Feel Good Romance

Noah owns a quiet art gallery where he employs Marlon, who sets him up on a blind date. A funny thing happens on the way to the date...he falls in love. Marlon, however, insists you can only fall in love after thirteen dates, and that it will take said thirteen dates to get her to fall in love back. Angel is unusual girl who doesn't do relationships, but does do spontaneity and new experiences. Noah, determined to win her, embarks on a series of 'new experience' dates, but there are complications. This is a fun, feel good, romance. I found myself laughing quite often throughout the story. The horse riding incident was one in particular as I'm a life long owner of horses, and it brought back memories of teaching my hubby to ride. If you are looking for an uplifting, lighthearted, read to take on holiday, I definitely recommend this one.

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I found a book that made me laugh!!

I doubt I would have got around to listening to this if it hadn't appeared as a free audiobook under Kindle Unlimited. KU offers plenty of e books, but considerably fewer audios, so I decided to give it a try and I really enjoyed it. It did something that books very rarely do for me, it actually made me laugh.

It starts out a bit guy-lit and I thought I could see where it was going. Girl meets boy, falls in love, overcomes problems, lives happily ever after. But this had more to offer, quite a bit more to offer, in fact.
Noah and Angel first meet at Starbucks, an awkward encounter typical of most of Noah's meetings with women he fancies. He's convinced she's the one and all his previous dates were just building up to this.
The 13 dates of the title refers to Noah's friend's conviction that it takes 13 dates to fall in love. This becomes Noah's target - if he can just persuade her to go out with him 13 times, then she will be besotted.

There are some wonderful characters, especially Mary, the elderly woman who rents a room to Noah. Then there are Noah's lovely parents and Angel's awful ones, and the artist who is showing his works in Noah's art gallery.
Written from the man's perspective, which makes this an unusual read, it also has a more serious side. I can't say much about this as it would be a spoiler, but it made the book a more thoughtful read.

The narration by James Langton was spot on, for both male and female voices and I was sorry to say goodbye to everyone when the book ended.

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Great book!

Great book, well worth a read. Matt Dunn is awesome, read/listen to everything he has done, immediately.

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Lovely Listen

Well written and performed. The story was really good but suffered from some unnecessary cliches but overall I think it's meant I be like this. The first third is really amazing and it's only afterwards the story gets a little weak. Great performance from James Langton although the dialogue was not as well as written so it seemed weak when delivering it. 3.5/5

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1 person found this helpful

It's OK. Kind of a feel good love story

Although its a good book to listen to while driving if you are using audible, I would say the story is a bit of a cliché. But all in all a kind of feel good love story.

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A bit too 'mushy' for my liking

The story was OK, but there were moments where the romance went a bit too far and strayed into the territory of being very corny. The narrator didn't help, as he has a habit of going up at the end of his sentences, which gets a bit grating. But, it was alright as a distraction during a commute and I did manage to get to the end of the book without giving up.

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loved it. keep with it, i couldn't put it down.

loved it. keep with it, i couldn't put it down. listened in a few days.

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Made it Through 15 Dates

I picked this hoping for a lad lit novel but I got a chick flick. The concept is ok with the 13 dates but it was either too silly or too mediocre. The main character made Hugh Grant look like an amateur and the romance doesn't quite hit the mark.

The performance is poor. The voice sounds 50 years old while the character is 35 years old, so when the character makes a commentary on modern life it just sounds like a middle aged man complaining. And he plays Angel too soft so the hard, sassy character is lost.

I lasted 15 chapters and didn't find love.

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