THE MAGNOLIA CHRONICLES – BOSS IN THE BEDSHEETS – THE BELLE AND THE BEARD
Kindle Unlimited / Audible
Kate Canterbary
Narrators (for BITB and TBATB): Jason Clarke and Emma Wilder and Zachary Webber and Jo Raylan
I really wish these books were listed as a series because I went about them in the wrong way and it totally ruined book one for me.
I started with the audiobook of The Belle and The Beard because, well, Zachary Webber. I came across it when there was this huge sale on Audible and I was basically selecting titles by narrator. So this will also be reviewed in wrong order. Bear with me.
Jasper-Anne Cleary is a campaign strategist that has just lost her job after being publicly humiliated and she decided to lick her wounds in a rustic cottage that was left to her by her deceased aunt. Linden is the grumpy man-bear who lived next to her. He is convinced she is a burglar who broke into the house and goes check it out. From there, all sorts of shenanigans happen, including a colony of bats, baked goods from hell, an imortal cat. Mix it all in with Linden’s family and you get a fun read. And a weird craving for “fancy toast”. Since I really enjoyed The Belle and The Beard, I decided to check the other books with the Santillian Triplets. Yes, you read correctly: they’re triplets, coming from a family of “sort of hippies”. The previous book is Boss in The Bedsheets, where we meet Ash, who runs this father’s accounting firm (how on earth a hippie ended up being an accountant is a mystery to me….) and Zelda, a very peculiar girl. They meet when she is upgraded in a flight and sits next to Ash. He is having a really bad day that started with him taking a tumble while heading to the gate and hurting his shoulder. And, like it only happens in romance novels, he happens to be analyzing (and giving it a hard pass! ) Zelda’s resume for a new job. She calls him out on it and they start chatting. With Ash downing a lot of whiskey to dull the pain, sleeping on her shoulder and hiring her on the spot, you know where this is going. I usually don’t like instalove romances, but this one kinda works. These two souls needed each other. Zelda is coming from a past of being abused and neglected by her family and her past relationship, and Ash is too set in his “fixer” ways. They complement each other well. (There are some triggers here for emotional abuse and toxic relationships).
The last book, or should I say the first one, is The Magnolia Chronicles. The third triplet and the only girl. I have to confess that I didn’t really get into it. Mostly because of two factors: 1) Magnolia apparently is character that appeared in a previous series (or book) and I got the feeling that there was a backstory there that I should have known before getting to her story and 2) there is a love triangle that held zero surprise for me, because I had already met Magnolia’s husband in Linden’s book. See what I mean? I really wish I would have read them in chronological order and I advise you to do so. It’s a fun series and their mom is a hoot!!
I also liked that Linden’s past relationship was with a guy… and it was there in the book in the same way as if his ex had been a woman. That’s how we normalize things: by treating them as normal. Because they are. Ten points for Griffindor!
As for narration, I read TMC but I read and listened to BITB and TBATB. BITB is narrated by Jason Clarke and Emma Wilder. I looooooove Jason Clarke. He does female voices really well and his male voice is to die for. Really soothing. One of the reasons why I switched to reading a few times was that, if I was listening at night, his voice relaxed me so much I fell asleep. I also like Emma Wilder, but she has a sing-song-y voice that sometimes irks me. It has nothing to with HER and everything to do with ME because she sounds like a person I don’t like. Sorry, Emma! Her male voice is good too, though very raspy. TBATB is narrated by Zachary Webber, who, in my book, does no wrong, like, EVER, and Jo Raylan is a new narrator for me but she has a nice voice. Very soothing too.
All in all, I do recommend these books, but do read them in order, you will thank me later.
Possible triggers: emotional abuse / parental abuse / toxic relationships
