Date Me Like You Mean It

By: R.S. Grey

Narrated by: Luci Christian, Teddy Hamilton

Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

I’m good at hiding my feelings.
Having to pretend I’m not in love with my best friend?
Pfft. That’s child’s play.

Here’s how I do it: I avert my eyes when he walks out of his room, shirtless in all his toned glory. I squash the butterflies that fill my stomach every time he slowly unfurls a dimpled smile. And, most importantly, I keep an arsenal of “personal massagers” in my bedside drawer. Wink.

Not to brag, but Aiden Smith isn’t hard to resist if you’ve been doing it for as long as I have. In fact, we might have continued as best friends forever if not for the fact that I needed him to play the part of my fake boyfriend.

Date me like you mean it, I told him. Nudge nudge. C’mon, just go along with a little lie, help a girl out, and then we can all return to life as we know it.

Except he veered from the plan.

He crossed the line.

Flirting with me when no one else was around? Pinning me down and kissing me like that? Okay, how exactly is taking off my bra part of the ruse, Aiden?!

I’d ask him about it if I could, but well...things got ugly and we’re not best friends anymore.

In fact, we’re the exact opposite.

Now, I have to play nice even though I want to crush his heart in the palm of my hand.

Pretending not to love Aiden was the easy part.

Pretending not to hate him?

Well...I might need a little more practice.

©2020 R.S. Grey (P)2021 Audible, Inc.

Adorable!

Like most of R.S. Grey’s books, this one was adorable and a lot of fun. Her books tend to have the perfect amount of sweetness with just a touch of angst towards the end. This one was slightly different in that there were two points of angst and different times of the book, but I actually really loved it.

Maddie and Aiden were a great couple, but even better friends. I loved their banter together and how you could tell that they would go to the ends of the earth for each other. Maddie had her moments of silliness, but that was definitely one of her more endearing qualities. I liked how focus Aiden was on his job to the point that it made him incredibly oblivious at times.

The story itself was pretty dynamic for this type of trope. Friends-to-lovers can lead to pretty fluffy reads and while this one was no exception, there was also a lot of emotion within it.

The narration was on point as usual with Luci Christian and Teddy Hamilton. This book isn't heavy on Teddy (haha), but Luci can definitely carry it on her own. She has a great male voice, so it never bothers me to listen to her chapters. I like how happy she always seems when she's narrating, which is also why I think she's perfect for R.S. Grey's books. Still drives me nuts that she pronounces the H before the W in words like "whipped" and "whirled", but I deal because I really enjoy her narrations.

Overall, I definitely recommend this one if you're looking for a light, happy read, with a side of solid emotions.

loved it

I really enjoyed reading this author.  I look forward to reading more books by this author in the near future.

Good start but turns sour

I enjoyed the first part of the book when things were fun and light. But the latter part of the story becomes very explicit. Which I could let pass but the story becomes annoying when the characters seem to have no intelligence how to manage their life. If anything, this is a story about letting infatuation attraction over-rule brains. As the story goes on it ceases to be romantic or funny. It is miserable.

FMC is annoying

Honestly tue book was ok but the female main characters is immature. She moves in with someone she basically met once and with romantic fantasies she never gives him a hint of? But it really lost me when the man she supposedly loves has an opportunity to fulfill his dreams and she is upset he didn’t refuse to pursue it for her? Especially as she has just assured him she had no feelings for him 🙄. I mean, if she REALLY loved this guy she would be happy for him fulfilling his dreams instead of pouting about how it affects her; I would get if she was sad and upset, but acting like he is in the wrong was just beyond immature.

Enjoyment

I read many reviews before going ahead with the down load of this book. I have to say, after listening, I just don’t understand the negative comments. I thought the narration was great. I liked both Maddy and Aiden. The story moved right along and I didn’t find any of it boring. If you are considering whether or not to take a chance, take the chance! I think some people are programmed to find the glass half empty! I really enjoyed this book and I’m glad it’s in my library so I can listen again and again.

Great Read

This book left me with a great feeling! with the narrators, I feel like I could picture the characters more. Predictable in ways, but I loved it!

Great performance but characters didn’t do it for me

The narrators did a great job - Luci and Teddy are favorites with me, and this was no different. But their performance was the only thing that kept me listening to the end. I simply couldn’t empathize with the characters. Maddie came across as immature, self-centered and unreasonably demanding, while I couldn’t get a grasp of Aiden’s character. Rather disappointing as the underlying trope is one of my favorites.

When do they actually 'date'?

After having read other reviews, I thought that I'd made a mistake with this cute friends to lovers story. The narration was fine with me. I thought Luci Christian possibly didn't care for the character of Maddie and did an A- job with her. Maddie was a whiny brat. She went from obsessive to possessive to needy to apologetic after she got what she wanted. I didn't care for her. Aiden deserved a more supportive 'friend'. Maddie's all "Follow your dreams... as long as they're local."

That being said, the title throws you off because the couple never dates! How did R.S. Grey come up with this title? Maddie has Aiden pretend to be her boyfriend on a trip, where they aren't dating. Cute story nonetheless.

One of those 😒

I love this author and i love these narrators but i was disappointed. It sucks ass. I hate this soo much. I don’t know how this whiny girl is a thing. Im irritated that I invested this time.

DNF

Story: Two best friends who are also brother and sister in law (heroine sister is married to hero’s brother) are roommates. The heroine has had feelings for the hero since meeting him at the sisters wedding, but neither of them have acted on it....until now. I’m a sucker for friends to lovers and with Teddy Hamilton as one of the narrators, this was an auto click for me. Sad to say though, I didn’t finish this.

Luci is new to me as a narrator and while her voice is pleasant for both male and female, her inflections were off and it became distracting. It felt like she was reading, not performing -if that makes sense-. I couldn’t really get a feel of the characters through her, and for someone like me who likes to imagine the scenes and feel each emotion through the presentation of the narrators, this became a problem 60 mins in......I guess I’ve been spoiled by females such as Andi Arndt and Erin Mallon who excels not only in bringing out that raw emotion when they narrate, but bringing the characters to life with it.

Also, for all the Teddy Hamilton fans such as myself, he doesn’t appear until the second half of the book and even then his part is extremely limited. I didn’t get to his part, I just know based on how the chapters are laid out. Part 1 of the book is all Luci and the heroine...what’s her name (yes, I can’t even remember her name 5 mins after calling it quits to write this review LOL). Part 2 is both Luci and her heroine, and Teddy and the hero. Teddy narrates maybe 1/3 (I’m being generous) of the second part of the book. Side note: I hope he’s not getting so popular he only take roles in a limited capacity, because that would be sad, he’s too great a narrator, but I digress. Anyway, as I was saying, this book has 24 total chapters and an epilogue, of these chapters, Teddy narrated 6 short chapters, yes only 6! That’s one of the biggest reasons I decided to return this audio and purchase this to read instead. I like the story, just can’t get pass Luci’s narration without Teddy’s to provide a balance.


P.S. I just looked up Luci Christian thinking she was new, she’s been doing this at least since 2012. I find it sad that with so many years in the business she hasn’t gotten better as a narrator. Looking back on some of the great narrators that I know (Andi Arndt and Erin Mallon...my female faves) you see the growth in their art, Luci hasn’t improved from what I can tell. Maybe it’s time for her to do some voice lessons and focus on her inflections...it goes a long way in telling a story and keeping the audience engaged. If she can lock that down then she would be perfect. Her voice is sweet, and she can be funny and fun (there were peeks of it in the hour I listened to her), but her inflections kills her narration. If you can ignore narrators and focus on the story, then yes, it’s worth a credit. If you are like me, living/experiencing the story through narration, then save your credit, not worth it.