Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Can’t Get You Out of My Bed
SERIES: Love & Luck Book #6
AUTHOR: Isla Olsen
NARRATOR: Michael Dean
PUBLISHER: Moonwalker Press
LENGTH: 5 hours and 47 minutes
RELEASE DATE: December 28, 2021
BLURB:
Aidan Kelly. To everyone else in the world, he’s the star of a successful extreme travel show, but to me, he’s the one that won’t go away.
It started with one of those typical high school crushes on my best friend’s older brother, which turned out to be not entirely unrequited…
There was that time just after high school where someone (not me) may or may not have hurled all over someone else’s c*ck. Then there was that incident in Austin where…well, let’s just say it gave a whole new meaning to the term “bull riding”. And let’s not forget that little thing with the rental car….
But it doesn’t matter how good the sex is, or how deep the attraction is; Aidan and I are just never going to work. There’s the distance, for one, and the fact that one of us (not me) is a closeted celebrity…and that’s all without going into how whenever we’re in the same place, we just can’t seem to stop from hurting each other. And not just in the good way…
The only option to maintain my sanity is to avoid Aidan and force myself not to think about him. But that’s easier said than done when – thanks to my best friend’s misguided “help” – we end up living in the same freakin’ apartment….
Warning: This book is not appropriate for anyone who doesn’t like laughing, anyone who doesn’t like terrible karaoke, or anyone who doesn’t like when two hella gorgeous guys have a ton of smoking-hot sex as they work through their sh*t to get to their happy ending.
Happily ever after included.
REVIEW:
Can’t Get You Out of My Bed is the sixth entry in Isla Olsen’s fantastically fun Love & Luck series, which tracks the relationships of the eleven siblings in the Kelly family (mainly the eight boys). This one focuses on Aidan and his brother Declan’s closest friend, Ben. Josh (Book 5, Two Men and a Baby), Declan (Book 1, Fake it ‘til You Make Out), and Ben are BFFs from childhood, so Aidan and Ben have a long history. But, unfortunately, they also have been pining for each other for a long time. Finally giving in at Declan’s college going-away party, their chemistry ignites, and after that, they just can’t stay away from each other … but also can’t stay together either.
Aidan and Ben are like two magnets, constantly attracting each other, but then flipping and repelling each other … until the next time. Stupid actions and overreactions borne of fear have unconsciously driven a wedge between them, despite their obvious feelings for each other.
The relationship between Aidan and Ben is shown through staggered flashbacks. We know what happened from the beginning but find out why and how slowly, with each flashback revealing more and more of the story. Ms. Olsen employs this clever mechanism to build engagement and some low-level suspense. It also keeps a plot focused more on internal journeys than external events, moving.
Notwithstanding the title, there’s more to this story than sex. At its heart, Aidan and Ben’s relationship is about finding and coming home. It’s about finding that place that enables you to be your true self and fills you with love and completeness. It’s that place where you just naturally and authentically feel you “fit”.
Notably, while home can be a place, it can also be a person. Aidan and Ben find a home in both. Aidan has closeted himself and run away from his family, keeping secrets from people he loves. In doing so, he cut off an intrinsic part of himself. He finally comes home to the Kelly clan, and it would be hard to find a more open, accepting, loving, and hilarious group of people than them. Similarly, Ben runs away from Aidan and then keeps himself away, later even following a boyfriend to a place he doesn’t want to be. Ultimately, these two get their acts together, open up, and embrace that they belong together. They find their home in the same geographical place, but also, they find that home is and always has been with each other.
Michael Dean continues with his narration of the Love & Luck series (since Book 3, Crazy Little Fling) and delivers what we’ve come to expect from him: an invested, thoughtful, well-executed vocal performance. Mr. Dean is one of the more popular narrators in the M/M romance genre. In fact, he’s the go-to narrator for several of my one-click authors, which translates to a lot of Michael Dean’s voice in my ear. Given that, providing distinct, nuanced performances for each book, and more specifically, recreating himself to match the unique characters of each book, is a significant challenge. Yet he overcomes it with seeming ease.
Despite the sheer number of different characters in Can’t Get You Out of My Bed, Mr. Dean excels at consistently distinguishing between them. And as always, he leans on his incisiveness to understand the story’s dynamic, and then delivers it with perfect pacing, apropos timing, and spot-on intonations.
Like the other lighthearted books in the Love & Luck series, Can’t Get You Out of My Bed is a low-angst love story filled with happiness, humor, and a very satisfying HEA. Of course, there’s the expected appearance of the Kelly clan group texts, which as per usual, are hilarious. The book is a quick read, so next time you’re in a book funk, pick this up. You don’t have to read any of the other books first to fully enjoy this one, with the caveat that if you don’t, you may have a steep learning curve in understanding all of the members of the Kelly clan and the complex interconnections between them and their respective partners and friends. Because the rest of the series is excellent, I recommend you read the series in order, even though it’s not strictly necessary.
RATING: 
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