love this!

Susan Hawke's Lovestrong series is an amazing series about attraction, acceptance, love, and creating a found family when your blood family let's you down. The stories are a mix of humor, sweetness, heat and seriousness... capturing our hearts, making us laugh out loud, and pulling the emotional heart strings. The characters are fantastic - fun, entertaining and lovable. This bundle is a fantastic way to binge the first four books plus a prequel story - How Not to Blend, How Not to Tuck, How Not to Sin, How Not to Wait and How Not to Break. A definitely recommended bundle!

Michael Dean narrates this story with a clear and smooth voicework and recording. Personalities come through, feelings are felt and it's extremely enjoyable listen.

5 people found this helpful

Great set of stories

I love all the stories in this bundle but my absolute favorite is the short story How to Tuck and I thinks it’s all because of how Michael voiced Larry! Very over the top but it was the perfect voice!

2 people found this helpful

I'm glad I listened.

Instead of giving an overall review of the entire bundle, I've decided to review each book individually.

How Not to Blend - 3.5 stars:
This might be one of those things that just comes down to personal tastes. I didn't totally dislike How Not to Blend. I liked certain aspects of the characters and the story, particularly the more serious parts of the story. But some aspects just weren't my cup of tea.
Andy was a little too over the top for me much of the time - part of his schtick was that he was full of Southern sayings & drag queen camp, but I felt like I was drowning in cliches much of the time. When he was more serious & not repeatedly calling people Boo or Boo-Boo and so forth, I liked him a lot. I wouldn't even have minded some of his campiness, but it just seemed too much, at least for me.
I didn't immediately like Corbin - he was sooooo clueless about what was going on with his son at first. That being said, once he came around to have a lick of sense, I found him very likeable. I especially liked his relationship with Andy's grandmother's irascible dog.
Andy's grandmother is also a major character & definitely was portrayed as a good woman with a good heart, spunky, occasionally faux-crotchety, with a dose of common sense for Andy when he needed it. Another major supporting character is Corbin's son, Grayson or "Gray." I loved that kid & wanted to wrap him up in a big hug.
Although I probably focused on a lot of negatives here, I didn't dislike the book & I think the parts that I didn't love were my own personal preferences playing out.

How Not to Tuck - 3 stars:
As with my feelings for the first book, my feelings for this might be one of those things that just comes down to personal tastes. I liked Larry better in his daytime persona of a music teacher/glee club conductor than in his Honey Combover persona, especially when he was being more frank and down to Earth, (though that was not most of the time). But that's just me. I didn't mind some of his campiness; I just liked his serious side better. I liked the concept of Godric's character a lot - a cat-loving, semi-introvert, with a hidden dom side. I did feel that he and Larry moved WAY too quickly into the dom/sub dynamic for the sake of realism.
Obviously, this is a short read, so it's not going to have a ton of detail into their every interaction from the start of their relationship to their HEA. I think I might have enjoyed their story more if it had been slower. I think some people might really enjoy this book - I liked it enough to actually have wanted to get to know the characters more, to appreciate them more.

Hot Not to Sin - 4 stars:
I enjoyed Gabe and Seth's relationship, their banter, general conversations and getting to know one another. They had a sort of whirlwind relationship, but even though they still probably had a lot more to learn about one another, their love and respect for each other felt totally believable. I was also totally sucked into the portion of the plot involving a bigoted church member and his family.
Some might find this book a bit preachy, not just because one of the characters is literally a preacher, but because there's a LOT said about this character's feelings about religion, interpretation of the Bible & Christianity in general, along with multiple discussions between characters. However, although I can appreciate that the sermonizing might be a turnoff for some, I feel that it was important for the story, to understand Gabe & other characters in the book, (not to mention that part of what was being said was the idea that we need more love and less hate, less using religion as a weapon). One way that I think helps to deal with mentions of religion in books & characters, if you're not into real life religions like Christianity, is to imagine that the characters are living in a paranormal world & that this is that world's religion. (As a side note, I did find it relatively unrealistic that so many side characters, who were past or future main characters of the series, were also associated with Gabe's church. It does take place in a fictional small town though, so there's that).

How Not to Wait - 3.5 stars:
This is the prologue to book 4, How Not to Break. It does not stand on its own at all. In this short, we get to see exactly what happened to shape the relationship and conflict that begins the romance between Nick and Shaw. It's hot, angst-y and bittersweet. I'm not totally on board with how the characters behaved; I'm sure I could say more, but anything else would be a spoiler. I still enjoyed it.

How Not to Break - 4 stars:
This was an enjoyable listen for me, quite light, but not totally fluffy. I liked the main and the side characters. I'm sure that one could point out various flaws based on one's own preferences, so far as realism or even just what various readers' pet peeves might be, but I enjoyed the time spent getting to know them and their story. The stalker aspect of the story provided a lot of suspense and made the story darker than the others in the series to an extent. I didn't necessarily always agree with decisions characters made along the way, but who doesn't want to smack a character on occasion?

Now, for the narration. The emotion and pacing was good and, considering the rather large amount of characters involved in this bundle, the voices were pretty consistent and varied enough. Sure, some characters technically had the same voices as others, but because they weren't often in one another's company from one book to another, it didn't bother me. I liked the voices chosen for all of the many characters except Andy's grandmother, (simply because Michael's voice for older women is not my thing), and for Larry/Honey Combover. (To me, he sounded like David's friend in Independence Day, like he'd smoked about 2 packs a day for 40 years, with a sort of New England accent, (as if he'd pahk the cah) - not sexy). But all that said, I'm glad that I listened to this bundle.

2 people found this helpful

Great Bundle - Wonderful Performance by M. Pauley

How Not To Blend:
This is a rather complex story and I enjoyed the way everything unfolded. Great characters, with a lot of depth. Funny and poignant and nicely done.

How Not To Tuck:
So Funny! If I wasn't laughing out loud I was smiling. Susan Hawke does an amazing job with this shortie, and you don't have to read any of the other books in the series to enjoy it.

How Not To Sin:
I really enjoyed this one. Nora Phoenix's comments about religion are very well done. Her references, and how they apply to the storyline, are very impressive.

How Not To Break:
Even though I’ve never read any of the preceding books in the Lovestrong series, I didn’t have any trouble enjoying every bit of How Not to Break. Susan Hawke explains all the relationships and fills in all the background information, and it never feels like she’s playing catch-up. The story unfolds naturally and this one stands on its own.

I enjoyed the audio version of How Not to Break which is beautifully narrated by Michael Pauley. We fans of erotic audiobooks already know how amazing Mr. Pauley is when he performs the bedrooms scenes (there’s no one better!) and he gives his all with this one. There’s some fantastic unresolved tension between the main characters, and when these two guys finally get together every nuance of their longing and passion comes through.

Also impressive is how Mr. Pauley handles the extensive variety of characters in this episode of the series. His ability to infuse each of them with a distinct personality brings them all to life for me and makes listening to a story even better than reading it.

One of the reasons this story grabbed my attention is because it’s an age-gap romance. The added twist of the connection between the characters’ families is taboo enough to make it intriguing and I love the way Susan Hawke makes the most of it. Poor Nick, holding on to all that guilt!

Listening to How Not to Break was a true pleasure and I can’t wait to go back now and purchase the rest of the series.

1 person found this helpful

second reading

loved it more! always good to go back to hear details that may be have been missed. Great story Susan, and thank you Michael, great voice, love all your reads. Dan

1 person found this helpful

It's Complicated

I loved all four of these stories. Each couples story is unique from they way they interact to the problems they face. Each couple doesn't always seem obvious from the beginning but yet they are so perfectly suited to each other. I also love how the different characters reappear in later stories. I listened to the Audible version. It was well down and fun to listen too.

How Not to Blend - I love the way that Corbin and Andy compliment each other. They learned to fake until they made it.

How not to Tuck is a shorter story but I love how Larry and Godrich just seem to fit together so well. They seem so mismatched but it really works for them.

How Not to Sin - the back story of the leaving the PC USA is a little too close to home but it made it even a more interesting listen. I love how they remain strong in the love and with the community they were building. I also love some of the things that happened at the end of the story. This is a great story of a couple building a relationship but also a community coming together.

How Not to Wait and How Not to Break - It was amazing to see how these men had fight their own guilt and misunderstanding from the past to see each other in the here and now. On top of that they have to overcome Seth's crisis with a stalker

1 person found this helpful

Love this series

This is such a great series and having it in a bundle really shows how well each story flows into the next. Plus, you don’t have to remember which book is next up.

Gray and Corbin are probably my favorite couple but Nick and Shaw hold my heart because of everything they’ve been through to get their happy ending.

I’m looking forward to the next book in the series (which I hear will be out later this summer), though I might wait for Michael Dean to get his voice on it because he did such a great job with these stories.

1 person found this helpful

Great books.

The last story was outstanding, the first 3 were good but the 4 th was fun , sex and had no idea who did it.

If you need pick me up.

I loved this series I thought at first I might not care for it. The author knows how to keep you entertained. The characters,we all know someone like that. Loved loved it!!

Susan Hawke great job

I’m fairly new to Susan Hawke and her work. I enjoy your work. I only wish real life was as spectacular. Perhaps it is and we don’t realize what we have.