Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Top Secret
AUTHOR: Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy
NARRATOR: Teddy Hamilton & Christian Fox
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
RELEASE DATE: May 31, 2019
LENGTH: 9 hours, 25 minutes
BLURB:
LobsterShorts, 21. Jock. Secretly a science geek. Hot AF.
LobsterShorts: So. Here goes. For her birthday, my girlfriend wants…a threesome.
SinnerThree: Then you’ve come to the right hookup app.
LobsterShorts: Have you done this sort of thing before? With another guy?
SinnerThree: All the time. I’m an equal opportunity player. You?
LobsterShorts: [crickets!]
SinnerThree, 21. Finance major. Secretly a male dancer. Hot AF.
SinnerThree: Well, I’m down if you are. My life is kind of a mess right now. School, work, family stress. Oh, and I live next door to the most annoying dude in the world. I need the distraction. Are you sure you want this?
LobsterShorts: I might want it a little more than I’m willing to admit.
SinnerThree: Hey, nothing wrong with pushing your boundaries….
LobsterShorts: Tell that to my control-freak father. Anyway. What if this threesome is awkward?
SinnerThree: Then it’s awkward. It’s not like we’ll ever have to see each other again. Right? Just promise you won’t fall in love with me.
LobsterShorts: Now wouldn’t that be life-changing….
REVIEW:
My namesake has a birthday coming up. And for a birthday present she asks her long-term boyfriend Keaton for a threesome to spice up their sex life. So said boyfriend, never backing out from a challenge downloads an app, sets up a profile (LobsterShorts) and start searching for the second guy Annika wished for. Soon SinnerThree has contacted him and it’s not long before the two are messaging one another daily. It starts with SinnerThree wanting to know how far and what Keaton is comfortable with. Exchanging fantasies and desires and wants turns into sharing their daily struggles, family issues and banter in general.
I loved this part, the beginning. I loved the banter and Keaton’s obscure knowledge in mating rituals for sea slugs or masturbating kangaroos that he so happily shared. I felt the draw between the two. Felt Keaton’s curiousness, awareness, and awakening, not to mention the UST was off the charts. When T-day (threesome day) arrived and their identities were revealed that chemistry kind of fizzled out a bit and a new can of worms were opened up. Because these two men has not only met before, they aren’t exactly what you’d call friends.
My feelings towards Luke (SinnerThree) are a bit conflicted. On the one hand I really felt for him and the shitty hand he’d been dealt in life. His struggles to make ends meet, how his family keeps using him and how lonely he really is. On the other hand all that shittiness doesn’t give him an out on how he treated Keaton, constantly pushing him away. I get that he was proud, but it kind of went beyond that and into the ridiculous. At the same time, he was also pursuing him physically – talk about mixed signals.
I also have to say a couple of things about the girlfriend. Yes Keaton and Annika are together for the first part of this book (no we don’t really get any details beyond a close friendship – so don’t worry, there are no girl parts here). Her presence while there doesn’t take over in any way, she’s more like a secondary character adding a bit of depth to the story. Just like the frat brothers and their antics.
Top Secret is narrated by both Teddy Hamilton and Christopher Fox and man that was the best part of this book. They were beyond fabulous and I loved every second of it. Fox and Hamilton have very distinct voices, and it’s easy to tell them apart. However, they worked so smoothly together that the listener didn’t notice the switches. And by that I mean that obviously we hear the new voice, know that we’ve switched POV, but that’s all. The volume, intensity, tone and feel of the book is there in the changes.
They both also captured all of the characters and their feelings just right. I loved that you could feel Keaton’s discovery of himself. That budding curiosity, the nervousness and want was there in every word. The same went for Luke and his feelings towards his family. The hope he didn’t want to feel, the rejection and disappointment of always being used. It was all crystal clear and it felt like you were right there beside them and go through it all when they do. I do hope to listen to many more productions by Hamilton and Fox in the future, because listening to this book was a treat.
RATING: 
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