{"id":57154,"date":"2021-01-30T08:41:22","date_gmt":"2021-01-30T13:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=57154"},"modified":"2021-01-30T08:44:34","modified_gmt":"2021-01-30T13:44:34","slug":"audio-review-the-invitation-by-vi-keeland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=57154","title":{"rendered":"Audio Review: The Invitation by Vi Keeland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Amazon <\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Apple Books<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Kobo\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0B&N<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Google Play<\/a>\u00a0 |<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Paperback<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Review<\/b><\/h4>\n

3.5 stars<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a big fan of Vi Keeland, and always look forward to her releases. The blurb of this book sucked me in, and I\u2019ve been so excited to read it, but this one just didn\u2019t hit my romance-lover buttons.<\/p>\n

Stella and Hudson have a great meet-cute. She and her best friend are crashing a wedding, and Hudson is a groomsman, and brother of the bride. They flirt and dance, and I was all excited over the awesome banter, until he finds out her secret and (after a humiliating display) she makes a run for it. Stella thinks she\u2019s free and clear of the mortifying experience until she realises that she\u2019s left her phone behind.<\/p>\n

Of course, Hudson is the one to find her phone, and their second meeting is awkward and full of tension, but it turns out that Hudson works in investments, and Stella is working hard to launch her own business, and through a series of twists and turns, he ends up as her investment partner and they end up working together.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t force chemistry to exist where it doesn\u2019t – the same way you can\u2019t stop it from existing where you don\u2019t want it. There are some things we\u2019re just powerless over.<\/i><\/p>\n

I really liked these characters. Stella is smart, sensible and hard working. She\u2019s a relatable heroine and her best friend, Fisher, is lots of fun. Hudson is really dreamy \u2013 single father to an adorable little girl, he is sweet and successful with a huge heart, and he initially has this standoffish demeanour that slowly breaks down the longer that he and Stella work together, which I really enjoyed.<\/p>\n

While initially Hudson and Stella had great chemistry, progression of the love story seems to stop for the majority of the book, only to pick up towards the end. Instead, there is a lot of story time spent talking about Stella\u2019s business, her friendship with Hudson\u2019s sister, and her hobby of buying and reading others\u2019 diaries, which was all well written and mildly interesting, but I read for the romance, and for most of the book it just wasn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n

For me, this book was missing the delicious interactions between hero and heroine that Keeland writes so well. We eventually get there, and when we do, the romance was everything that I wanted \u2013 fun, flirty and functional with lots of heart (though low on steam). They are honest about their feelings and about where they want things to go, and their relationship develops quickly and naturally (quickly probably because they don\u2019t even hook up until late in the story), with strong emotion, and I was swooning hard. I just wanted more of it.<\/p>\n

As always with Vi\u2019s books, there is a twisty dramatic element, and though this one was obvious from the very beginning, it still packs a punch. Was it necessary to the story? No, I didn\u2019t think it was needed since the drama pretty much fizzles out and left me a bit unsatisfied over the non-resolution. But the emotion of it is written well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI needed to let go of what I thought my life was supposed to look like in order to write a new story.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

So sadly, this isn\u2019t my favourite of Vi Keeland\u2019s books, but in a bonus, the audiobook is narrated by Andi Arndt and Sebastian York, and they do a great job as always.<\/p>\n

I liked it, but I didn\u2019t love it. 3.5 stars.<\/p>\n

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About the Author<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Vi Keeland is a #1 New York Times, #1 Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author. With millions of books sold, her titles have appeared in over a hundred Bestseller lists and are currently translated in twenty-five languages. She resides in New York with her husband and their three children where she is living out her own happily ever after with the boy she met at age six!<\/p>\n

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Facebook Profile\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Facebook Page<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Facebook Group<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Website\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Twitter\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Instagram\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Goodreads<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Check out our\u00a0Vi Keeland Author Spotlight<\/a>\u00a0for more fantastic reads!<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Amazon \u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Apple Books\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Kobo\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0B&N\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Google Play\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Paperback Review 3.5 stars I\u2019m a big fan of Vi Keeland, and always look forward to her releases. The blurb of this book sucked me in, and I\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":3.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[454,9,29],"tags":[48,76,349],"class_list":["post-57154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-audio-recommendation","category-romance","category-steamy","tag-review","tag-standalone","tag-vi-keeland"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/The-Invitation.jpg?fit=200%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-eRQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}