Pawsitively in Love

Title: Pawsitively in Love
Author: M.J. O’Shea and Marc Schindler (Narrator)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: July 13th 2016
Genre(s): M/M Contemporary Romance
Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
Reviewed by: Belen
Heat Level: 3 flames out of 5
Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5
Blurb:

What Austin Lloyd lacks in academics, he makes up for in his love of the animals who frequent his pet salon. He’s not lucky in romance, though, and his family would like him to settle down with a good man. Austin—and his golden retriever, Maggie—couldn’t agree more.

Evan Partridge isn’t good at letting people in. His messy family life and the past that’s shaped him aren’t worth bringing up. But his pug, Dexter, sure likes the pet salon owner.

Austin and Evan get off to a rough start, but being friends soon turns into something more. Unfortunately, Evan’s secretive behavior nearly does the relationship in, and the budding love affair almost crashes and burns when Evan’s troubled sister shows up on his doorstep.

Not speaking to each other is killing them both, but Evan doesn’t know how to keep Austin and help his sister at the same time. He just knows he has to try. Winning back Austin’s trust back, however, is going to take a whole lot of work.

Austin is a sweet guy with slightly low self-esteem who falls for Evan, an emotionally closed-off guy. Evan’s family life wasn’t optimal, and his younger sister, Nell, plays a starring role in making his life more difficult with her wild mood swings and her constant need for attention. When Nell shows up on Evan’s doorstep she makes life so difficult for Evan and despises Austin so thoroughly that Evan puts the breaks on the best thing that’s ever happened to either of them. Then it’s about pulling his head out of his ass and winning Austin back.

All that’s basically in the blurb. Of course, not in those exact words. What I’m saying is I cannot blame the book. The blurb puts it all right out on front street. I knew going in there would be some kind of miscommunication or unnecessary drama and I honestly thought I was prepared for it.

I wasn’t. I struggled. It just did not work for me.

As for the narration, Marc Schindler is a new to me narrator. I honestly found his tone and articulation didn’t flow easily and made this a difficult listen for me. It took me almost a week to finally power through it.

Ultimately, I just didn’t connect to the story, I loathed the Nell character, I felt like the ending was far too abrupt and unbelievable, and the narration didn’t make it any of it better.