Listened to on audio, narrated by Holly Fielding.
4.5 stars for the audio. I'd not encountered Holly Fielding before and so I was a little unsure to begin with, just because it takes a little while to become used to a different voice and style, but after the first 10 minutes I totally forgot about her. That, in my opinion, is the sign of a really good narrator. They should disappear into the background whilst at the same time enhancing the book. I am really pleased to say this definitely happened here!
Now, I totally loved the book! I really didn't expect to, after having a less than stellar memory of 1, 2 & 3. Looking back I rated them 4 stars, 3 stars and 4 stars respectively, so I must have enjoyed them at the time, but my memory of them was that they weren't that good. I can't really tell you why.
To my joyous surprise, I loved the writing, the humour, the characters, the setting, the romance, the sex, the other love stories woven in...just everything hit the right buttons. There were some obnoxious characters and some drama, but neither were over the top. OTT drama or conflict is a real turn of to me, therefore, this organic progression of lots of interwoven threads really worked for me. Just when I was thinking 'Grrrrr, why have you moved on to someone else when I'm dying to know what happens next here...' I was suddenly transfixed on whatever new thread we were following. It's a real gift to be able to sustain a reader's interest in each different thread. They have to grab your interest quickly otherwise they lose you.
I completely fell in love with both Blaine and Tiffany. Blaine was sexy sexy sexy and Tiff was sweet, strong and sassy. I loved how she just drew people in.
I totally want to open a similar shop!!!
I am now going to listen to some of the others after having such a good experience with this one. I'm going to listen to them out of order, which is a little bit off my normal MO, but heck, I'm feeling a little crazy.