Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE: Spring Strings

AUTHOR: Lily Morton

NARRATOR:  Joel Leslie

PUBLISHER: Self-published

RELEASE DATE: November 30, 2022

LENGTH: 4 hours and 56 minutes

BLURB: 

Malachi Booth is a supermodel. He’s used to moving about the world, sleeping with whoever takes his fancy, and watching the money roll in. The last place he expects to find himself is on a run-down farm in Cornwall, but a bad bout of bronchitis means that he’s stuck there. The only compensation for this dismal state of affairs is that the farmer is very good looking, even if he’s the grumpiest person that Malachi has ever met. 

Cadan Landry’s farm has been in his family for hundreds of years but that doesn’t make it any easier to make ends meet. As a consequence, Cadan could be called grumpy. Most men would consider a supermodel collapsing at their feet while dressed in the skimpiest pair of briefs ever made to be a sign of good fortune. Cadan just resents the fact that the young man is taking up space in his cow field. 

These two men are from different worlds, but can they ever meet in the middle?  

From best-selling author Lily Morton comes a novella about snarky models, misconceptions, and finding a home in the most unlikely of places.

REVIEW:

Perfection. 

That sums up Lily Morton and Joel Leslie’s collaboration on the audiobook of her sleeper novella hit, Spring Strings. The audiobook is a decadent five hours of aural bliss. Joel Leslie as Malachi Booth?  Yes, please.

Like the eponymous spring strings described in the story, Morton and Leslie entrance with this unputdownable opposites-attract, grumpy/sunshine gem of a romance. It grabs onto the heart and minds of its listeners and doesn’t let go.  Replay is the keyword here – you won’t be able to resist queuing up an immediate second listen, and maybe a third, quite simply because you won’t want to leave the grumpy Caden Landry and snarky supermodel Malachi Booth behind.  You’ll be helpless to the pull to dwell in their world just a bit longer.

The magic of Caden’s Cornish farmland creates an undeniable, unavoidable tether to the place for those who inhabit it – spring strings.  Mal shockingly discovers that there’s a different, even stronger spring strings – the attachment to the owner of the farmland:

“It’s those … spring strings. They’ve lashed my ankles, and I need to cut them off before I get attached to this man who hides his kindness and fierce intelligence and loyalty under an uncaring, grumpy exterior.”

Morton has created so many vivid, relatable, complex characters, and I’m hard-pressed to find any that I dislike.  But I daresay she broke the mold when she gave life to Mal.  We first met Mal in Morton’s Mixed Messages series, where he was a mere side character.  But Mal has an iron will and a refusal to stay where he’s put. He would never abide being relegated to side character status, as Morton discovered.  Mal’s mesmerizing, confounding personality full of contradiction took on a life of its own. His presence is seemingly everywhere in Morton’s fictional universe.  He’s the BFF of fellow supermodel Dean (another side character from the Mixed Messages series that became a breakout favorite and got his own romance in The Sunny Side).  He’s also a one-time hookup of Jude (star of Deal Maker) from when they used to model together. He’s magnetic and memorable.

Putting Mal’s ethereal, androgynous beauty aside, his larger-than-life personality has garnered him tons of attention. But his bad attitude has become the stuff of legends despite not being based in truth. For all of his snark, Mal is loyal and unfailingly kind to those he lets past his walls. Mal’s sharp tongue and rapier wit are unmistakable, and most men quell in their wake.  But his hardened exterior developed through self-preservation, so allowing Caden to see his soft underbelly is rare and leaves Mal in an unfamiliar state of vulnerability. 

Caden inherited his Cornish farm from his father when he died.  It’s not far from Chi an’ Mor where Silas and Oz live (from Oz, the first book in Morton’s Finding Home series). Silas makes an unexpected cameo here, provoking an amusing fit of jealousy from Caden over Mal’s flirting. If you’ve read Morton’s Finding Home series, you’ll recognize Caden’s mother, Constance, as the hysterical cruising companion of Gideon from Gideon.

The combination of a new, wounded, fascinating character in Caden, the riveting, poignant evolution of the snarky Mal, and Morton’s seamless weaving of their romance into the larger universe of her other full-length series novels, creates a novella that eclipses its word count in impact. It’s greater than the sum of its parts.

Layer on that Leslie’s immense skill and acting ability, and his channeling of Mal’s attitude, spirit, and chameleon-esque personality through a nuanced delivery with spot-on intonations, pacing, and timbre, and you have a technically precise, emotionally connected, magical listening experience.  Leslie’s no slouch when it comes to voicing Caden or Constance either.  He gets everything right, and his synergy with Morton’s intention is borne from a long author/narrator partnership that reaps rewards tenfold in how Leslie channels these characters. He gets them, he hears them, and he becomes them. 

Notably, Spring Strings represents the first time Morton has converted one of her short stories into an audiobook, signaling that Spring Strings is something special. Morton, always attuned to her readers’ sentiments and generous with her penned works, recognizes Spring Strings for what it is:  a crowd favorite because of its lovely plot, gorgeous setting, and most of all because of the charisma and undeniable chemistry between Mal and Caden.

Spring Strings is an incomparable audiobook – the best of the best. Even if you haven’t read Morton’s other titles, you can enjoy Spring Strings.  However, you’ll love it so much more in the context of Morton’s universe.  After all, you can’t fully appreciate Mal until you’ve heard him bid Asa Jacobs farewell with “Au revoir, stern-faced Daddy.”  If you don’t get the reference, read Deal Maker, and then Green-Eyed Monsters in Morton’s Short Stack.  

Spring Strings is a one-click, must-have audio to keep in pride of place in your audio library.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Audible  

Amazon