The Novel Approach by Heather Guimond

Posted October 19, 2019 in review Tags: 4 stars, opposites attract

The Novel Approach by Heather Guimond
Length: 7 hours 21 minutes

Series: Love Between the Pages #1
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Setting: London, UK
Source: Audible
Narrator: Heather Firth

Goodreads

She's the Sweetheart of Sweet Romance.

He's romance's reigning sex god.

When the two accidentally collide at a book conference, sparks - and their luggage - fly.

Stacy Sanders had never heard of Gage Blackstone before.

If she'd known he was the man everyone called the "king of one-handed reads," she would have run away as fast as her Prada heels would take her.

Every woman who'd ever read a romance novel had at least one erotic book penned by him, hidden in her underwear drawer.

From the moment Stacy caught Gage's eye, he only thought about messing up her perfect hair and kissing her senseless.

Stacy never imagined she'd find herself waking up next to him.

But as soon as he finds out what she writes, it will be him running in the other direction.

Who would have thought the most novel approach to love would be sweet, spicy, and steaming hot?

The Novel Approach is an adorable story about two very different romance authors. Stacy writes “sweet romance”-off page sex and steam. She runs into a hunk of a man at the airport on the way to a romance authors’ convention and he turns out to be another author. Gage is one of the top erotica authors! And all this takes place in London to boot!

I love the opposites attract trope because I think it allows the characters to each bring something vital to the relationship. Gage is well versed in sex, but he was a manwhore. Stacy’s sweetness and innate vulnerability allows her to be a good balance for Gage. She finally gets to experience the things she has always wondered about with Gage. The chemistry is there between these two but that doesn’t mean the journey is smooth! I will say that I have always struggled with man whore characters and Gage is no different. I never completely warmed up to him as a hero because of that. Everyone has a past and all, but it felt like because Gage was a man and wrote erotica, it was somehow acceptable that he’d been with LOTS of women.

Stacy has another author in her genre that she quite dislikes. Oddly, these two sort of bond in a strange way and perhaps forge a new understanding of each other. It was nice to see women repairing their relationship instead of continuing to be catty and vapid. There were some parts of the plot of The Novel Approach that I thought were a bit underdeveloped. There is a LOT going on-you have all the crazy fans there to meet their favorite authors, an assistant that is a bit overbearing, and a crazy stalker. All of this is great, but I think when there are so many things happening, either the book has to be 500 pages to really flesh everything out, or some things sort of just get resolved in a way that is less than satisfying.

Heather Firth is a new to me narrator and I thought she did a great job! Her performance was enjoyable and her “male voice” was good (I can’t handle narrators who try to do the voice of the opposite gender and its bad-it totally pulls me out of the story). She performed The Novel Approach very well and I would certainly listen to her again!