Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Manhandled
SERIES: Winner Takes All, Book 5
AUTHOR: Lauren Blakely writing as L. Blakely
NARRATOR: Teddy Hamilton, Jacob Morgan
PUBLISHER: Lauren Blakely Books
LENGTH: 5 hours and 53 minutes
RELEASE DATE: May 10, 2023
BLURB:
My buddies made me do it. I swear.
I didn’t plan to bid big on a date with my baseball player best friend at the auction. But he looked really good in that tailored suit, and I can’t resist a dare.
The media jumps all over the story–the city’s new quarterback nabs a date with the bigshot star shortstop.
Not so fast–we’re just friends.
Until we hit the links for the strictly platonic date I won. Suddenly, I’m looking at my silver-tongued, devilishly handsome best bud in a whole new light–and it’s dark and dirty.
We cross way over the friendship line at my place that night, but in the morning we agree it can’t happen again. Trouble is, we can’t keep our hands off each other, especially not when we’re stuck in the same hotel room at our friend’s wedding.
But Tanner wants a real relationship, and I’m only serious about football. So when my second season as a starter begins next week, our late-night games (and talks, and sleepovers, and morning coffees) will have to end.
Except, as the cutoff looms closer, I’m feeling a whole lot more than friendship, and that’s a big problem for my career….
Don’t miss this red-hot friends-to-lovers, only-one-bed-in-the-room MM sports romance from NYT best seller Lauren Blakely!
REVIEW:
Manhandled is a fast follower of Lauren Blakely’s Limited Edition Husband, focusing on best friends Luke, starting NFL quarterback, and Tanner, star MLB shortstop. Manhandled features the same crowd of sports guys and their partners from the previous Winner Takes All series books, and one of the most enjoyable aspects of these stories is the easy camaraderie between them. The testosterone can get quite elevated at times, leading to peacocking, one-upmanship, and lots of bets and dares. That’s how Nate and Hunter end up married in Limited Edition Husband. It’s how Luke finds himself extravagantly bidding on Tanner at a charity bachelor auction and securing a date they both know but deny they want.
Luke and Tanner’s romance is easy, with little angst and lots of incendiary chemistry. Put them in a room together, and the air whips up a conflagration of lust, desire, and some unexpectedly pesky emotions that say that there’s so much more to their relationship than just friendship. The storyline is less exciting than some of Blakely’s other setups, and the obstacle to Luke and Tanner giving in to their growing feelings seems halfheartedly thrown into the mix. But the plot is much less important than the people, and it’s the people that carry this spicy, erotic tale of irresistible attraction, undeniable chemistry, and palpable lust and love between two BFFs.
Manhandled is hard edges, smoothed at the corners. It’s like a combo of Rafe and Gunnar’s boldly erotic love story in A Very Filthy Game and River and Owen’s flirty, UST-laden, BFFs to lovers love story in The Bromance Zone (from the Men of Summer series). Luke and Tanner have attitudes and swagger for days, and Teddy Hamilton and Jacob Morgan are just the guys to vocalize their uber-masculinity masking vulnerability and loneliness. I adore Hamilton (who doesn’t?), and he just “gets” Blakely. When you listen to his narration of Blakely’s books, you may find yourself wondering if Blakely wrote the story for Hamilton. Her words and his voice are like hand in glove. They fit perfectly every time.
Hamilton is vocal swagger personified. The sexual tension between Luke and Tanner lives in the tightly coiled restraint in Hamilton’s vocal cords. You hear him holding himself in check, almost gritting his teeth to harness the desire and need thrumming beneath Tanner’s skin. Hamilton’s voice has a texture that shows the many aspects of Tanner and how he acts and reacts to Luke as they navigate their often challenging, sometimes confounding, always distracting, utterly addictive relationship.
Morgan does BDE like no other narrator I’ve heard. He’s all laid back, devil may care, I-know-I’ve-got-it-so-I-don’t-need-to-flaunt-it attitude, a perfect match for Luke’s seeming arrogance. Interestingly, Luke constantly gives and takes bets and dares because he feels the need to prove himself, masking insecurities about his place on his team (they haven’t yet locked him in as their starting QB) and vulnerability borne of a need for closeness with a partner that he can’t fill. It leaves him feeling lonely and empty, so he fills all those open spaces with posturing and bold statements. Deflect. Deflect. Deflect. No narrator accomplishes the nothing-to-see-here-but-you-won’t-be-able-to-look-away dichotomy better than Morgan.
A little bonus: Morgan is apparently a master at speaking cat. Who knew?
Hamilton and Morgan perform Manhandled in dual narration format, which inherently lacks the seamlessness and authenticity of duet narration. However, they aptly portray their secondary characters and despite a noticeable difference between their voices – in just about every way – they accomplish alter egos for these characters that sound natural and blend even though it is very clear they are different. You register the difference in the background, where it easily gets pushed aside and forgotten by the engrossing story unfolding through their storytelling and magnificent voices.
I don’t think I have ever not recommended one of Blakey’s audiobooks, and for good reason: she pens luscious, decadent, romantic stories with men we can’t help but love, and then brings the best talent to the mic for the audiobooks. Her bench of narrators is deep, and they are all highly skilled with voices that embody the characters she writes. Manhandled is no exception in that regard. Hamilton and Morgan are easy on the ears – an excellent way to get swept away for almost six glorious hours in an enjoyable, sexy, steamy sports romance with two special guys.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: