Say Yes

A New Adult Romance

By: Kandi Steiner

Narrated by: Hannah Chiclana

Two strangers.
Two words.
One unforgettable summer....

When you’re an artist, everything has to be perfect.

Or so I thought, until my professor told me my perfection was boring and unoriginal. Studying abroad in Florence has taught me one thing: I know nothing when it comes to what makes art truly beautiful.

So, with my professor's words in my ear, I step outside one evening and decide to say yes to any and everything I’m faced with until the sun rises.

Of course, I didn’t expect him to show up.

Liam Benson, the broody, sexy, tortured artist from my class who I can’t stand. He’s got a sour outlook on the world and an ego so big no one could properly stroke it to his satisfaction.

When he finds out what I’m doing, he hijacks my “yes” night.
And after just twelve hours with him, I’m desperate for more.

But Liam is running from more than I could ever understand, and with his heart guarded and mind made up about life, I don’t stand a chance.

I convince myself that we can keep it casual.
But walking away from him at the end of the summer is as impossible as painting outside the lines.

I used to think when you’re an artist, everything has to be perfect.

Turns out everything has to be painful, and messy, and fleeting.

If only I’d known that before I fell under Liam Benson’s spell.

©2021 Kandi Steiner (P)2021 Kandi Steiner

A Summer Romance in Italy!

This was such an enjoyable audiobook, which was wonderfully narrated by Hannah Chiclana. The setting in Italy was so much fun. All the fashion, food, events, and music of the late 1990s was such a fun throw-back. Harley has a disability/rare birth defect that I thought really played into her character’s story so much. Liam is a moody and tortured hero, having suffered a tragic loss. Harley & Liam are both Americans taking art classes in Italy. At first Harley is put off by Liam's rudeness and slacker attitude. After one night where Harley sets out to "Say Yes" to everything, she runs into Liam who joins her on the adventure. Having a chance to get to know him and even hear his story of his past, they form a bond that can't be denied. I really believed their chemistry and emotional connection, you can feel that their relationship is fresh and raw and all those first moments of falling in lust and then love. Solid 4 star read.

An emotional journey

The bio for Kandi Steiner on Goodreads mentions her emotional rollercoaster stories, and that would certainly sum up Say Yes. On the one hand, it has such a great message - from taking a day to just say yes to learning to let go of those things that hold us back. On the other hand, both Harley and Liam have things to work through, some harder to deal with than others and some more emotional than others - but all of it, the good and the bad, add up to one doozy of an emotional rollercoaster. So, yes, the story is without a doubt, angsty and emotional, but the journey is worth every minute of angst. It's impossible to keep from getting caught up in these characters and rooting for them to make a go of it.
Of course, a big part of creating a great audiobook lies with the choice of narrator, and I have to say the author chose brilliantly. Hannah Chiclana lays it all out there. I could not only hear every emotional up and down, I could feel them.
I would recommend making sure you're ready for a journey crammed with all the feels, and you're ready to shed a tear or two, and then to curl up and prepare to get lost in these characters and their story.

AMAZING SUMMER ROMANCE

Rating: 8/10
Spice: 1.5/5
Tropes: Summer Romance; friends with benefits;
Single POV

This book gave me alllllll the feelings and that's truly something Kandi is just superb at. She makes you FEEL and most of the time those feelings friggen hurt and this book was no exception. I literally at one point was sobbing during my workout so there's that lol. I just loved Harley so much and could so relate to her with the pressure to do things perfectly and if you don't you'll let everyone down. I loved the disability representation here also she truly learned to love her imperfections through the book and that was beautiful to see. Liam... man, did i have a love hate relationship with him. he's the epitome of a broken boy and his story will BREAK YOU you've been warned. He's so scarred by his past that he's afraid to move on to his future. This summer romance will give you all the butterflies and all the heartbreak and you'll be begging Kandi for more. it's a MUST

and can i say the audio? SUPERB! Hannah did such a phenom job at embodying Harley and truly conveying all those emotions. I was AMAZED.

emotionally beautiful

i don’t know why it took me so long to read this one!! this is hands down a new favorite from kandi steiner! i absolutely loved everything about this book. from the say yes night, to the beautiful european descriptions, to the emotional heart break this book was perfect. i loved getting to see liam and harley really helped one another see the beauty in life and beauty within. they both balanced one another perfectly and i loved getting to watch them gradually fall in love. the ending and epilogue of this one was so pure and wholesome. it was the perfect end to this emotionally beautiful story.
the audio production for this one was amazing! i loved the narrator and felt like they put a lot of heart and emotions into the characters. a very beautiful job well done!

So many emotions

Love this book, Hannah again did an amazing job narrating. Really enjoyed how the story takes place in 1996, no cell phones, no social media …
Florence sounded beautiful city. Love hearing all the descriptions, again Kandi created this whole new world. One of my favorites love story.

A Must Listen/Read!!

I don't even know how this is possible but this my first time reading/listening to a book by this author. I so very much enjoyed this book. Harley and Liam. These two really brought up tons of emotion in me. I loved how everything evolved between the two of them throughout the entire book. Liam is broken and has a very tragic past that he’s been running away from. Though at times he did annoy me, I really did love his character. I LOVED Harley. I loved her so much. She’s so easy to understand and empathize with. I loved watching her grow throughout the book. I wish this book was told from Liam’s perspective as well, I would have loved to see that. I loved the amazing job Kandi did with fleshing out these two. She has such a way with words and it brings out a ton of emotion to you while you're reading. This book was narrated by Hannah Chiclana and I thought she did such a great job as Harley! I don’t believe I’ve ever listened to a book narrated by her before I thought she did a wonderful job. Being able to listen to this audiobook gave me such a better understanding and visualization of the characters and setting. This book made me laugh, cry and a little bit of everything else in between. I highly recommend this book to any and all.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Underrated Gem!!

This was such a good book! I really loved the 90s vibes with the setting, music, and things happening during that period. I haven't read any books set in that time and it was almost comforting since it was an era I grew up in. I truly felt for both Liam and Harley. The way they dealt with life, grief, self-doubt, and their feelings for each other tugged at my heart. I loved how he helped her get out of her shell & how she showed him that he could move on and not wallow in his grief. Hannah Chiclana did a fantastic job with the audiobook and it was such a heartwarming story. Definitely one of Kandi's more underrated stories and I wish I had read it sooner!

🌟 🌟 Amazing story and narration 🌟 🌟

Kandi Steiner writes like a dream. She transported me back to the 90s (which, SQUEEL, was so fun) and to Italy as an artist. Steiner has continually brought me to my knees with angst and the beauty of her stories and characters.  I really related to Harley, not as an artist, but as someone who has dreams and is struggling to bring them to life. She's living the dream as a student studying art in Italy over the next 90 days. Harley meets Liam while there. They are the complete opposites... Harley is obsessed with her art being perfect while Liam is more into being free with his art, feeling it. Harley decides to spend one night saying yes to everything in front of her, to live life free and impulsive. Who does she run into but Liam. That yes night was everything! So much feeling. So much live for the moment. This is probably one of the most quotable books ever. Some of the things said or the feelings thought made me pause and really think. Steiner made her own art here with Say Yes.

The narrator, Hannah Chiclana, is one I've heard maybe once or twice before this audiobook.  I'm a fan of Steiner's and she's used her several times now. Chiclana doesn't just read the book to listeners. I felt like she acted the part of them and I lived it. She'd pause during some of the most quotable and monumental moments and it'd really make the statement that much more impactfull. If you're an audiobook lover than you know a narrator can make or break an audiobook, Chiclana definitely made it. More than that though, you'll know a good narrator can add so much more to an audiobook than just a pleasant voice. Chiclana added a pulse to this story. It was beautifully read and she's a narrator that I'm excited to hear more from.

Beautifully moving and heartfelt

I am still drying my tears over this lovely performance of a beautifully written story about love and grief and finding yourself. The magical Italian setting and the depth of the connection between Harley and Liam is so overwhelming at times, but so worth the journey.

Amazing, emotional summer romance in Italy ❤️

Well this surprised me in the best possible way. It was a quick read, yet it put me through all the feels…

Perhaps it is because this book touched me on a personal level. Florence is home to me (I am native of Tuscany). During HS, I often skipped school on Fridays with my friends, get on a train, and go check out the markets in Florence. Be home by 2 pm to an unsuspecting mother 😅😂

Also art. Art is a big part of my life. It is my job, it is my hobby and my passion. The paintings they talked about in the book, are some of my favorites in the whole wide world 💖

And finally… I can very much relate to the need to strive for perfection, while trying to let go and embrace imperfection…

So yeah. I felt this book on my skin. It was sort of bittersweet for me, in a nostalgic way.

I loved LOVED Harley and Liam. They were perfectly imperfect together 💞💞💞


The 🎧audiobook🎧 was absolute perfection. Hannah Chiclana is one of my favorite female narrators. I love her slightly raspy voice, and her emotional interpretations, as well as her ability to modulate her pitch for each of the characters. A 5⭐️ audio to go with an amazing, emotional summer adventure in Italy.


***


“It’s a reminder that the true beauty in life is that we experience both tremendous anguish and remarkable exuberance in tandem, and that neither could exist without the other. We would be numb if we only ever felt happy, and we would be equally as numb if we only experienced pain. It is the fact that they walk together hand in hand that makes life such a wondrous thing. Such a precious thing.”