Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Stop Kidding Around
SERIES: Magical Mates, Book Two
AUTHOR: Macy Blake
NARRATOR: Michael Dean
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 7 hours and 39 minutes
RELEASE DATE: July 2, 2021
BLURB:
His so-called mate thinks it’s fate. Toby has other ideas.
When Toby Sanders shows up to interview for a teaching job at a mysterious estate, he’s not expecting his world to flip upside down and backward.
Shifters are real…and the hottest, most protective wolf of all is claiming him as a mate.
Toby can’t deny that Brooks is everything he ever wanted and never thought he could have – loving, strong, drop-dead gorgeous – or that the two little girls Brooks wants to adopt give Toby a glimpse of the family he’s always dreamed of….
But how the heck is he supposed to believe in this mating magic stuff when life has taught him that the only person he can count on is himself?
As dangers from multiple sources threaten everything he’s come to care about, Toby learns that being part of a pack isn’t just about accepting his fate, it’s about choice: choosing to trust Brooks, choosing to believe in himself, and choosing to fight for the life and love he deserves, even if he has to cross the entire fae realm to do it.
REVIEW:
Stop Kidding Around is the second book in Macy Blake’s Magical Mates series, and like its predecessor, All Kidding Aside, this book is funny, sexy and sweet. Toby Sanders shows up at Smith Academy for an interview with the “headmaster”, aka Nick Smith, for a job teaching at the school. Something seems a bit off to him about the request and immediate scheduling of the interview for the job, and Toby’s arrival at the Smith compound confirms that feeling. Toby’s not on Nick’s calendar. He’s not on the security list. No one knows who sent him the invite for the interview. It’s all very strange. But Nick arrives on the scene and before he knows it, a very human Toby becomes fully immersed in the paranormal world of shifters, magic and mates.
Brooks is a gray wolf shifter and a member of the neighboring Jerrick pack. If you’ve read Ms. Blake’s Chosen One series, you’ll remember Vaughn Jerrick, the pack alpha, and Sam, his mate, who are Henry’s dads. The prequel story Sweet Nothings gives the backstory on Sam and Vaughn and how Henry and his brothers and sisters came to be part of the Jerrick pack. Henry is one of Sawyer Smith’s mates, and Nick is Sawyer’s brother with his task from the Goddesses to take care of a misfit pack of orphaned shifter cubs. We met Brooks briefly in that prequel story and again in All Kidding Aside, book one in this Magical Mates series.
Brooks lays eyes on Toby and knows instantly that Toby is meant to be his. But he recognizes the journey to getting human Toby to acknowledge and accept the world of magic and mates will require patience and support. Brooks is gentle, loving and kind and while seemingly the opposite of Toby, they fit perfectly. I adored Toby, who is brilliant and quirky, and his nervous babbling is adorable.
This book shows us a beautiful romance unfolding, the creation of a family, and acceptance into Nick Smith’s pack where they feel like they belong. This is wrapped up in mysterious attacks and threats to Nick and his pack, so there’s a nice balance of action and suspense mixed in with the romance, and the amusing, heartwarming interactions between Brooks, Toby and the other pack members.
The high point of this book is a quadruple date between Toby and Brooks, Victor and Riggs (from book one), Vaughn and Sam, and Nick and his alpha mate, Jedrick. I was laughing hysterically at the entire escapade. Nick, in particular, is a larger-than-life character who is gruff and crude and can barely complete a sentence without using profanity. But it masks his generous and protective nature. He always puts his pack first.
We also get a healthy dose of Ollie in this book. Ollie is the first of the orphan children we meet in the Chosen One universe, back in the prequel. He’s now a young man, and his endearing craziness, banter and commentary are a fantastic addition to the storyline.
As I noted in my review of All Kidding Aside, I do not recommend reading this series before reading at least The Chosen One series and, ideally, the first three books in the Hellhound Champions series. You’ll no doubt still enjoy it, but you really can’t appreciate it fully without the context of the previous stories.
At this point, the characters in the Chosen One universe are embedded in my mind with Michael Dean’s excellent vocalization of them. When I read the books, even without the audio, I hear his voice for each character in my head. That type of indelible vocal performance is uncommon, but for Mr. Dean, it’s par for the course. He does everything right in his narration of these stories, and in this series, in particular, he captures the joy of falling in love in his delivery of Ms. Blake’s cotton-candy sweet Magical Mates romances.
Ms. Blake crafts this story in her usual fantastic writing, developing colorful and dimensional characters within an uber-creative storyline. You really can’t go wrong with this audiobook or this series, or the previous series … The whole Chosen One universe is fantastic and I encourage you to indulge in them all. But Ms. Blake’s Magical Mates series is truly something special, and it’s made unforgettable by Mr. Dean on the Stop Kidding Around audiobook.
RATING: 
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