Sealed With A Kiss

“It’s like I want everyone else to be okay too, but I have this need to actually be the one making it happen for you.” I feel like I’ve been waiting forever for Naomi and Donovan’s story and it was so worth the wait. As usual, Erin Nicholas paints a vivid picture of life in the Bayou and the small community of Autre, Louisiana. Each new addition to the petting zoo is a wild and crazy adventure. “He didn’t want his interactions with her scripted. He wanted every smile, touch, and word to be real.” Donovan and Naomi are delightful and adorable together. They balance each other out and teach each other how to take chances in different ways. They are wild and passionate and their banter cracked me up. Their hearts are huge and they are always willing to jump in to help anyone who needs it. Naomi settles Donovan while he opens Naomi up to her adventurous side. They are perfect together. The audio was SMOKING!! Jason Clarke's narration of Donovan is perfection. I could listen to him read anything. Zara Eden is a new narrator for me and she was fantastic. Both of them brought the story to life and made me get lost in the story. I also loved catching up with everyone else in Autre with a side dish of the Hot Cakes gang. All of these characters together was everything. If you are looking for fun, wacky, humorous romance with a huge heart, take a trip to the Bayou. You won’t regret it.

Naomi loves her small hometown on the Louisiana bayou. She also has fallen in love with Donavan Foster, the sexy wildlife rescuer who’s been in town filming for the internet. When a hurricane hits and the pair are trapped together, Naomi finally gets the courage to act on her desires and is pleased to find out Donavan feels much the same. Sealed with a Kiss is an easy going, friends-to-lovers romance filled with exciting rescues and cute animals. The story picks up after Naomi and Donavan have been working together for months, and since the story is shared from both POVs, the listener understands each has developed strong feelings for the other. The problem: Donavan is only in town for a couple more months before he moves on to his next project. I like that Donavan is upfront about his plans before the pair becomes more than friends. In fact, I really like that both Donavan and Naomi are honest with their feelings and where things are headed. Overall, I enjoyed that there isn’t a big conflict for the couple. The pair had fallen in love before the book started, but never expressed it. They finally get together and realize they are in love. Neither has been in love before and struggles a little bit to figure out how to express themselves. But the pair work out the bumps by talking to one another and getting some advice from the large cast of supporting characters. My biggest issue with the title is that while it is a standalone romance and the story is good, there are a LOT of supporting characters who, at times, take over the narrative. I’m guessing a lot of the world building and characters were introduced over the course first three books, and possibly another series. The cast of characters is overwhelming. They sit around shooting the breeze, and often these parts of the story aren’t directly related to the primary couple. I found myself lost and/or loosing interesting during a couple of these times because I felt overwhelmed and unfamiliar with the folks. Narration: The story is shared via the third person alternating POVs of Naomi and Donavan. Ms. Eden uses an upbeat voice for her narrator, altering dialogue, including Naomi, primarily based on gender, but also for age. She adds a very slight southern accent to Naomi, but nothing significant. She does deepen her voice effectively for male characters. I didn’t particularly like how Ms. Eden ended her sentences at times: she seems to soften it or draw out the final word. Mr. Clarke has a gravely, deep voice, giving Donavan a very sexy vibe. His female voices (most notably Naomi) are softer and distinguishable, although many of the supporting characters sound nearly the same. In the end, Sealed with a Kiss is a good story - happy and breezy and low on conflict. It’s a small town romance with lots of nosey friends and adorable animals. If you enjoy Jill Shalvis’s Animal Magnetism series, this is for you. My biggest issue is that there are A LOT of side characters and at times I felt overwhelmed. The story and romance are sweet, and the animals are everything. My Ratings: Story: B Narration: Clarke: B+; Eden: B- Review copy received from Home Cooked Books Promo

5 star review Sealed With A Kiss (Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild #4) by Erin Nicholas AUDIO REVIEW: This is the fourth book in Erin Nicholas’s latest series.I love my visits to Autre, add in some familiar faces making an appearance and I couldn’t wait to read Sealed With A Kiss. You know that there will be some laugh out loud moments with the crazy Landry family making an appearance. I was riveted to Naomi LeClaire and Donovan Foster’s story from the first to the last chapter. They could not be more opposite and yet the attraction and heat that sizzles between them is impossible to ignore. The narrators Jason Clarke and Zara Eden did a wonderful job in bringing the story and these characters to life for me. Their voices were easy to listen to and did justice to the story Ms. Nicholas wrote. I really liked both Naomi and Donovan, although I was worried that Donovan would end up breaking Naomi’s heart. Can she really commit to a relationship knowing that it has an end date? These two really were perfect for one another and I loved how they were there for and supported each another. The push and pull of their relationship made for an entertaining read and it was heart warming to it watch it develop into love. This was a great additional to the Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild series and one I recommend.