Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Hug It Out 
SERIES: Haven Heart #2
AUTHOR: Davidson King
NARRATOR: Joel Leslie & Philip Alces
PUBLISHER: Tantor
RELEASE DATE: November 6, 2018
LENGTH: 7 hours, 45 minutes
BLURB:
Riordan Darcy has spent the last fourteen years building a name for himself as a notorious assassin. He travels the world taking the lives of some of the worst humanity has to offer, leaving his signature on every victim.
Riordan becomes unhappy and withdrawn from the world after a job goes horribly wrong and he makes the decision to get out of the life he was forced into, so long ago. When his meddling, older sister gives him a birthday gift that’s impossible to refuse, his plans to leave his life of crime take a backseat when he’s forced to protect the life of a veritable stranger.
When professional hugger and TLC provider, Teddy Harris, is offered a month-long companionship contract, he’s hard pressed to turn it down. Cuddler by day and a video game reviewer by night, Teddy’s need to make people feel loved and cared for is what drives him. When he meets Riordan Darcy, professional challenge and personal temptation collide, making it nearly impossible for him to endure a whole month with the gorgeous, enigmatic man without falling head over heels in love.
When a mole is discovered within Riordan’s organization, relationships are compromised, and people’s lives are in danger. Time isn’t on their side, and they discover answers can’t always be found by hugging it out when someone is hell-bent on eliminating each and every one of them. Can Riordan and Teddy survive long enough to fall in love, or will they die trying?
REVIEW:
An assassin and …… a professional hugger. You know they are not quite the couple you instinctively see before you – but they work! And so does this book. I just spent an awesome evening listening to this book and before I knew it I’d gobbled up the entire book.
Riordan Darcy, assassin extraordinaire, is having a rough time after a mission gone horribly wrong. He’s withdrawing from the world and his family, while he’s trying to figure out where to go next. Enter a meddling but well-meaning sister, who’s determined to make Riordan enjoy life again. She hires a professional hugger to provide some TLC and get him in a better mood.
Teddy Harris is probably the most giving person you’ll ever meet. He loves and cares fiercely and deeply and he freely shares that love with anyone in need of a hug, a cuddle, someone to talk to. The two are as different as people can get and Teddy has his work cut out for him, if he hopes to break through the thick wall Riordan has surrounded himself with. And when things take a turn for the dangerous when a mole is threatening their lives, Teddy can’t help but wonder if he’s bitten of more than he can chew.
So let me start off with saying that to enjoy the book you will have to suspend beliefs that it will be accurately portraying the lives and manners of assassins. Take the book and story for what it is – fiction that’s supposed to entertain you for the duration. If you do that, you will enjoy the ride, the hugs, cuddles and massages. If you don’t, you’ll probably spend a fair portion of the book rolling your eyes and possibly even yell at the book. So for your own sake; leave reality at the door and just enjoy the ride.
This book is told from two POV’s and is also narrated by two narrators; Joel Leslie and Philip Alces. Dual narrations can be good, but they can also be bad – it all depends on the book and the narrators. So let’s break it down a bit. You might know by now that I love Joel Leslie’s narrations, he’s simply fantastic. In this book he performed the chapters told from Teddy Harris’ POV. And you know, I can see it before me; Joel Leslie and a professional hugger. They are a really good match, and it shows in the narration. It is spot on, the feelings, Leslie’s portraying of Teddy. All things Teddy shines through with each and every word, the warmth, caring, Teddy’s genuine happiness and that brightness that was him. Leslie did a wonderful job bringing him to life, he felt real and you felt with him and was with him every step of the way. And as always, the wide range of voices he has in his arsenal somehow still manages to astound me even after all this time and numerous books I’ve listened to by him.
The parts told from Riordan’s POV was narrated by Philip Alces, and while I did enjoy the narration I’m not able to rave about it as much as for Leslie. I will say this though, his voice! Can you have a crush on a voice? I can happily listen to that voice for days and probably don’t care much one way or another what words were spoken. I loved how passionate his narration was, the feelings he added to King’s words. It fit the moment, the characters and was just right. He nailed it to perfection and never strayed into that dangerous over-passionate/over-acting, but was just right. It made for a great listening experience. I only have one small thing in the negative column, and that was that Alces didn’t have a real distinction between the voices. It probably wouldn’t have been as noticeable had he not been paired with Leslie who has such wide range of different voices. But then again, I only noticed it in the beginning of the book, then I was just too engrossed to notice or care about anything other than enjoying myself.
Hug It Out was a surprisingly cuddly romance between an assassin and a hugger. It was sweet, romantic and just hit home for me. I’m really looking forward to see what else this series might bring, I’m betting on something unexpected.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
[…] Read More » […]
[…] Read More » […]