The Favorites #2
ALC provided by author via Valentine PR
Author: Elizabeth O’Roark
Narrators: Samantha Brentmoor and Jason Clarke
Thanks, @elizabethotoroark for the ALC.
Maren is kinda relieved when she is “shipped”to North Carolina to help her stepbrother, Charlie (aka ‘the whore of Manhattan’) to fix a Southern mansion. The house is a disaster zone and it has its ‘peculiarities’ , meaning it’s making Maren feel things and hear noises. Then Maren finds a journal that confirms they are basically reenacting a century-old love story.
Charlie is doomed, screwed. He’s spent most of his adult life lusting after his stepsister. Now, she’s here, under the same roof, making him feel things he doesn’t want to, wanting things he swore he would never have.
The house keeps pushing them together, but they have very different goals in life. Maren wants to be a mom more than anything . Charlie swore he’d never have kids. Plus there’s that husband she still has….
OMG. The audiobook is narrated in duet by Samantha Brentmoor and Jason Clarke and I don’t have the right words rot express how invested they made me be in this love story. They were the perfect choice to showcase the slow burn, the yearning, the steamy tension in this step-siblings romance.
I’ve loved Maren since book 1 and I felt so bad for her and how her husband treated her. We soon realize that we have an ‘it’s always been you’ situation and we start cheering fort Charlie to finally show her his true self.
I swooned with the longing, the ‘I’ll do anything for you’ grand gestures. The whole vibe of the book is wight up my alley: a home renovation, forced proximity, friends to lovers, pining ( so much pining), old diaries, a little whimsy courtesy of ghosts and couple of very lovely surprises at at the end (IYKYK).
Loved loved loved.
Content notes: (SPOILERISH): abusive relationship – gaslighting and manipulating), death of a parent, toxic relationship with a family member, excessive worry about weight and body image, infertility, IVF, surprise baby
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