e-Audio, 07:27:57
Narrated by: Mark Sanderlin
Release Date: January 23, 2024
Published by: Harlequin Audio
Read from: February 10-12, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
TW: Grief, Death of a Parent, Sexual Content, Cursing, Alcohol, Homophobia, Cancer, Infidelity
For Readers Interested In: Romance, LGBTQIA+, Realistic Fiction, AdultReady. Set. Faux .
Holden James picked the worst time to have a meltdown. His chance to audition for his favorite game show, Madcap Market , should have been a moment of triumph—a glorious, loving homage to his adored mom, who died six years ago. Instead, he’s destroying the minibar in a grim Los Angeles hotel room…recently dumped, partnerless and sliding into a crushing black hole of anguish.
But the hotel service in abject misery is sublime. It even comes with an unfairly fit and sexy (smart-ass) concierge who arrives at the door with pizza, Monopoly and deliciously distracting forearms.
All Holden knows about Leo Min is that he’s beautiful and unexpectedly sympathetic, and the chemistry between them is beyond . Maybe it’s even enough to convince everyone, including the show’s casting directors, that they’re a real couple. All they’d have to do is crush the competition, win the huge cash prize and all of Holden’s problems—his broken heart, his buried grief, his complete lack of money and direction—will be fixed.
Of course, reality doesn’t quite work out that way. But love is an entirely different game…
*MY THOUGHTS*
This was………….. Idk? lol I have read and loved almost all of Tim’s stuff, but when I saw this one I was like BET. And of course, he delivered. Did it have some qualms? Yes. And there were some big ones. But there were some good things too.
Ok so I guess I’ll start with the romance and the characters. I acutally liked it. The love interest was actually my favorite part of the story. He was hilarious and I feel like he brought out the best in the MC. Normally that aggravates me because I feel like the MC should be likeable on their own. But in this case, the MC was grief stricken and really sad. I wanted nothing more than to tell him he did NOT need to be doing this right now. He needed to take some time. But because he didn’t, I was content with we got.
Speaking of the romance, it was way more spicy than his last books. There is even an incident with a vegetable in this and that was something I was not expecting. And let me preface this by saying, I am not a prude, but I have qualms about food stuff in places that it shouldn’t go. So I have to say, someone mentioned this in their review on Goodreads, and I have never been more glad that I read it. I was able to skip this part in the book lol If you like it, I love it for you, but this part was just not for me.
The plot itself was so sweet. I loved the supermarket game show aspect. If you didn’t grow up watching Supermarket Sweep then you can’t fully grasp the coolness of this lol I watched this with my grandma a bunch when I was at home after school. But it was really sweet that it was with his mom and that he felt that he was doing that for her. I didn’t like that there was no real reason for Leo to do it besides wanting some money lol But still. I get it and I know what he was doing was important to him.
This was plot was pretty basic compared to his other books. Like the one with the crystals? That was so good and creative. But it just didn’t have the umph that I wanted. It was mostly spice and not really romance? Like they had good heat, but I wanted more chemistry. Holden kept talking about how hot Leo was and all that, but I wanted more. I know that this is Afterglow and it’s supposed to be more steamy, but I didn’t want that to overshadow or even replace the romance.
This book was just ok to me tho. I didn’t have anything to write home about or anything to scream and shout about either. I know there are more books by Tim coming out (WE GET ANOTHER CHRISTMAS BOOK?!) and I can’t wait to have them in my hands!
Overall, I give this
