Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: The Romantic
SERIES: The Vers Podcast, Book 2
AUTHOR: Riley Hart
NARRATOR: Sean Crisden
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 6 hours and 58 minutes
RELEASE DATE: May 18, 2023
BLURB:
Parker
When it comes to The Vers, the queer podcast I host with my best friends, I’m The Romantic. The one who’s looking for love in all the wrong places. If there’s a jerk close by, I’ll find him. I’m beginning to think my Mr. Right doesn’t exist.
It’s definitely not Elliott Delgado Weaver, the shameless flirt who keeps asking me out. We’re not supposed to run into each other in Vegas or get drunk together. We definitely aren’t supposed to wake up married…only, we do.
Before we can figure out what to do, Elliott’s family finds out. He doesn’t want to let them down by telling them it was a drunken mistake. My parents had the perfect marriage until my mom passed, and since I’d hate for my father to discover what I did, Elliott and I decide to pretend we’re in love and stay married for six months. Better to amicably divorce later than own up to our screwup, right?
All I’ve ever wanted is my happily ever after, and now I live with a serial hookup artist who never planned on settling down.
But then, why is Elliott so good to me? He takes me on dates, makes me laugh, and touches me like I’m someone to cherish. He’s shown me I’m a sucker for praise, and lucky for me, he loves giving it to me. Our marriage is playing tricks on my heart because suddenly I’m wishing my happy ending can be with the husband who doesn’t think love is for him.
The Romantic is a wake-up-married, opposites-attract romance with tons of praise, an unforgettable massage, found family, and sweet moments on the pier.
REVIEW:
The Romantic, the second book in Hart’s The Vers Podcast series, picks up with Parker’s love story. Parker is Declan’s closest BFF, and he’s thrilled Declan’s finally found happiness with his famous actor boyfriend Sebastian Cole. But Parker is “the romantic” after all, and he wants that HEA for himself. But instead, all he seems to get is crazy, you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up dating disasters, and a sexy, shameless, persistent flirt named Elliott who keeps asking him out and who Parker (inexplicably) keeps turning down.
The Romantic follows in the footsteps of the excellent first book The Loner: it’s lighthearted, virtually no-angst, funny, and super sexy. However, The Romantic isn’t as successful as The Loner in communicating the connection between the two main characters. Elliott appears in the first book briefly, but we get the full context of his early encounters with Parker in The Romantic. I took to Elliott almost immediately. Hart does a terrific job developing his character and his relationship with his family, and I appreciated Hart’s exploration of Elliott as demiromantic. However, I struggled to connect with Parker. In fact, he mildly annoyed me. Hart does put Parker’s apparent neediness in context, but his vacillation towards Elliott, and his acting upon it rather insensitively, didn’t sit well. As the story goes on, Parker becomes more relatable, but the connection between him and Elliott never solidified for me.
That being said, the backbone of this series is the four childhood BFFs that make up The Vers podcast: Declan, Parker, Corbin, and Marcus. Hart continues demonstrating their tight bond, goofy behavior, and playful banter, and shows how their distinct personalities seamlessly fit together as a found family unit. Indeed, this is the best part of The Romantic and of the series as a whole.
Sean Crisden continues his narration of the series with the audiobook of The Romantic and gives a fantastic vocal performance. Crisden is unquestionably talented and executes all of the vocal fundamentals with aplomb. Plus he’s got that something extra. The draw to Crisden’s voice is his sexy growl – his rich, resonant tones with a deeper pitch. There’s a bit of gravel in his voice – a low rumble hovering just beneath the surface until he lets it loose and then … *fans self* 🔥🔥 There’s enough bite to get your attention and then plenty of delicious, bone-melting sultry warmth. Yummy.
Crisden’s narration here is perfection. He nails both voices – higher pitched for Parker, lower for Elliot. He easily conveys Parker’s exasperation and frustration with the clear attraction for Elliott he’s trying to keep in check. He also gets Elliot’s conflicted feelings and his wonder as he uncovers aspects of Parker’s personality and discovers some new ones of his own. Crisden’s cadence, pauses, emphasis and intonations are nuanced and accurate. He’s technically proficient, and his character differentiation here is distinct and consistent throughout. He also fully embodies the side characters like Elliot’s BFF Vaughn (who is hysterical especially when he’s describing the Vers guys to oblivious Elliott).
While I enjoyed The Romantic in text, I wasn’t blown away because of my struggles with Parker’s character. Crisden solves that issue through his intuitive, invested vocal performance. Hart struck gold with Crisden here as well as with the premise for this series. I’m eagerly awaiting the audiobook for Marcus’ romance in the next book, The Realist.
RATING: 
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