Hammered by Pippa Grant & Lili Valente

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Title: Hammered
Author: Pippa Grant, Lili Valente
Series: Happy Cat #2
Published by: Indie
Release Date: May 28, 2019
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Virginia Rose, Jacob Morgan
Length: 6 hours and 3 minutes
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Romantic Comedy
Source: Audible
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 1
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:

Blurb:

I didn’t mean to kidnap the groom.

One minute, the town’s bad boy was standing there at the altar, and the next, he’s accidentally passed out in my Vespa sidecar with his bride hot on our tail.

I didn't have a choice. It was ‘napping Jace or watching him commit a crime against love and humanity and puppies. And besides, what’s a little kidnapping between friends?

I think we’re friends, anyway. Everyone says not to get too close, that he’s trouble, that he’ll drag me down with him, but I know there’s more to him. And not just because the moonshine told me so that night we got hammered, and I kissed him.

Okay, so yes, I kissed him. And no, I don't regret it. Or anything else about that night. Like stealing that squirrel. Or liberating that hedgehog. Because hedgehogs shouldn't be trapped cages with abusive spouses, and neither should Jace.

Or maybe I just shouldn’t get hammered. Ever again.

Hammered is a sexy, laugh out loud romantic comedy between a bad boy bartender and the good girl forced to kidnap him at the altar, complete with a possibly cursed stuffed squirrel, a very confused hedgehog, and multiple Redneck Surfers on the rocks. This romance has no cheating or cliffhangers, and ends with a banging hot happily ever after.

My Review:

2.5 stars — Eh.  This one was kind of underwhelming for me.  I think the book put more stock into the over the top antics than in the characters, which is what some readers are looking for…I’m just not that reader.  I love me a quirky town and quirky characters, but for some reason this just felt forced and without magic.

It actually started off not bad with the fun interlude between Jace and Olivia.  But then things just kind of ran away from the book from there.  I think part of the problem is that the blurb starts off talking about kidnapping the groom…which doesn’t happen until more than halfway through the book, so you’re just kind of waiting for that shoe to drop, you know?

I also don’t quite get these legit crazy people that no one else seems to see for who they are — in this case Ginger.  Maybe if she was more subtle?  I don’t know.

Jace and Olivia were cute together when they actually got to be together, but the story was mostly them separated…so you saw chemistry, but not much other connection…at least for me.

This might be my first listen by Virginia Rose, but she was okay.  And I can be hit or miss with Mr. Morgan, sometimes I love him…and other times like this book he spends a lot of it in the deadpan voice and sounds…bored?  I don’t know.

Either way, this just wasn’t a match for this reader — it happens!