Audiobook Review: Hard to Get by Laura Moher
Hard to Get
Series: Big Love from Galway #3
Author: Laura Moher
Narrators:
Michelle Price
Paul Bellantoni
Published: April 15, 2025
Audiobook: 9 hours 45 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: April 14-20, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
Single and determined to stay that way, Andi Salazar treasures her independence, her charming small town and the dedication to hard work she inherited from her beloved Gram. To blow off steam, she occasionally takes the stage as a voluptuous bombshell singer who can rev you up even as she breaks your heart with a song.
Big, blond math teacher Kevin Mahoney is fresh off a bad breakup when he moves to Galway, NC. The school year’s about to start, and he’s determined to find the real Kev, not the “vanilla” guy his ex-fiancée didn’t want to marry. When he sees Andi onstage and then collides with her in the hallway, he damn near bursts into flame, and their hot, sweet hookup leaves him wanting more.
The man is entirely too attractive though—too endearing—so Andi breaks it off with very firm “no” to a second date. But when their work brings them together again, Andi and Kevin slowly embark on a friendship instead. Andi’s beginning to trust a man for the first time in maybe ever. Kevin’s beginning to enjoy having opinions of his own– and squabbling about them with his new friend. Silently they both yearn for more, even though they realize friendship is safer. But then something unexpected turns their lives upside down in the best way possible.
Jessica’s Review:
I have listened to all three books in the Big Love from Galway series and have enjoyed them! These are romance books with plus size female main characters and male characters that you can’t help but falling for! These books also have spice with open door scenes, yet the books also deal with serious issues. In Hard to Get, the issue dealt with is domestic violence.
Andi and Kevin are both dealing with their own personal issues and going on their own journeys: Kevin has moved away and is starting over in a new location far from home after his fiancé decided she did not want to marry him. Andi is independent woman with a family history that still greatly affects her today.
I identified with Andi as she is independent and has built up her own walls due to her family past. Having gone through a divorce last year, in those ways I am similar to Andi, though you would never see me taking the stage and singing like she does!
We do have a spicy beginning, but after a while it does get toned down as the characters journey moves toward friendship and then its progression through the rest of the novel. I don’t have to have open door scenes, but Moher can write them!
Kevin was just… like Angus in Curves for Days, I just adored and crushed over him! I really enjoyed their journey even though Andi frustrated me at times. Once the reader and Kevin learns her backstory, we understand her issues.
The issue of domestic violence is throughout the story as Andi works at a domestic violence shelter. She even goes to the local high school football team and gives a presentation that strongly affects everyone in the room. Andi is meant to do this job!
The narrators Paul Bellantoni and Michelle Price have been the narrators for all three Galway books. I did have some trouble with the second book because of this as Bellantoni’s voice was Angus for me, but fortunately I did not have this issue with my third trip to Galway! Both Bellantoni and Price were fabulous! They really brought these characters to life and delivered on all the emotions these characters had! And Bellantoni’s voice is just… let’s just say I really enjoy his voice!
I will definitely we looking at any future novels that Moher will be writing.
Many thanks to the publisher Dreamscape Media for granting me a copy to listen to and review for all three books in the Galway series!
ALC Review: The Love Haters by Katherine Center
The Love Haters
Author: Katherine Center
Narrator: Patti Murin
To Be Published: May 20, 2025
Audiobook: 10 hours 33 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: March 31-April 6, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 3.5 stars
Book Description:
It’s a thin line between love and love-hating.
Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past—now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West.
The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim—but fakes it that she can.
Plus: Cole is Hutch’s brother. And they don’t get along. Next stop paradise!
But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good-looking man she has ever seen . . . but also a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful Aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two.
Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ensue—along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.
Jessica’s Review:
The Love Haters is far from my favorite book written by Center, but I did still enjoy it! It’s a rom com and will make for a great summer beach read, especially if you are vacationing in the Florida Keys this year! I’ve never been to Key West, but now I would surely like to go!
We have Katie Vaughn who is at a crossroads jobwise: Take a job in Key West featuring a Coast Guard hero who saved Jennifer Aniston’s dog (Yes, that Jennifer Aniston!) or risk getting fired. The catch is: Katie can’t swim. Being this is a romcom, of course Katie takes the job. And chaos in many forms appears throughout the story! With chances of being fired still popping up throughout the novel
The Coast Guard hero Hutch is her boss’s brother and Katie’s type. Katie meets Aunt Rue and a Great Dane named George Bailey (Yes, that George Bailey!) Aunt Rue and George Bailey enhance the story and at times steal the show! And Aunt Rue has some friends, so it’s like The Golden Girls at times!
There is some seriousness to the novel: Katie has body image issues. Seemingly like all women, but Katie’s tends to be worse due to her stepmother and a previous relationship where the media was all over Katie. Over the course of the novel, we see Katie go through a transformation with her body issues.
Katie’s body issues did seem to overshadow at times, but we get some potential romance and coast guard training in as well! Hutch was a ‘bit dreamy’ too. You can tell the Center did some research on Coast Guard training. Did she go through training like Katie did???? I enjoyed the ending and this is a fun read.
Patti Murin is the narrator. She is one I will listen to and she delivers on her narration every time!
Many thanks to the publisher Macmillan Audio for granting me an alc to listen to and review! I enjoyed it!
Pre-Order Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Book Review: The Final Wish of Murray McBride by Joe Siple
The Final Wish of Mr. Murray McBride
Series: The Wishes of Mr. Murray McBride #2
Author: Joe Siple
Published: January 21, 2021
Kindle: 239 pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: February 19- March 6, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
Jason Cashman has reached the goal he spent the last twenty years seeking, but instead of feeling content, he feels empty. When he meets Alexandra Lopez, a ten-year-old America-loving girl facing deportation, he is inspired by his old friend, Murray McBride, to give her five wishes before she must leave.
They set out to check off as many wishes as possible, but when Jason’s transplanted heart begins to fail, he must choose between his obligations to the past and his hope for a future.
Jessica’s Review:
I adored The Five Wishes of Mr. Murray McBride, so I immediately bought The Final Wish of Mr. Murray McBride on kindle. Final picks up immediately after Five Wishes ended, so we get a continuing story, this time with grown up Jason Cashman giving out wishes to a little girl who faces deportation along with her father.
I was a little nervous that the book was going to get political, but it really doesn’t other than the fact that we have a pending deportation. The reader also needs to drop any possible believability as the novel progresses. There are several things that happen in this novel that would not happen in ‘real life’. I can’t really say what without giving spoilers, but reading this novel was worth it in the end! And I felt a variety of emotions reading this novel and I enjoyed Jason’s continuing story. I came close to tearing up at the end, but Siple didn’t quite get me this time, but he did get me to ugly cry with Five Wishes.
The village that Alexandra and her father are from in El Remate, Guatemala is a real location and Siple ended the book with an author’s note that gives a personal experience with that village and an organization assists with the people of the village as well: Project Ixcanaan.
There is a prequel coming out in just over a week called The First Wish of Mr. Murray McBride that I will definitely be reading: Murray is back with us and we get to learn about his love story with his wife. I predict that I might cry with this one.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK