Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Tell Me It’s Real
SERIES: At First Sight #1
AUTHOR: T.J. Klune
NARRATOR: Michael Lesley
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
RELEASE DATE: June 30, 2014
LENGTH: 10 hours, 24 minutes
BLURB:
Do you believe in love at first sight?
Paul Auster doesn’t. Paul doesn’t believe in much at all. He’s thirty, slightly overweight, and his best features are his acerbic wit and the color commentary he provides as life passes him by. His closest friends are a two-legged dog named Wheels and a quasibipolar drag queen named Helena Handbasket. He works a dead-end job in a soul-sucking cubicle, and if his grandmother’s homophobic parrot insults him one more time, Paul is going to wring its stupid neck.
Enter Vince Taylor.
Vince is everything Paul isn’t: Sexy, confident, and dumber than the proverbial box of rocks. And for some reason, Vince pursues Paul relentlessly. Vince must be messing with him, because there is no way Vince could want someone like Paul.
But when Paul hits Vince with his car – in a completely unintentional if-he-died-it’d-only-be-manslaughter kind of way – he’s forced to see Vince in a whole new light. The only thing stopping Paul from believing in Vince is himself – and that is one obstacle Paul can’t quite seem to overcome. But when tragedy strikes Vince’s family, Paul must put aside any notions he has about himself and stand next to the man who thinks he’s perfect the way he is.
REVIEW:
Tell Me It’s Real is outrageous, it’s at times over the top, often inappropriate, filter-less and so much fun. It does need to come with a warning label though; “Do not to listen to while in public”, because you will burst out laughing more than once and people will turn to stare at you – undoubtedly questioning your sanity. But all that is okay, because this book is worth all that – and more.
Paul Aster is my kind of guy, he’s the kind of guy I love reading and listening about. That clumsy and shy guy with no filter and will say and do the most outrageous things – hippo exhibit anyone? A genuinely nice guy with a low self-esteem with the sass to mask it. The night he sees Vince, his world tilts and he’s forever changed.
No one has ever claimed Vince was the smartest guy around, but what he lacked in smarts he made up for with looks, confidence and tenacity. When he lays his eyes on Paul, his mind is made up and nothing will stand in his way, except maybe the car…
This is the kind of book and humour that really shouldn’t work for me, I usually find it boorish and utterly ridiculous. Sure, a lot of it is ridiculous, but Klune’s writing is magic and this book works for me on every level and I can’t help but fall for all the characters, homophobic parrot included, and you have so much fun while falling.
Michael Lesley performs this book brilliantly. It’s almost as if it was written with him in mind as a narrator. He nails all the characters, the hilarity and he brings the book and Klune’s word to life. I will definitely look for more of his narrations in the future, because listening to him for the past 10 or so hours was an absolute treat.
Tell Me It’s Real was hilarious to listen to from beginning to end, and it will definitely end up on my re-read pile for those days when smiles are scares and you just need some happy in your life. Highly recommended!
RATING: 
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