REVIEWED by ALEXANDER
TITLE: Like A Lover
SERIES: Housemates book 2
AUTHOR: Jay Northcote
PUBLISHER: Jaybird Press
LENGTH: 4 hours, 47 minutes
NARRATOR: Mark Steadman
BLURB:
Josh has a plan: get through uni with a good degree and no debts. Focused on his goals, he’s working as an escort to pay his way. He enjoys the no-strings sex and doesn’t have the time or inclination for a relationship. Falling in love definitely isn’t part of the deal—especially not with a client.
When Rupert meets Josh in a bar, he’s smitten on sight. He’s never paid for sex before, but when Josh propositions him, he can’t resist. He should have known one night would never be enough. Luckily for him, he has an inheritance to support his addiction to Josh, because his job in IT wouldn’t cover the cost.
With each appointment the lines get increasingly blurred. Something is developing between them that feels more like a relationship than a business transaction, but they come from different worlds and to go from client-and-escort to lovers seems impossible. If they want a future together, Josh and Rupert have a lot to overcome.
REVIEW:
The second book in the Housemates series can be read as a standalone and gives enough information about the MCs from the first book to make new go buy that one for my own enjoyment.
This ain’t no pretty woman, but it is pretty close, and as a result of the premise, I had a certain set of expectations as to how things would go, and in this regard, Northcote did a good job of building the romantic relationship in a unique way.
Although there was a lot of sex, especially at the beginning, for obvious reasons, the actual romantic build-up was slow and had challenges. Both Rupert and Josh wanted more, yet both recognized the situation as being fraught with impossibilities. Being able to see into each of their minds also helped me to follow the progression of their relationship and surprisingly, the “how could it work” drama was not overdone or annoying and in this regard, I say kudos to Northcote.
The various secondary characters were well-utilized to advance the plot, which was well thought out, and never took over the story. I also liked how Northcote used a wedding near the end to open things up, which worked really well as a venue for finally bringing the guys together, since the bulk of the story had taken place in hotel rooms.
A year ago, it was rare to find a quality British narrator and now, we are fortunate to have someone like Steadman to do a story set in the UK justice. Each character had their own distinctive voice, whether they were a main or secondary character, the only issue I had was a lack of consistency with Josh’s voice at times. I did notice a spot in chapter 1 where the same short sentence was repeated, but other than that, the technical aspects of the narration were great.
AUDIO BOOK RATING: 
BUY LINKS: