The Novel Approach is an adorable story about two very different romance authors. Stacy writes "sweet romance"-off page sex and steam. She runs into a hunk of a man at the airport on the way to a romance authors' convention and he turns out to be another author. Gage is one of the top erotica authors! And all this takes place in London to boot!
I love the opposites attract trope because I think it allows the characters to each bring something vital to the relationship. Gage is well versed in sex, but he was a manwhore. Stacy's sweetness and innate vulnerability allows her to be a good balance for Gage. She finally gets to experience the things she has always wondered about with Gage. The chemistry is there between these two but that doesn't mean the journey is smooth! I will say that I have always struggled with man whore characters and Gage is no different. I never completely warmed up to him as a hero because of that. Everyone has a past and all, but it felt like because Gage was a man and wrote erotica, it was somehow acceptable that he'd been with LOTS of women.
Stacy has another author in her genre that she quite dislikes. Oddly, these two sort of bond in a strange way and perhaps forge a new understanding of each other. It was nice to see women repairing their relationship instead of continuing to be catty and vapid. There were some parts of the plot of The Novel Approach that I thought were a bit underdeveloped. There is a LOT going on-you have all the crazy fans there to meet their favorite authors, an assistant that is a bit overbearing, and a crazy stalker. All of this is great, but I think when there are so many things happening, either the book has to be 500 pages to really flesh everything out, or some things sort of just get resolved in a way that is less than satisfying.
Heather Firth is a new to me narrator and I thought she did a great job! Her performance was enjoyable and her "male voice" was good (I can't handle narrators who try to do the voice of the opposite gender and its bad-it totally pulls me out of the story). She performed The Novel Approach very well and I would certainly listen to her again!
- POV: 1st
- Tears: no
- Trope: opposites attract
- Triggers: none
- Series/Standalone: stand alone
- Cliffhanger: [spoiler]no[/spoiler]
- HEA: [spoiler]yes[/spoiler]
[rating-report]
authors like Ivy Smoak, Pippa Grant, Teagan Kade, Lauren Blakely...then you will probably like The Novel Approach!