Work: Strictly Professional

Bad Decisions, Book 2

De: Jesse H Reign

Narrado por: Kirt Graves, Shannon Gunn

"Not to worry, I'll compensate you for your time and your… skill."

My boss is a walking red flag. He's bolshy and rude. Impossible to please. A big, broody man with dark eyes that carry an unmistakable message—"I am not manageable."

Seriously, he's the worst.

If it's not bad enough that he's a nightmare in the office, he's all but ordering me to be his date to his son's wedding. He says it's called "winning a divorce." I try telling him that's not a real thing but it falls on deaf ears.

Not only that, he appears to be in the throes of a major personal awakening and is determined that I'm the man to guide him through it. Normally, I'm all for going above and beyond in the name of being a star performer at work, but the services he requires are becoming increasingly indecent.

See what I mean? Red flags galore. So many red flags I can't count them all. I might as well be playing a game of red flag bingo at this point.

Just my luck, when it comes to Derek MacAvoy… I see a red flag and instantly want to date it.

Work: Strictly Professional can be enjoyed as a standalone, but is best enjoyed after Rent: Paid in Full.

©2024 Jesse H Reign (P)2024 Podium Audio

Book was better

Kirt always fits his voice to the character, but I did not like Derek’s narrator at all. He just sounded angry even when the dialogue was meant to be passionate. And his take on Wyn’s character made him sound like a little old man. I enjoyed the book version of this story very much, but in my opinion, Shannon’s narration ruined the audio experience for me.

Loved it!

I absolutely loved this book! Wyn is adorable and Kirt does a great job with the narration. It took a little bit to embrace Shannon’s narration of Derek but I ended up loving it too. Definitely recommend!

Interesting story. 1 good narrator…1 not so great narrator

Kirt Graves always does great narrations. Shannon who voiced Derek was…not good. It was hard to listen to some of his chapters.

Overall the story was decent. Interesting enough to keep me entertained while I did some house chores.

Narration (Kirt): 5/5
Narration (Shannon): 2/5
Story: 3.8/5

Sweet, Spicy & SO funny!

This was such a great book! I loved Wyn so much!! I laughed out loud several times listening to it. It was low angst, spicy and sweet. I would listen to it again.

Adorable and steamy

This was absolutely adorable and steamy AF. I loved Wyn and Derek. This boss to lovers story is so cute and steamy and amazing. And it was amazing getting to see Miller and Ryan’s wedding from Wyn and Derek’s pov. Well written, made me laugh out loud and smile so big, fan myself. The characters were so endearing and real. The narrators do an amazing job bringing these characters to life. Such an amazing series.

Loved the book - narration not so much

I love the book and the story but Derek’s narrator made it very hard to listen to the whole audio book.

Terrific Narration!!!!

This is one of my favorite books. It’s so funny, sexy, and sweet with endearing characters. It’s so hard to find audiobooks that I enjoy listening to as much as I enjoy reading. This audiobook DOESN’T DISAPPOINT!! It’s so good! The narrators performances are fantastic. I loved it! I highly recommend this book in any form!!!

Another delightful story

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I wish it would have addressed something said in the first book on why Marshall thought his dad was cheating on his mom. I think that would have helped a little because if your kid thinks you're cheating, that needs to be addressed. I think one of the narrators is reading the wrong genre. He's not bad exactly, but he's doing way too much for romance and it's wierd. He should stick with like science fiction or fantasy and I bet he'd shine. With romance it's just way too much. Still, enjoyable and worth the credit.

Really disappointed

I’ve been looking forward to this release since listening to the first book in the series. But I am sorely disappointed… the internal monologue was so drawn out and over the top leaving really little character interaction. The side characters were more of a focus than the MC’s which was annoying. And we barely see the relationship between the MC’s grow until the last 3 chapters. Derek’s narrator was also over the top dramatic but the writing was as well so I can’t blame it on them. I almost DNF but I wanted to see what would happen. I wouldn’t waste a credit..

Plenty of imagery

I struggled with this one and whether or not to write a review because I struggled to get into the book. I was not sure if that was because I had a hard time relating to the characters or the way the book was written. Ultimately, I decided to share a review in case anyone else finds it helpful.

I found this book to be just average. I suppose you could stretch and say there was character arc and development throughout the book but even though the time span was over a few months, I felt like I was with the characters during a few weeks only. There was quite a bit of storytelling through each character’s thoughts and their thoughts were very artistic. The author conveyed feelings of frustration or fear or happiness through imagery. For example, there was a scene when MC1 was upset about something, and MC2 looked at him from across the room. The internal dialogue of MC2, seeing MC1, was looking into his eyes and the blue of his eyes turning into pools of water, or something like that. In the next couple of sentences when MC2 ran to MC1 (an action totally out of character for him BTW but I imagine it is in there to show us how feelings were changing), cradled his face and asked him what was wrong. That was when we were led to understand the situation a little more. (I apologize for the vagueness here. I’m trying not to give away any spoilers.)

The example just shared is one of many times where the two main characters are staring into each other‘s eyes and we hear the internal voice of one or the other to understand their emotions. This was throughout the entire book. There was actually very little direct dialogue between the main characters and I think this is why it was hard for me to relate to them or feel like there was much growth. At the end, we are given a discussion between the characters to help bring everything to a conclusion. And that’s a good thing because otherwise we would have been left dissatisfied.

The reason I gave this three stars is because I feel this kind of writing style is good and has a place in the literary arts. For me though, it was difficult to digest it in a romance book with dual POV and both of those being male. I don’t know many men who think like this.

I’ve read various reviews in the MM romance category where it’s been implied or stated outright that a female author cannot properly write male leads. I’ve always felt that it depended on the author but I also feel it’s my responsibility as a reader to not judge a “fluff” read all that harshly. I don’t pick these books up for true representations or accuracy. However, I have found I will stay away from books with blurbs where I feel the characters may not be to my liking, unless I’m truly in the mood for it. Such as, a super feminine Twink. With that in mind, this is the first book I have read where I felt the internal voice of both characters thinking in such artistry and imagery was distracting and improbable.