Shameless

Brady Shepherd is exhausted, he's burning the candle at both ends trying to keep everything together. Until one night when a phone call changes his life completely. Now he's heading to Texas to settle his brother's estate and care for his baby niece, with the help of his sister-in-law's best friend, Katherine. Katherine Duran is riddled with guilt over the loss of her friends, the least she can do is care for their baby girl and help Brady for a few weeks, but with the attraction building between them it's only a matter of time until something happens, can a short fling remain that? Or are things about to get complicated?

Let me start with a little backstory, please bear with me. I was added to Lex Martin's group on Facebook recently by a friend (she had my permission because permission before adding to groups is everything!) and I said she's an author I'd get around to reading eventually, you know how it is. Well, a post was made in the group about how the book Shameless was on sale and I thought perfect, I'll grab it now and get to it when I can, turns out I already owned it, judging by the dates I bought it on release day in 2016, but what I did find out was that it had a great whispersync price, so I grabbed the audio and decided now would be a great time to finally dive in.

Good Heavens!!!! What took me so long? This book was all the things, all the emotions. I laughed, I cried. Gah! I loved it so so much. I listened to it in one sitting, I just couldn't tear myself about from their story. The writing style was lovely and easy to listen to, the storyline is one I adore, who can resist a single parent/ guardian story? Not this girl! I liked that although it's a storyline that's been done before this felt fresh and different. I was captivated from the get-go. I can safely say that I will be eyeballing the next book because the audio wait is just going to be too long (don't worry, I'll still listen to the audio once it's available). I need more. I really love the cover, I think it shows emotion and tenderness, the only thing that would have made it better would be if the audio edition included the narrators names. Also, my dears, if you haven't read Lex yet and have access to the romance package on Audible, all but one of her titles are available through it. I've just borrowed three.

These characters. Oh, my word! Brady Shepherd is all the things. I have yet another new book boyfriend. Seriously, is there anything sexier than a tall tatted guy and a baby? Of course not! I was swooning from their first meeting until the last page. He's such a contradiction. The first chapter you really think he's a bit of an arse, but then once he arrives in Texas he's like a completely different person. He's sweet and caring, protective and understanding. Swoonworthy. His interactions with Isabella are perfection. Farm life suits him. Katherine Duran is a sweetheart, her guilt is understandable. Her reactions to certain things are to be expected, I didn't want her to react that way, I may have shouted at her a bunch, but I did understand it. I don't always take to female characters straight away but with Kat, I just loved her. The sweet quiet girl who can be dirty. She is such a lovely person, smart, and funny, sweet and sexy, no wonder Brady falls for her. I might have a girl crush too.

The build-up of their relationship is cute, the way they try to resist each other and how they're feeling, it has a very real free to it. I enjoyed that the conflict was mainly internal for them, sure they had their moments, it wasn't all sweetness and light, but, it wasn't overly angsty. I really liked the mixture of fade to black and full-on sex scenes, it had a nice balance. The sexy times were scorching hot, I'm talking melt your earphones type of levels here. The humour had a great feel to it, it was a wonderful blend with the sadness both characters were experiencing. The loss this couple endured was a huge part of their story and made their relationship all the more special for how they dealt with that loss and the comfort they were able to offer one another, but, it also became so much more than that. As a reader/ listen I love when I can see something the characters can't, and this book has that in spades, it was obvious to us how they felt and what could happen for them, but they took a while to get there. The banter between the characters was believable and worked for them. It was sweet. The interactions Brady has with the animals was freaking hilarious, but more so because Kat's were so different. Gah! I just cannot get enough of this couple.

This dual narration was fantastic. Both Brooke Bloomingdale and Stephen Dexter are new to me and I'll definitely be looking out for more of their titles in the future. I was engrossed in their performances, once they hooked me I couldn't stop listening, and kept going until the end. An all-nighter well spent. They really delivered brilliant performances and expressed the emotions the characters were experiencing well. The humour was delivered in a way that was subtle and worked with the aura the author was creating. The funeral scene was both beautifully performed, and heart-breaking. Each character was distinct, and the accents were done well, however, this is just a tiny thing but something I noticed was the difference in accent between narrators, not so much the southern accent but the Bostonian – it wasn't enough to interfere with my enjoyment, but it did take a little getting used to the change from one POV to the other. I really liked Stephen's female voices, in fact, I had to double check at first that this wasn't a duet. The production was wonderful with no issues that I noted.

*Full crazy review on the website.