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  • Beautifully Unexpected

  • By: Lily Morton
  • Narrated by: Joel Leslie
  • Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (91 ratings)

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Beautifully Unexpected cover art

Beautifully Unexpected

By: Lily Morton
Narrated by: Joel Leslie
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Summary

Sometimes love comes when you least expect or want it.

Magnus Carlsen is determined to grow old disgracefully. At 52, he doesn’t believe in keeping anything. Men, sofas, books—everything gets jettisoned, eventually. He’s divided his life into happy compartments. A successful trial lawyer, he spends his days lecturing jurors, exasperating judges, and striding arrogantly around courtrooms. He fills his nights with a parade of handsome young men who want to make him happy. Why date someone his own age to discuss back pain, retirement planning, and corns when he can date men who don’t care to discuss anything at all?

However, when one of these sunny young men shows an inclination for dramatic scenes, Magnus meets his new neighbor. And his whole world implodes.

Laurie Gentry is nearly the same age as Magnus, but that’s where the similarity ends. He’s messy and creative and nosy and mysterious. He’s everything that Magnus has spent a lifetime avoiding. So, why can’t he get Laurie out of his head? 

Luckily, Laurie is only in London for the summer. Magnus can uncover Laurie’s mysteries and indulge their annoyingly hot attraction, and Laurie will be gone before complications arise. A few months isn’t long enough to lose his heart. Is it?

From best-selling author Lily Morton comes a romantic comedy about two footloose older men and how one summer in London brings something quite beautifully unexpected into their lives.

©2021 Lily Morton (P)2022 Lily Morton
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: LGBTQ+

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A re-energizing love

Magnus has taken the Marie Kondo method to heart, not just about his posessions, but about the men in his life. Keep them younger and keep them moving on. That is, until he meets Laurie who is close to his own age but has kept all the youthful spirit Magnus has lost over the years. Turns out, over the summer, Magnus discovers Laurie "brings him joy" all the time. What's a playboy to do? It's a romance, it's a Lily Morton romance, somyou know where things will go but it is always such a joy to watch her characters realize where things will go. As always, you'll smile and chuckle and get that wonderful Lily Morton warmth in your heart with this one. Might just be my favorite of hers. Joel Leslie gives his usual amazing performance here. I especially loved his vocal changes as Magnus starts to realize what Laurie means to him and the way he makes you feel Laurie's warmth and zest for life.

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sweet love story

As the title states beautifully unexpected . Magnus and Laurie were great characters. Both middle age, so could relate. while set in their ways their relationship was special.
Joel Leslie narration was perfect, thoroughly enjoyed listening to this audio.

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  • 03-08-22
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Lovely

Story: Lovely story! Lily Morton's characters never fail to make me fall in love. The story was entertaining, the emotions genuine and palpable. Just what you need!
Narration: Joel Leslie is a great fit for this story. The acting is spot on.

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More Than Beautifully Unexpected! Fantastic🎧📚🎧

This is a fabulously delightful and beautifully unique romance novel, the story grabbed my attention right from the start and captivated it the entire time. The characters are realistic, easy to relate to and connect with, they are easy to care about too. There are few books that feature characters who are mature and already established in their life and in their ways, so it is always refreshing to get to enjoy such stories, especially when they are as beautifully written and plotted as this one is. Lilly Morton is a gifted author and her way with words is absolutely amazing, the witty dialogue is endless and the timing and landing of the humor is always perfect. Magnus Carlsen, a fifty-two-year-old trial lawyer, is great at what he does and rarely loses a court case. Outside of the courtroom, he keeps himself busy with younger men and never plays with one more than once, except one of them does not get the message and returns to surprise him wearing his birthday suit and a ribbon around his package, yeah that package. And making matters worse, his new neighbor gets to witness the entire ordeal. Laurie Gentry, the mysterious artist, is only staying in London for a short time, he got a kick out of watching his neighbor and the ordeal with his unwanted visitor and his ribbon wrapped package. Laurie and Magnus are opposites in several ways yet they click, neither are looking for a relationship but find each other intriguing and a friendship develops which morphs into more. I loved how everything plays out in this book, the story flows naturally and has the perfect balance of drama, humor, heartfelt emotions and steamy romance. It is the type of story that warms your heart and puts a smile on your face the entire time. Lily Morton, thank you for another wonderfully entertaining story.

🎧📚🎧 And for the amazing narration, Joel Leslie’s talent knows no bounds, his knack for character voices and accents is extraordinary. He has a complete understanding of the characters he portrays, gives each a voice that fits the character’s persona and sounds believable in every role he plays. He sets the perfect tone for the story, handles the witty dialogue with natural ease and lands the humor effortlessly. You could hear how much heart he puts into his work as he captures all the character’s emotions and projects them into his performance. Joel Leslie is an entertaining storyteller and a versatile voice artist, his narration enhances this wonderful story to another level. Thank you for another exceptional listen.

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brilliant!

This book pleasantly surprised me. I knew from chapter one that it would make me laugh, the meet cute was hilarious, and it did make me laugh out loud many times but it also pulled at my heartstrings and made me fall in live with the two main characters. I love reading books about people finding love later in life. And those two were even more special because they never saw themselves in a relationship and their feelings surprised them. Fantastic book, beautifully written with amazing characters. I loved listening it, it was the best company. The narrator did a great job bringing it to life.

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Wonderfully Wonderful Listen 😍

I could give this book more than 5 stars I would. I adored Mags and Laurie. I've read and listened to all of Ms Morton's books and loved them all, however some do stand out: Risk Taker, Gideon, Spring Strings, Charlie Sunshine, After Felix and this one. One of the things I love about this lady's work is, that although the make me laugh out loud, literally, the poignancy is supreme and makes my heart ache for the characters. This has some very funny laugh out loud moments, combined with some really poignant moments. Loved the writing, admired Endof, reminds me of my dog, Doc. As per, Joel Leslie does a wonderful job in his narration. He represents the nuances of Mags and Laurie perfectly, I especially enjoyed his version of Laurie. He captured his irrevence and love of life perfectly. Ten out of ten all the way 😘

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sweet, slow burn love!

This one seemed different to Lily's usual sassy and snarky characters but no less wonderful. With older fully developed characters finding unexpected love later in life! I liked that they challenged each other from the get go. There is still classic Lily humor but softer and sweeter. These two fiercely independent men didn't know what hit them and their friendship to love is fun, heartwarming and completely unconventional but that makes it all the better!
Joel is fantastic as ever but I will say he doesn't follow the same Danish accents as written in the ebook but it in no way distracts from his performance!!!

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Absolutely beautiful

It's one of my favourite books by Lily and I'm so pleased to say Joel does a fantastic job of bringing each character from the book to life. I enjoyed every moment of this story and recommend it wholeheartedly.

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Favourite author and favourite narrator

I loved this book. It's a glorious slow burn with older MCs (early 50s/late 40s). I adored Mags (although it took me a chapter to get used to his accent) and I loved the verbal sparring between him and Laurie.
It's funny and lovely watching these two defiantly independent men falling in love. And when it all goes wrong I was sobbing uncontrollably.
Excellent narration as usual from Joel Leslie, I honestly can't imagine listening to a Lily Morton audio read by anyone else.
Highly recommended

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Excellent as ever

This is one of my favourite Lily stories and I really enjoyed how it was brought to life. Joel’s performance is superb as ever, he is one of my favourite narrators.

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