Something's Brewing at Joe's

By: SJD Peterson

Narrated by: Chase Johnson

The promise of a dream job lures Murphy to Tampa, but he arrives to the rude awakening that the offer is on hold. Now he's got two choices: slink back to Michigan with his tail between his legs or stay and look for work. Things perk up when he goes into a coffee shop and learns the owner is looking for someone to renovate the apartment above it. He happily takes the job, only later realizing he's met Joe Sterling, Kaffeinate's proprietor, before, when they hooked up at a club Murphy's first night in Tampa.

Murphy and Joe are both proud, passionate, and outspoken. Neither is looking for a relationship, though they can't deny they go together as well as coffee and doughnuts, in spite of their tempers. But that's before Joe learns Murphy will be working for the corporation he believes is harming local businesses and the environment -- and if Murphy will be supporting it, Joe wants nothing to do with him, dooming any possibility of an unexpected happy ending.

©2017 SJD Peterson (P)2017 Dreamspinner Press

Too much background noise

I found that, at times, I was distracted by radio, tv, people noise in the background. The story and performance were great save for the distraction.

Interesting

I was given a copy of this book to read and review for Wicked Reads. (Audiobook Version)

I love pretty much anything S.J.D. Peterson writes and this was no exception. I love that her characters don't always make the right choices and they don't always do things perfectly. They are human and make mistakes and it makes the story so captivating.

I listened to the audiobook version of this and the loss of the star comes from that more so than the actual story. At the beginning of the book, I really just had a hard time with the narrator and distinguishing between the main characters. There was also background noise that was quite distracting at times.

Other than that, I love that we got a sweet romance even if it was a bit fast paced for me. It kind of seemed like the relationship went from just two men sleeping together because they can't keep their hands to themselves to someone issuing the L word and I didn't feel like their relationship had really gotten to that point since it seemed like more than 90% of their time together was between the sheets and we didn't see much evolving in the relationship they had.

The plotline was definitely interesting and not expected from how the story started.

Lovely narration, interesting story

The story is solidly written and does have some really strong characters that drive the story at a fairly nice pace.
For me the story lacked that “hook” that grabs you and makes you want to keep reading. I was just not that invested in the story. It was nice and the writing was good, but I was never “captivated”.

3 of 5 stars

Audio
I enjoyed Chase Johnson’s narration. He definitely does a lot to make this a performance more than merely a narration and he distinguishes all the characters nicely. It was a solid production, though sometimes it felt a little like dinner theatre in that the acting was a bit over the top.
I think listening to this is a great way to experience the story and I’d definitely look for this narrator in the future.

4.5 of 5 stars

Overall 3.5 of 5 stars