Sweet Little Lies by Jill Shalvis

This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Title: Sweet Little Lies
Author: Jill Shalvis
Series: Heartbreaker Bay #1
Published by: HarperAudio
Release Date: June 28, 2016
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Karen White
Length: 9 hours and 35 minutes
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Romantic Comedy
Source: Libby
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2020 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ IndieBound ✩ iTunes
My rating:

Blurb:

Choose the one guy you can’t have . . .

As captain of a San Francisco Bay tour boat, Pru can handle rough seas—the hard part is life on dry land. Pru loves her new apartment and her neighbors; problem is, she’s in danger of stumbling into love with Mr. Right for Anybody But Her.

Fall for him—hard . . .

Pub owner Finn O’Riley is six-foot-plus of hard-working hottie who always makes time for his friends. When Pru becomes one of them, she discovers how amazing it feels to be on the receiving end of that deep green gaze. But when a freak accident involving darts (don’t ask) leads to shirtless first aid, things rush way past the friend zone. Fast.

And then tell him the truth.

Pru only wants Finn to be happy; it’s what she wishes for at the historic fountain that’s supposed to grant her heart’s desire. But wanting him for herself is a different story—because Pru’s been keeping a secret that could change everything. . . .

My Review:

4.5 stars — I finally decided to go back to the beginning of this series and start reading all the books I’d missed, because the group cast is so strong that you can’t help but want to read all their love stories.  And Pru and Finn did not disappoint!  There was a lot of heart, some great laughs, some strong group of friend moments, and great steamy bits…basically success for a classic romance.

This was my first time listening to Karen White as a narrator, and she was not bad!  I loved the different voices she did for each character, and they were seriously so consistent, it was impressive.  Occasionally her voice had a strange quality to it that had me thinking of a computer voice (like Alexa), but mostly it only stood out on chapter headings.  I’m not sure what in the process is making it sound like that…but at least it’s not pervasive.  Her emotions were pretty great too, though her voice got a bit loud and hard to moderate in my headphones on occasion, just because of the loud nature of our characters.  All in all, not a favourite but would definitely listen to again.

I’m not sure what I was expecting from this story, but I definitely didn’t expect Pru’s backstory and how it matches up with Finn’s.  Pru frustrated me a bit with her tendency to willfully ignore the right decision.  I got it to a certain degree, but I honestly didn’t expect her to put it off as long as she did.  I thought she got off a bit easy in the end, but at the same time I felt for how torn she was.  And honestly, it fit with Finn’s gross overreaction, so I guess they matched up in the end with me wanting to smack them both.

Pru was sassy, adorable, caring, strong, and she had a sense of humour that just always made me laugh.  She was also misguided.  Finn was obstinate, especially when it came to his brother…but somehow that bit of tarnish helped make him more real.  I loved that he was fairly calm and easygoing, he didn’t get rattled easily.  It’s just that when he did, he really did.

They had seriously great chemistry with one another, the sexy times were seriously hot!  I also just loved the way they played around with one another and meshed out of bed as well.

Thor was a hilariously great dog character, he amused the shit out of me.  And as with all the rest of the books, I ADORED the large secondary cast of friends from the Pacific Pier building.  It was interesting to see them from the beginning like that, and how their dynamic was already established…they just brought people in.  I really appreciated that we got to see moments with these friends, and got to see Pru establish these desperately needed friendships.  I didn’t realize that Jake was in this book, he was in Wrapped Up in You too right?  I wonder if he’ll ever get his own book…

So yeah, as I said…solid romance.  They made me laugh, they made me cry, they left me satisfied.  😉