Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Bad at Love
AUTHOR: Aimee Nicole Walker
NARRATOR: Tristan James
PUBLISHER: Tantor Audio
LENGTH: 10 hours and 36 minutes
RELEASE DATE: November 22, 2022
BLURB:
Bad at making decisions or bad at love? Either way, Kendall Blakemore doesn’t trust his judgment. He falls too hard, too fast, and always for the wrong guy. Needing a major shakeup, Kendall moves into his own place for the first time and seizes a new career opportunity. But everything he thought he wanted turns out to be the last thing he needs. When loneliness threatens to derail Kendall’s good behavior, he decides to rent out his spare bedroom. What could go wrong? Try a tenant who’s temptation incarnate.
Bad at commitment or born to roam? Either way, US Deputy Marshal Kurt Dandridge feels trapped. Maybe staying in one place for too long is the source of his unhappiness, or maybe it’s because he’s engaged to the wrong person. Finding his fiance in bed with another man takes care of one problem but creates another. Ridge needs a place to live. He’d leave Savannah altogether if not for his vow to apprehend an elusive fugitive. Renting a room from Kendall Blakemore seems like the perfect solution until Ridge finds himself falling for the alluring man. Would one kiss derail his course? And could he stop at just one?
Contains mature themes.
REVIEW:
Kendall Blakemore works two jobs. He’s a paralegal at a law firm by day and works at a gay club, The Cockpit, at night. He needs to money to get his own place and he doesn’t love either job really. One night he’s working and two of his coworkers are betting if a patron is straight or not. They’ve tried all their wiles but the guy isn’t budging – so the enlist Kendall, aka Sugar, to wait on the guy. He’s definitely not straight. What he is is a US Marshall named Ridge who has just caught his fiance in bed with said fiance’s boss when he’s gotten home “early” from an assignment. He packs his stuff and leaves and on his way to find a place to stay for the night, he’s hungry and he wants some wings – which The Cockpit is known for. Why he shares this information with a perfect stranger named Sugar is anybody’s guess, but there seems to be some spark there. And he gives Ridge his number on the check 😉
Ridge doesn’t call him, but they run into each other by a bit of serendipity when they are both scheduled to look at what turns out to be a really terribly apartment. The heat between them boils over during a rather lackluster showing of the apartment. Ridge still wants to know Sugar’s real name – and Kendall tells him to use the number 😉 Ridge is getting tired of staying with a friends – at 35 he feels like that’s not a great thing – especially when said friend and his girlfriend have just moved in together. Kendall’s in a slump as well and it turns out his boss at the club has a potential solution for several of Kendall’s issues including working two jobs he doesn’t really love and a place to live.
Kendall ends up renting a house and he offers for Ridge to rent the second bedroom and they agree to be roommates. Kendall tells Ridge he’s bad at love and he’s sworn off men. Like for a year. Ridge agrees to the plan, but there is definitely quite an undercurrent of electricity. Then Ridge gets pulled into a case that ends up putting him in direct conflict with having any relationship with Kendall right after they have finally slept together. When the pieces fall into place that their relationship could seriously threaten his job and a very important case, they have to make a decision. Of course they can’t keep away from each other, so decision or not, they don’t want to be without each other.
There is a lot of family drama for Kendall which would be a bit spoilery here, so I’ll leave that bit off. Then there is some family drama with Ridge’s dad having been ill which pushed things in the wrong direction with his former fiance. Ridge is worried about the future and he swears he’s not staying in Savannah after he catches the bad guy he’s been after for some time. But it turns out there is a lot that might just keep him there after all.
I absolutely loved this audiobook! I don’t know how I missed the book coming out last year, but I sure enjoyed it performed by Tristan James. As a huge fan of this author’s Savannah universe, I felt at home the second the story started. Of course I loved Kendall from the previous series in which he was introduced. I found his backstory to be quite compelling and liked how that was shared in this story. There is a lot going on in this story – with two cases for Ridge, two jobs for Kendall (well really 4 if you count two jobs at The Cockpit) and some pretty audacious criminals that both men take down 😉 Kendall is a real spitfire and if there was ever an illustration of don’t judge a book by its cover, it’s him. He may look like a beautiful blonde twink, but he’s got a steel spine and a lot of courage. He’s made his own way and he’s never again going to be anyone’s secret. He’s been taken advantage of for the last time. Ridge just doesn’t see himself settling down, particularly after the breakup with Todd. He’s surprised by his feelings for Kendall because he’s never felt this way about anyone. Kendall has had his heart broken too many times so his walls are pretty strong. But Ridge manages to break down every last one. They aren’t sure how this is going to work out – in fact Kendall is convinced it won’t and he’ll have to start over again. A lot of surprises and support from unexpected places provide a path the future that each man has been looking for, even if they didn’t know it 🙂 Kendall has finally found his true calling and Ridge has found his forever person and his real home.
I loved the secondary characters in this book – and there were a lot of them! The guys from The Cockpit, the other Marshals, Ridge’s family, Kendall’s mother and her former housekeeper all get into the act. I was pleasantly surprised by all the wonderful character voices that Tristan James managed in this story because it would have been really easy to get them confused. I really hope that there are more books in this universe because I’d love to see a few of these characters stories fleshed out from the little peeks we were giving in the epilogue! Mr. James is a favorite narrator and he’s done another great job with this book in the universe that he’s performed so well over the years. I highly recommend this book, especially for fans of Ms. Walker’s other Savannah stories. It’s another fine example of a wonderful marriage between author and narrator that lifts a successful story just that much higher with such a great audio production.
RATING: 
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