Reviewed by Stephen K.
TITLE: Charisma Check
SERIES: Roll for Love #2
AUTHOR: Charlie Novak
NARRATOR: Joel Leslie
PUBLISHER: Charlie Novak
LENGTH: 7 hours 13 Minutes
RELEASE DATE: November 16th , 2021
BLURB:
Hatred is complicated, clothing is simple — Edward doesn’t need a man, and he certainly doesn’t need cosplayer and tattoo artist, Izzy Montes, a.k.a. The Masked Gentleman, Edward’s ultimate nemesis.
Edward and Izzy have been antagonizing each other for over three years. Their rivalry is fierce, and Edward is determined to keep Izzy at arm’s length. Which would be all well and good… if they weren’t engaging in a secret, heated hook-ups.
Forced to appear together at a film premier in LA, Edward is determined to get in and out with minimal damage to his reputation… and his heart. But Izzy Montes proves to be a complication Edward couldn’t have predicted. Biting, funny, and charming in equal measure, he’s the one man Edward needs to loathe.
He’s also the one man Edward can’t get out of his mind.
Not that Izzy plans on letting him.
REVIEW:
First let me make the disclaimer that I joined this series already in progress. I’ve not read Natural Twenty the first book in this series. To be fair though, nothing in the book blurb suggested that it was required to enjoy the second book, and I’m pretty well still convinced that its not.
That said, this one initially felt a bit flat to me. As much as I loved the banter, and by-play, felt a bit too sex-centric for me. The sex was very front-and-center and began as hate-sex but quickly went beyond that. OK, the fellatio amidst the flounces & furbelows was fun. But I found that the details of the two main characters lives, outside cos-play were much more interesting to me than their in costumed lives. Their insta-hatred was pretty much joined already in progress.
The “back seat author” in me feels compelled to say that this whole tale might have worked better for me if the backgrounds of the characters had been more fully developed early on. Edward in particular was hard for me to warm up to, but later, as we learn about his dysfunctional family, and why he is the way he is, he becomes a much more sympathetic character.
Izzy and Edward as a couple are fun to hear about. The scenes where the boys are out with their celebrity friends were some of the most interesting. I for one would be really interested in reading about how their buddies, actors Nate and Cayden had gotten together. Also there’s a laugh out loud moment when Edward quotes Elizabeth Bennett. It’s just the perfect “Edward” thing for him to do. Almost as good is his realization that they were really in love. “There was only the clear confidence that I’d found the man I wanted to annoy for the rest of my days.”
But this is supposed to be primarily an audio-book review…
Joel Leslie is a great narrator and his Aussie accents are second to none, but I felt he slipped a little bit in this one.
Chapters are narrated in the alternating viewpoints of his two main characters, staid and somewhat prissy Edward, and charming but earthier Izzy. For some reason the Edward voice seemed to keep intruding on the Izzy chapters. Perhaps I’m just used to more blue-collar Brits, but Edward’s voice (and attitude) were a bit grating at times.
The pacing overall was fine, the two main voices were very distinctive. They were clearly indicative of the characters they represented. The supporting character voices were good as well, but there wasn’t a lot of scope for their development here.
Having not read the text version of this tale, it’s only conjecture but I’d opine that the audio-book version is actually an improvement on the written word version. It was easy enough for me to listen through the less interesting bits where I might have set the text version aside prematurely.
RATING: 
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