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Friday, April 3, 2015

Audio Book Review! Free Me by @LaurelinPaige @InkSlingerPR


Audio Review Tour


Free Me
The Found Duet Book One
Laurelin Paige
Released December 9, 2014

Her story began long before she started working at The Sky Launch...

Screw fairytales. The only reward Gwen Anders got from her rough childhood was a thick skin and hard heart. She’s content with her daily grind managing a top NYC nightclub—Eighty-Eighth Floor. So hers isn’t a happily ever after. She doesn’t believe in those anyway. 

Then she meets J.C.

The rich, smooth talking playboy is the sexiest thing that Gwen has ever encountered, but she’s not interested in a night-in-shining latex. But when a family tragedy pushes her to the brink, it’s J.C. who’s there to teach her a new method of survival, one based on following primal urges and desires. His no-strings-attached lessons require her to abandon her constant need for control. Her carefully built walls are obliterated.

Gwen discovers there’s a beautiful world outside her prison. Freedom is exhilarating—and terrifying. When she starts to feel something for J.C., she fears for her heart. Especially as she realizes that he has secrets of his own. Secrets that don't want to set him free.

BOOK ONE OF TWO. This series can be read alone or with the Fixed Trilogy.


Audio Book Review 4.5 Stars

Audio books can be tricky. You have to have to have the right narrator. Free Me's narrator, Tanya Eby, is among the better female narrators I've listened to. I have to admit, more often than not, I am not a fan of female narrators. They tend to be overly dramatic, their male voices are not as believable as when a man does a female voice, and in the worst cases, their voice can grate on my nerves. Tanya's voice is quite pleasant, it's smooth and I could see it fitting Gwen's character. Her male voices weren't too bad, although it still bugged me a little. As for the over dramatization, Tanya kept it to a minimum. I've never found a female narrator without it, but I was still able to get into listening to the book. It stuck out from time to time, but I will definitely say that Free Me lends itself well to audio narration. The tone of the book can be heavy, so the intensity of Tanya's narration is easier to swallow. If you're a fan of audio books, I recommend this one. 


This book was a bit of a surprise for me. It didn’t go where I was expecting, instead it was so much better! The plot is full of twists and secrets that kept me wondering, questioning, and turning to the next page!
            Gwen took a couple of chapters to get used to. She is pretty bitchy at the beginning, but then, isn’t that the point? She needs to be freed from the constraints she has put herself in. She’s a control freak, a play by the rules, never take a chance, live without emotion and attachments kind of girl. One night, she meets the laid back and carefree J.C. He appears to be everything she is not and he offers to be her tutor in loosening up. Her life begins to fall down around her and she is at her breaking point. If she doesn’t figure out how to loosen up, she will shatter. So, she takes J.C. up on his offer. A no-strings, no attachment, and definitely no love, affair.
            J.C. is a textbook mystery man. He will share only the most superficial information about himself, and not even that if he can help it. He is hot as sin, rich, and lives life with an air of freedom. He sees something in Gwen, something that is beneath the layer of ice and he is completely attracted to it. Okay, and to her beautiful body. We are all that superficial, aren’t we?
            J.C. ends up in the right place at the right time and circumstances allow him to convince Gwen to let him show her how to break the stranglehold she has on her life. They jump into an explosive and steamy non-relationship. No names, no details, no feelings. The heat between these two blows off the pages.
            But, the spark isn’t only physical, no matter how hard they try to believe that it is. The feelings have always been there and at some point, they can no longer be ignored.
            Gwen definitely grew on me, especially as she loosened up. Her walls began to come down, not only with J.C. but also with her family. She becomes more open, more fun, and more vulnerable. I ended up rooting for her and applauding her efforts to make a better life for herself. I wasn’t very pleased with how she handled some aspects of the ending, but that doesn’t mean her choices weren’t logical.
            J.C. was my biggest surprise in the book. I really don’t want to spoil it, so I’ll just say that he ends up being nothing like I expected after the first time we meet him. From the beginning, he has a sarcastic sense of humor that can come off very condescending, but he is able to pull it off without being offensive. He’s hot as hell, mysterious, and to a certain extent, fun-loving. I loved getting to know him better with each page and by the end, I wanted to melt right into a puddle at his feet.
            I knew this was the first book in the series, and yet, when I reached the freaking huge cliffhanger, I wanted to throw the book at the wall (I would never actually treat a book like that…). I’m simply desperate to get my hands on the next book and until I do, I sense I’ll be re-reading this one a few more times. Laurelin Paige is a 1-click author for me and her books automatically hop right on to my re-read list. Gwen and J.C. should definitely be on your TBR! 5 Stars!

Find Me
The Found Duet Book Two
Laurelin Paige
Releasing August 25, 2015

Amazon   iBooks   Google Play  

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 Laurelin Paige is the NY Times and USA Today Bestselling Author of the Fixed Trilogy. She's a sucker for a good romance and gets giddy anytime there's kissing, much to the embarrassment of her three daughters. Her husband doesn't seem to complain, however. When she isn't reading or writing sexy stories, she's probably singing, watching Mad Men and the Walking Dead, or dreaming of Adam Levine.






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