Book Review – Big Rock by Lauren Blakely

Oh man, it’s been a while since I listened to this one on audio! But I’m happy to be back writing reviews and making snarky comments again. It’s my happy place. 🙂

So, like I said, I listened to this one as an audiobook. And it was narrated by Sebastian York, who is easily my new favorite narrator of all time. His voice is PERFECT for the male-narrated romances in this series. So! Here we go!

Big Rock is about Spencer Holiday, whose dad owns these super fancy jewelry stores in Manhattan. So he comes from money, and therefore, his love life tends to make it into the gossip columns. These conservative investors are coming into town, so Spencer’s dad asks him to put a lid on the sleeping around for a week. So what does Spencer do? Naturally, he asks his best friend and business partner, Charlotte Rhodes, to pretend to be his fiance for the week. Except… somewhere along the line, Spencer realizes he might have some actual feelings for Charlotte. And maybe… could Charlotte feel the same way? Could they risk their business partnership on the potential of happy ever after?

3 Things I Loved

1. Spencer. I’d never read a romance with a solely male POV before, but I liked it. Spencer came off as a big dick (no pun intended…) at the beginning of the book, but it was fun to follow him as he softened and fell for his best friend. He was a great character.
2. Charlotte. Now, what I loved about Charlotte is that she also went to Yale, and she is a co-owner in the bar with Spencer, and they are equals the whole time. Especially from the perspective of Spencer, this was another fun thing about this book.
3. The supporting characters. This series rocks at giving us well-rounded supporting characters, many of whom get their own books later in the series. I love when the books all connect to each other. They’re by favorite kind of romance series!

Dislikes/Problematic Content

Honestly, the only thing I distinctly remember was how put-off I was by the prologue of this book. The entire thing was about Spencer’s dick. And like… no thank you. I don’t need that in my life. So I think the biggest mistake this book made was to dive in with that prologue without letting us get to know Spencer first. Because he really grows on you.

Also, all the characters are white and straight, which is disappointing.

Rating

A reminder of the rating scale:

• Red = DNF, I hated everything
• Orange = Ugh, no thank you
• Yellow = I mean, I’ve read worse, but there were problems
• Green = This was good! 
• Blue = Oh my gosh, I loved this book!
• Purple = This is the unicorn of books and I will be rereading it until the binding falls apart and EVERYONE should be reading it!

I gave this book four stars on Goodreads, and I think that’s a pretty good place for it. And now that I’ve read most of the series (more reviews to come!), I can say with confidence that this is one of the better ones! So I’m giving Big Rock a GREEN rating. It was good! But it wasn’t outstanding or anything, just a really fun audiobook. Honestly, without Sebastian York in my ears, the rating might have been lower.

I’m so happy to be back! More reviews and posts to come! ❤

Happy reading!