Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  Scoring with Him

SERIES:  Men of Summer Book 1

AUTHOR:  Lauren Blakely

NARRATOR:  Teddy Hamilton, Jacob Morgan

PUBLISHER:  Lauren Blakely Books

LENGTH:  8 hours and 6 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  July 6, 2021

BLURB:

An emotional, sexy, forbidden romance performed by Jacob Morgan and Teddy Hamilton! Scoring with Him is the first novel in the utterly addictive Men of Summer Series!

As a pro athlete, I’ve spent my life playing by rules, on and off the field. Especially this one – don’t date another baseball player. Following that ironclad rule has been as easy for me as hitting a lazy pop fly on a summer afternoon. Especially since I’ve got far too much trouble in my past to want to bring any into my present. Until the day a hotshot rookie walks into my locker room. 

Outgoing, affable, and sexy as sin, Grant has confidence and talent for miles. Doesn’t help that he’s easy to talk to, that he seems to get me, and that we each have our fair share of secrets and scars – ones we’ll both fight to protect. All the more reason to resist the kind of trouble his lips and eyes promise. Even after I plant a scorching, hot kiss on the rising star one night after a game. Even after he sends me the world’s sexiest selfie. But when Grant reveals his biggest secret and asks for my help, I’m so damn ready to rip up the rulebook. Turns out he’s a virgin, and he wants me to help him get around all the bases. As long as I don’t fall in love with him as we go.

Scoring with Him is book one in the Men of Summer Series. This romance between two professional athletes spans five epic years and continues in Winning with Him, also performed by Teddy Hamilton and Jacob Morgan.

REVIEW:

Lauren Blakely is a prolific, seasoned author of M/F romance.  However, she’s still a fairly new entrant to the world of M/M romance.  Her first two forays, A Guy Walks into My Bar and its loose spin-off One Time Only, precede her new baseball M/M Men of Summer trilogy, which Scoring with Him kicks off.  A Guy set the bar pretty damn high, particularly the audio, a duet narration with a full supporting cast featuring Joe Arden and Shane East voicing the two male leads.  That audiobook sits atop not only my Best of 2020, but my personal Best Audiobooks of all time list.  To borrow the baseball analogy, with that audio, Ms. Blakely hit a grand slam.

Scoring with Him provides a delicious, although different experience. Maybe because it’s just the beginning of a trilogy following our couple, Grant Blackwood and Declan Steele, their love story is more drawn out and the emotions simmer more often than they boil.  It’s potent in a less dramatic way than A Guy.  Dynamically moving within a narrower band of emotional highs and lows, we follow the relationship of these two Major League baseball players as they navigate their way through professional success on the diamond, unexpected love for each other that comes at the wrong time, and personal trauma and healing – all over the course of 5 years.

The storyline is engrossing, with saucy banter, UST for days, and bar none one of the hottest first kiss scenes I’ve read.  But even more impressive, Ms. Blakely delivered amazingly detailed, authentic, and complex characters in Grant and Declan.  These guys just felt real in a way fictional characters rarely do.  Indeed, the best part of Scoring sits with the characters themselves, even the ancillary characters like their teammates, best friends, and family.  Fitz, from A Guy, also makes several cameos across the book, as well as his sister Emma.  (Sadly, no Dean though.)  I fell in love with Declan and Grant, just adored everything about them.  So, I felt the trials and tribulations of their love affair deeply.

Where Scoring also hits a home run is through the vocal performances of Teddy Hamilton and Jacob Morgan.  The first M/M audio I ever listened to was Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy’s Top Secret, narrated in part by Mr. Hamilton. His voice is like liquid chocolate … decadent, delicious, addictive.  His pairing with Jacob Morgan in the Scoring audiobook recreates the auditory bliss of  Ms. Bowen and Ms. Kennedy’s Him and Us, as well as Ms. Blakely’s One Time Only, all narrated by this same pair.  Mr. Hamilton is as enthralling as ever.  Mr. Morgan’s voice is, notably, even better than I remembered it.

Both men are highly talented and skilled narrators and they bring this amazing story of Grant and Declan’s romance to life.  The timbre of their voices perfectly fits the tone of this story and captures exactly how I picture each of these men.  Their voices are imbued with a husky tone that packs an emotional punch and the way they vocalize the desperate, ferocious sex scenes is amazing.  They both convey a level of implied meaning into just a few words and it lands perfectly every time.  

My only complaint about the narration is that I wish it had been done in duet format, like in A Guy, rather than dual narration.  As amazing as the audio is, it would have been that much better if these two exceptional narrators had been able to play off each other in real time, essentially creating audio theater.

Scoring with Him is, simply put, fantastic, and Messrs. Hamilton and Morgan take it to the next level.  You absolutely must listen to Scoring with Him, either alone or paired with the book.  I both read the book and separately listened to it, and these narrators’ euphonious voices undeniably increased my enjoyment of the story.  Just be prepared for a cliffhanger … I really hate those TBH, but luckily the Winning with Him audiobook is releasing imminently so we won’t have to wait long to indulge in more Hamilton and Morgan magic.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Audible 

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