Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Winning with Him
SERIES: Men of Summer Book 2
AUTHOR: Lauren Blakely
NARRATOR: Teddy Hamilton, Jacob Morgan
PUBLISHER: Lauren Blakely Books
LENGTH: 8 hours and 27 minutes
RELEASE DATE: August 3, 2021
BLURB:
Performed by Jacob Morgan and Teddy Hamilton, the emotional, intense, and sexy romance Winning with Him is the second novel in the utterly addictive Men of Summer series!
Resisting the shortstop has never been my strong suit. I failed at it during my first spring training. It sure as hell looks like I’m about to fail at it again.
The sport I love playing with my very soul hangs in the balance. But everything my heart craves lies with the guy I’ve got to resist.
A guy who’s asking me to make the toughest choice ever.
But how do I become the man I want to be…with him or without him?
Trouble is, I can’t seem to get Declan out of my head, even if I stand to lose everything I’ve worked for my entire life…
Winning with Him is book two in the utterly addictive Men of Summer series and should be listened to following Scoring with Him. This romance between two professional athletes spans five epic years.
REVIEW:
Note: The Men of Summer series is a continuing storyline spanning three books that are intended to be read in order. This review provides a spoiler-free review for Book Two, Winning with Him, but because of the sequential nature of the series, it does contain spoilers for Book One, Scoring With Him.
* * *
Scoring with Him, Book One of Lauren Blakely’s Men of Summer series, began the epic love story of MLB players Grant Blackwood and Declan Steele. Scoring with Him concluded with an angst-producing, cliffy ending that left us hanging. Me no likey. 😠
Book Two, Winning with Him, picks up contemporaneously with Declan’s inexplicable break-up text (like seriously Declan, WTF??). It backs up in time, overlapping with the events at the very end of Scoring with Him, readily filling in the blanks and resolving the cliffhanger shortly after Winning begins.
I wasn’t happy with the cliffy (although whoever is??), but the resolution of it really irked me. Without spilling the deets here, I’m just going to state that the cliffhanger felt more manufactured for drama than supportive of the storyline (or storytelling). The cliffy resolution stands as the singular detraction from what is otherwise an expertly crafted, breathtaking, epic romance, so I’m glad to get my complaint out of the way up front so we can now focus on everything that’s great about the Winning with Him audiobook. And there’s a lot of great to talk about.
Winning with Him spans five years in Declan and Grant’s lives, starting from the breakup. The storyline provides temporal shifts back and forth within this time frame. It also shows us flashbacks that probe into Declan and Grant’s teenage years. We learn that family plays a critical role in shaping them into the men they are today, both positively and negatively. That’s not particularly unusual for an M/M romance, though. The plot often derives from one or both of the leading men trying to come to terms with emotional trauma incurred in their past, often as children. However, Ms. Blakely excavates that fertile ground in an unusual and unanticipated way.
Ms. Blakely maps out the course of Declan and Grant’s lives, both together and apart, so we understand these men’s personalities and emotions in a detailed, intimate way. This exploration is thorough and takes time. She doesn’t throw out easy answers or resolutions for Declan and Grant. If they want their relationship to work, they need to do the work. As such, the story’s pacing is slow, particularly earlier in the book. But Ms. Blakely rewards us for our patience and investment in her men of summer by creating a rich, complex, authentic relationship between them that is built on deep abiding love, trust, and dedication to each other.
Although the breakup is infuriating, especially in the callous way Declan went about it, it flags some complicated, painful issues that the men are facing … and cannot avoid. At least not if they want their future to include them together, in love, forever. Like ships passing in the night, in Winning, Declan and Grant try to connect, to recapture what they once had, but confront the harsh reality that timing is everything.
Ms. Blakely deftly handles Declan and Grant’s relationship trajectory, really fleshing it out in a way not typically seen. In doing so, she includes all the story elements we’ve come to expect from her. Amazingly detailed, authentic, and complex characters in Grant and Declan, as well as colorful side characters like their teammates, best friends, and family. A found family aspect to the story that resonates and helps balance out the angst – which there’s plenty of. Hot, smoking sex – and plenty of that too.
A quick note on that last point: Ms. Blakely expertly navigates the intimate, sexy moments between her guys through lots of UST and well-written, descriptive scenes. However, and perhaps most importantly, the sex is never gratuitous. It’s meaningful and impactful. There’s a “why” to it that goes beyond simply carnal desires. That’s important to know going in because the sex content is definitely higher in this book than in Scoring.
Winning with Him also digs into some serious issues concerning alcoholism. Ms. Blakely quite poignantly depicts Declan’s relationship with his father and the many truly impossible, heartbreaking situations Declan must navigate. I appreciated the careful research she clearly did and the visibility she gives to the issue, particularly the impact on loved ones of those struggling with the disease.
Declan and Grant’s engrossing romance also contains some utterly staggering moments. They will take your breath away or cause you to dissolve in tears, or perhaps both. On two distinct, memorable occasions, Ms. Blakely managed to do both in a matter of a line or two, as if she flipped a switch. Ms. Blakely created in very few words a feeling so sudden and acute it was like an arrow to the heart. I don’t want to tell you what it was here, but I will give you a hint so you can figure it out later if you want to: Both times, it related to Grant’s relationship with his parents and Declan’s reaction to it. The second time it happened, Declan simply said the words, “You are my hero. … Thank you for everything.” And I was a goner… 😭
Overall, Winning with Him feels different than Scoring with Him. Winning teems with wistfulness and aching hope that mirror Declan and Grant’s trials and tribulations and their journey as a couple. This comes through most potently in the masterful narration by Teddy Hamilton and Jacob Morgan. Their vocal performances on the Winning with Him audiobook add dimension to the story by making those feelings more pronounced, in all the right ways.
Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Morgan continue their delectable vocal portrayals of Grant and Declan, showing off their obvious and prodigious talent and skill. They know how to use their voices as the instruments they are. They explore highs and lows in their pitch, subtle and varied intonations, pacing, pausing, and emphasis on certain words and phrases. It all comes together to make us feel not just what’s happening, but feel what Grant and Declan are feeling in a way that text alone cannot convey.
Winning with Him is told through dual narration (each narrator voices the chapters from their character’s POV, but within those chapters, they narrate all the voices, including the voice of the other male lead.) I’m going to continue here with my rallying cry for duet narration, especially when Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Morgan are at the mics. (Duet narration is when two narrators interact throughout the story, with each narrator always voicing the lines and thoughts of their own character.)
Admittedly, duet narration here would just be icing on the cake because the audio is phenomenal as is. Very tasty icing, but icing nonetheless. It’s just that Ms. Blakely forever spoiled us with the duet, full-cast recording of A Guy Walks into My Bar, and now nothing short of that will ever do. *sigh* (In case you are wondering whether I can find a way to mention the superlative audio for A Guy in every Lauren Blakely audiobook review I write, the answer is a resounding Yes. Yes, I can. 😉)
Overall, Winning with Him is a sublime auditory experience. I read Winning before listening to the audio for it. Retrospectively comparing the two experiences, the audiobook stands out. Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Morgan give active, invested, multi-dimensional, impactful vocal performances. You won’t want to miss a delicious word.
RATING: 
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