Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Booklover

SERIES:  Vino & Veritas

AUTHOR:  J.E. Birk

NARRATORS:  Cooper North & Tim Paige

PUBLISHER:  Tantor Audio

LENGTH:  7 hours and 32 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  June 1, 2021

BLURB:

Two guys meet over a stack of romance novels. Soon they’re turning pages late into the night….

Jamie Morin’s college GPA drops every time a cow breaks through a fence, but he’s determined to get his degree and keep his parents’ Vermont dairy farm afloat. He’d rather be reading than milking, but he can’t let his family down…not the way his brother did. So the last thing he needs is distraction in the form of an irresistible bookseller with a mysterious backstory.

Briar Nord has a lifetime of experience proving that happily-ever-afters only happen in his favorite books. But his luck might be changing. He’s got a great job at a bookstore, and he lives in a city that puts maple syrup on everything. But Briar knows not to trust anything or anyone. And that includes a gorgeous farm boy with soulful eyes and too many obligations.

When Jamie joins Briar’s romance novel book club, they both feel an instant connection. Soon they’re turning pages long into the night. But Briar’s past was bound to catch up with him. Sometimes, though, it takes two heroes to write a new ending….

Contains mature themes.

REVIEW:

Jamie Morin’s a college student who has WAAAAAAAY too many balls in the air.  He’s trying to work on his degree at Burlington University and keep his grades up so he can go to grad school in library science.  He also has a job at one of the libraries.  But all of that gets put to the side far too often when he’s constantly called back to his family’s dairy farm near the Canadian border.  He can’t let his family down though.  His mother isn’t physically able to help, his sister is too young and has her own things and his brother?  Well that is another story and one that Jamie still doesn’t fully understand.

Briar has had a pretty tough life.  However, he’s got a job at a bookstore – which he loves.  Both the job and the bookstore 🙂  He’s gotten away from the people who were dragging him down thanks to a former mentor and he’s got a small studio apartment all his own.  He’s got a savings account – small though it is – and he’s got his books.  He’s doing his best to keep his head down, do a good job for Mr. Fletcher, the owner of Vino & Veritas, the bookstore/wine bar that he works at, and keep his eyes on the prize.

Briar and one of the customers at the bookstore love to talk romance, so Briar is put in charge of a Romance Book Club at the store.  He’s incredibly nervous about it.  But when Jamie turns out to be one of the attendees of the first meeting and a fellow fanboy of the author of their first book selection, he thinks maybe his luck has changed.  The meetings is a success and Jamie and Briar end up going for coffee and maple baked goods 😀

Jamie and Briar build a bit of a friendship over books and bakery items – particularly maple donuts and maple crullers.  They enjoy talking books and end up spending more time together.  When Jamie is constantly having to find someplace else to be due to the CONSTANT hookups of his roommate Jeremy, Briar invites him to his apartment to get some rest.  But they end up doing more than sleeping 😉  Both guys have a lot going on though and so they decide to be friends with benefits.

Briar is pretty happy with how things are going.  So of course you know that something has to go awry.  And that something is the arrival, like a bad penny turning up, of his old bunkmate Luke.  Luke is someone he knew in his past life, when he spent time in the foster system and then a group home and juvey.  Luke, however, has never made an honest dime in his life.  And when he threatens Briar with outing him and his past to his new friends and coworkers unless Briar helps him with his latest scheme, Briar is torn about what to do.  On the one hand, he doesn’t want to go back to being destitute, but he also doesn’t want to help Luke at all.

In the meanwhile, Jamie continues to get buried with far too much work.  He’s always exhausted and he’s behind in everything.  His one happy place is with Briar.  He shares more with Briar than with anyone – including his roommate and his best friend Lizzy.  But something’s gotta give and his guilt about not being there for his family is bleeding over into every aspect of his life.  Everyone keeps telling him he has to stop trying to do everything, but he can’t figure out how to do it without disappointing everyone – especially his dad.

When Briar’s issues with Luke and Jamie’s issues with his family converge on one fateful night, nothing will ever be the same.  Briar thinks that he’s not deserving of good things and tries to let Jamie off the hook.  Jamie is about to lose everything he wants and he just can’t take it any more.  But luckily for both guys, they have really good friends and family who work to come up with solutions that will help them figure out a way forward.  Together.

There is just so much to love about this story.  Both of our MCs are dealing with their own pretty big issues, but when they come together, they finally find someone they can confide in and who will support them.  There is also a Romance book club that I just adored 🙂  I particularly enjoyed the nuanced discussion of topics that shed light on some of the things that people say without meaning to offend but are just a bit clueless about other people’s lives 😉  I also appreciated the discussions on mental health and PTSD which is so misunderstood by the general public who only associate it with military services. While Jamie and Briar are each dealing with outside pressures, they do find in each other some solace and the beginnings of trust.  Their FWB relationship is wishful thinking on both their parts, because it’s pretty obvious early on that this is much more than a friendship. Neither has much experience with being in a relationship so of course there are a few stumbles.  But they figure things out pretty quickly and work to support each other in dealing with all the things that come at them.  I loved the supporting characters in this one.  Jamie’s family and Louie from the bookstore and his husband, Mr. Fletcher and his mother, the other book club members and especially Jeremy and Lizzy, Jamie’s best friends, really come through for these guys and help them figure things out.  I loved the “Vermontisms”, the maple everywhere (which reminds me of Canada 😀 ) and the descriptions of the town and the farm.

Cooper North and Tim Paige did a great job narrating this story.  Using alternating POVs, we clearly understand who is who in each chapter.  Tim Paige is a favorite narrator of mine.  His fine work continues here with this story and I loved his take on Jamie.  Cooper North is a newer narrator to me – this is only my second book narrated by him.  I really liked the way he voiced Briar and the other characters – especially the slippery Luke.  I hope he continues to work in this genre 🙂  For me, the narration added another layer of emotional gravitas to the story which I think made it all the more poignant.  Highly recommended.  A really good marriage of story and performance!

RATING: 

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