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The Shutout

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The Shutout

By: Dianna Roman
Narrated by: Alexander Cendese, Iggy Toma
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About this listen

Sometimes love is where you least expect it, and sometimes it's right where you left it in this witty, slow burn-to-steamy friends-to-lovers MM romance.

Widower, Max Hartwell, is barely keeping it together, being a single dad, managing his law firm, and navigating life's chaos. Life after loss is too difficult for surprises, which is why Max would be lost without his reliable best friend and neighbor, Jack.

Best pitcher in the MLB, Jack Spears, is at the top of his game. He has it all, except for the one thing he wants most, which happens to be the one thing he can't have if he doesn't want his private life to overshadow his career: love. When an emotional evening reveals his biggest secret, he's faced with losing everything that matters most to him.

Can Max see him for the man he truly is, or will Jack forever be doomed to live in the shadow of the image he created as America's favorite pitcher?

©2022 Dianna Roman (P)2022 Wild One Press Romance Witty
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Max Hartwell is raising his daughter, Emma, single-handedly since his wife’s death. He’s acerbic and doesn’t roll well with all the punches. Luckily his neighbour and best friend is the always-cheerful Jack Spears, who is a MLB star pitcher, a good cook, and is secretly in love with Max. After a particularly bad day, Jack consoles Max with more tenderness than he expects which causes a series of shutouts between Max and Jack before they repair their relationship. I’m such a sucker for sports romances and this one ended up being pretty satisfying. There was a lot of early inner monologue but things got moving after a while. I couldn’t reconcile Jack’s inner turmoil with Max’s initial descriptions of him as cool and unruffled, but Max comes to realise there’s more going on under Jack’s façade. Some readers will judge Max’s treatment of Jack harshly, but I felt his guilt over his dead wife’s memory and his homoerotic confusion was real enough. There was a lot of melodrama and overly romantic dialogue but some nice steam and humour - overall, I really enjoyed this. Alexander Cendese (as Max) and Iggy Toma (as Jack) are two of my favourite narrators so the audiobook sat really well with me. Having said that, Iggy adopted a sudden whisper at times that had me wondering if there was something wrong with the volume - did he keep turning away from the mike?

Satisfying sports romance

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It was a listen that took me through many emotions. I felt for both characters and just wanted to reach out to both at times.

Often when you read a book about a straight guy realising that maybe he isn't as straight as he thought the change can happen so quickly and without any angst. This was not the case with Max. You could see how much he fought it or had trouble accepting his feelings for Jack moving forward. It did seem more realistic to me.

Having said that I hated how much his actions hurt Jack and I cried for him. It was very emotional.

It is a long listen and I usually avoid ones this long. I often find they don't keep my attention. I'm a bit ADHD so it can be hard to do that. However, after saying that I had no trouble staying tuned in and was even sad when it finished. It is a slow burn, but not as slow as you might think.

The narrators did a great job. I'm not usually a fan of Alexander Cendese, but he did a good job with this one. Either that or I'm getting more used to his style. I love, love, love Iggy Toma and look for books narrated by him.

The only thing I'm really disappointed about is that there really aren't any other books by Dianna Roman to move on to. I hope she writes more soon and gets them narrated for us.

It was well worth the listen and one I know I will go back to over and over.

Didn't go as long as I thought it would

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This mm romance is about carving a way for themselves despite other's opinions and misconception. Absolutely loved it

Finding your way

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.