bloom

Standalone start to a series. New Adult/Adult Contemporary

Where I Belong by J. Daniels was fun and sexy, swoony and witty, and has me hooked on the series. I am so glad up grabbed this audiobook upgrade while it’s still $1.99, I absolutely loved Stella Bloom, the narrator. She was perfect for the character.

Mia moved away from Alabama during high school, but kept in touch with her best friend Tessa. Now it’s years later, and Mia needs a break from her crazy life, so she is going to spend the summer with her best friend. She knows Tessa will really freak when she finds out she’s still a virgin, so she decides to give away her V-card to whoever she can find on the way. (WTF?)

“It was wild perfection. A beautiful chaos. She was my match in the bedroom and I let her slip away without giving me a name.”

When she gets to Tessa’s, she is determined to get Mr. 1-night-stand-virginity-taker out of her head, until he is RIGHT. THERE. and he is the person she hated most in this world, Tessa’s older brother who tortured her incessantly while she was growing up. Even though he changed into a totally sexy, swoony, sweet, protective, badass cop, Mia HATED him, and wanted nothing to do with him. But he couldn’t stop thinking of her, nor she of him.

“The girl I once couldn’t get far enough away from had become the woman I couldn’t get close enough to.”

I did start to get a little annoyed with her. If she can’t even recognize him, why can’t she see that he has changed enough that his childhood dickishness may have changed too? But she wouldn’t even give him a chance. e was determined to change her mind. I love that!

“Sleep, Angel. You have me. I’m never letting you go.”

There was a little cheesiness, but sometimes I like the cheese. There was a LOT of sexiness, and I love that J. Daniels is a little creative in her sex scenes. And let me tell you, Ben is to die for, and you never doubt his feelings, though they were a bit instant.

“When she looked at me, she saw me. My hopes, my fears….She fucking owned me with that stare and I never wanted to look away.”

I mean, Ben is basically the perfect book boyfriend, and people can and DO change.

Likes:

Hate-to-love banter
Little Sir Nolan—my favorite part.
Creative sex scenes
Childhood memories.
Dirty talker.
The insta-love made sense because they actually had a life-long connection,

Dislikes:

Almost too sweet & cheesy.
Not very memorable (I am writing this review from the notes I took. It’s been about 10 days since I finished and I really don’t remember).
How did Mia not know about Nolan?

Narration:

I loved the narrator, she may be my #1 female narrator, and it totally enhanced the story.

The Down & Dirty:

Where I Belong checks all the spots on my checklist—sexy, swoony, and funny with banter, a man that has to work hard for it, and there is lots of sweet. I marked a ton of great quotes, and the story grabbed me from the first words. I absolutely love kids in books, and Nolan was a gem! While it was a little cheesy and not overly memorable, I will still be grabbing the rest of this sweet and sexy series by J. Daniels.