Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE: The Boyfriend Comeback

AUTHOR:  Lauren Blakely

NARRATOR:  Teddy Hamilton, J.F. Harding

PUBLISHER:  Lauren Blakely Books

LENGTH:  10 hours and 53 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  September 6, 2022

BLURB:

Some men are just off-limits. Like, say, all the other football players in the league…. 

I have to stop replaying the one night I spent with my rival. Trouble is, that white-hot encounter with the other quarterback answered a lot of questions I’ve had about myself, but it also led me into this mess where he hates me. I never showed up for our second date. Since, well, life happened, and the worst part is he’ll never know how much that night meant to me. 

But when I’m traded to his cross-town rivals, that’s not the time to serve up my secrets to him either. My team’s PR department wants to double down on our rivalry. I need to focus on football, not on my interest in men. 

Except, the more time I spend doing media appearances and charity events with the sexy, generous, popular guy, the hungrier I am to finish what we started. 

It’s a bad idea to knock on his door late one night. I could lose everything. He’s probably not even home. 

But when the door swings open and I’m face-to-face with the man I want desperately, I have a choice to make. 

A stand-alone enemies-to-rivals-to-lovers second-chance sports romance full of secrets, first times, and forbidden love….

REVIEW:

If you read MM sports romances, you’ve undoubtedly encountered the forbidden romance between two rival players. However, what you haven’t experienced is sports romance rivals done Lauren Blakely style.  Full of spicy banter, UST for days, stratospheric levels of heat, and undeniable chemistry between two endearing, relatable men who deserve to be together, Blakely’s latest delish sports romance, The Boyfriend Comeback, will have you coming back for more.

The Boyfriend Comeback has everything I love about Lauren Blakely romances:  fresh, witty, snappy banter, hot as hell leading men who are complex, passionate, sexy, and oh so loveable, a captivating story arc, and a vibrant found family that provides humor, camaraderie, and support to our guys. Jason and Beck may be one of my favorite Blakely couples. Their relationship is so refreshingly open, honest, and true. Their physical scenes are incendiary, and on the audiobook (more on that in a minute), your headphones may just go up in flames.

I’ve read a ton of sports romances – baseball, hockey, rugby, and football … lots of football.  Yet, the romance tropes that exploit the sports context are pretty limited. More often than not, you have players who hide their sexuality for fear of the repercussions in a profession that is less than accommodating to LGBTQ+ members. Or they fall for other players, which drives another level of secrecy because of the “taboo” against relationships with other players.  This is especially true for competitors, like Jason and Beck, who are cross-town rivals. Yet, despite the potential for triteness due to tropey-ness, Blakely finds a way to make Jason and Beck’s love story new and put her signature style on it.

Blakely’s audiobooks are one-clicks for me because of the cast she gets to perform her stories and the duet format she often chooses, turning these stories into vocal theater.  Here, not surprisingly, the cast is fabulous.  Who better to regale us with this sexy tale of forbidden love than the inimitable Teddy Hamilton (as Jason) and the growly, seductive baritone of J.F. Harding (as Beck). You know the Mae West line, “Come up and see me some time”? It’s all about attitude, knowing you’re sexy and have the goods on offer for the taking. Jason and Beck both embody that attitude (especially Jason), and Hamilton and Harding channel it.  Their vocal swagger entices us into the sinful, seductive tale, knowing they’ve got the vocal chops to deliver on the rich content Blakely has written for Jason and Beck’s love story.  We are helpless to resist their siren song.

Hamilton and Harding throw themselves into their vocal performances here.  They are wholly connected with Jason and Beck’s emotions – their conflicts and triumphs, despair and happiness, frustration and ferociousness. Hamilton and Harding’s interpretation of Jason and Beck’s character journeys is spot on – particularly Harding, who intuitively delivers Beck’s grief and anxiety with aplomb.  He is dead-on accurate in capturing Beck’s anxiety and near panic attacks, as well as Beck’s spiraling and then recovery through recognition of his own needs and self-care.  

Blakely should be commended for presenting such a realistic portrayal of anxiety disorder in Beck.  He’s a successful person who looks like he has it all together on the outside, but his facade conceals inner turmoil due to generalized anxiety that is heightened by grief, like the death of his brother Griffin, stress, like the pressure to repeat a Super Bowl victory as a second year QB on a brand new football team, and conflicted feelings of love and fear, like his desperate love for Jason but terror at losing everything if their forbidden love is discovered.  Rather than presenting Beck as weak or in need of rescuing, she shows that Beck may suffer and need support at times, but ultimately doesn’t need to be saved by anyone else because he is more than capable of recognizing his own distress and embracing self-care to alleviate the strain.

Harding’s vocal interpretation of this complex character portrayal is stellar.  His grumbly, growly voice has a bit of a break that perfectly captures the cracks in the placid persona Beck presents to the world. He brings Beck to life as a genuine man we embrace and adore. Beck’s brutal honesty, forthrightness, and fearless determination to go after what he wants are refreshingly different, and I love how Blakely wrote it and Harding embodied it.

Hamilton is excellent as always, and Jason sits right in Hamilton’s vocal sweet spot.  Jason is confident, borderline arrogant at times, but kind-hearted and generous, and his priorities are rooted in the people and things he loves – his Dad and brother Nolan (who we’ve met in previous Blakely stories in this universe), his teammates, his career, Beck, and the softie couldn’t even resist the adorable kitty Bandit aka Taco. 

The only reason this is a 4.75 heart review instead of 5 hearts is the format:  The Boyfriend Comeback is told in dual narration, not duet.  Dual narration means each of the mains has two voices because each narrator voices everyone in their respective sections.  Excellent dual narration requires a seamless transition between the voices from one chapter to the next, despite the switch in the narrator voicing the characters.  Hamilton and Harding have strong, distinct vocal styles and timbres; unfortunately, they don’t blend. In particular, Jason, narrated by Hamilton, has a bright, sassy, sexy tone that sits at a higher pitch with a completely different timbre than what Jason sounds like when Harding voices him.  Then he’s much deeper pitched with a richer, deeper tone.  I liked each interpretation, although I think Hamilton embraces Jason’s character better.  But the point is that they are not at all the same, and that dissonance is my only complaint about this audio.  Had this been duet narration, the audiobook would have been perfection.

Blakely always rewards her audiobook listeners with lots of treats. Here, the audiobook kicks off with the audio of The Boyfriend Kickoff, the prequel novella that tells the story of Jason and Beck’s first meeting, first hookup, and the “misunderstanding” that causes a rift between them.  That segues into The Boyfriend Comeback, where the rift forms the basis of lingering animosity Jason harbors towards Beck, and Beck’s guilt and need to make things right with Jason.  It’s not strictly necessary to listen to it first, but I recommend it because it provides the contextual foundation of Jason and Beck’s relationship, and is simply delicious to listen to.  

At the end of the audio, we get some extras, including an audio preview of Nate (Jason’s teammate and BFF) and Hunter’s story in Limited Edition Husband, which invites us to luxuriate in James Joseph’s delectable accent and, of course, Lauren’s go-to narrator, Teddy Hamilton.  I can’t wait for that story.  In the meantime, make sure you grab The Boyfriend Comeback – a fantastic audiobook that tells a killer story.  And Blakely, the reigning queen of the epilogue, wraps Jason and Beck’s love story up nicely with a bow.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Audible 

Amazon