Narrated by Jacob Morgan & Virginia
Rose

Hitched is book 3 in the Happy Cat series featuring the O’Dell brothers, but stands alone fairly well. I didn’t really have any trouble following along. The setup is a little out there but after a while I just embraced it. I was assisted by excellent narration. By the end though, I thought the story was sweet and fun and just silly enough to entertain without being too ridiculous for me.

Blake O’Dell has been in love with Hope St.
Clair for at least the past four years. They’d been friends for ages but when
they stumbled across each other in Las Vegas four years earlier, a drunken
escapade let to a quickie wedding and some glorious sex – and then, when Hope
ran scared, an annulment the very next day. They didn’t tell anyone about it
and have pretended it never happened ever since.

Blake is angry and hurt at Hope’s
rejection, not really understanding why she left him, but the town of Happy Cat
is small and they cross paths regularly. This is particularly so because Hope
has some kind of weird electrical field thing going on; when she’s stressed
(and sometimes at other times?) she shorts out all kinds of electrical
equipment and Blake is often called upon to do odd jobs – like replace a fuse
or repair her toaster.

Hope runs an animal shelter-farm and has
been caring for her grandmother’s prize alpaca “Chewpacca”. Hope’s grandmother
has died, and the terms of the will leave everything to the first of the
grandchildren to marry. Hope loves Chewpacca and wants to care for him. Hope’s
cousin Kyle wants only to breed Chewie and make megabucks.

So, Hope proposes a marriage of convenience
to Blake. He will help her retain custody of Chewpacca and in return Hope,
through her connections with the town regulators, will assist Blake get the
license for his wine tasting room – something that he’s been rejected for twice
now for small town reasons.

Against his better judgement, Blake ends up
agreeing and they marry immediately. Blake thinks he will have fun messing with
Hope for a while, but things very quickly turn around. I was glad of this
because enemies to lovers is not my favourite. Instead of tormenting Hope,
Blake decides to prove to her that they belong together.

Things become complicated – but in Blake’s
favour – when Kyle also marries on the same day and there is some legal
confusion about the terms of the will and who will inherit. Also, Kyle, who is
wealthy already, puts a private investigator on their tails to sniff out
whether Blake and Hope’s marriage is legitimate or not. So they have to
move in together and spend time together and be affectionate.

At first I thought the whole thing was a
little too much but then Blake began taking emotional risks to win his lady and
I found myself invested in their story. Unlike Blake’s happy and loving family,
Hope’s was extremely dysfunctional, with a lot of conflict. She received little
attention as a child. As a result, Hope is convinced she cannot maintain a
relationship because she doesn’t know how. This is rubbish of course – Hope is
a very loving person. She rescues animals and has good, close friends (most of
whom are married to other O’Dell brothers, as it happens) but she lacks
confidence and finds it hard to trust. However, as Blake steps up and lays it
all on the line for her, she comes to realise he’s worth it and maybe she’s not
such a bad bet after all.

Add to that, many strange animal antics –
there’s a raccoon called “George Cooney” often referred to as a “trash panda”
who causes mayhem at “goat yoga” and an alpaca-napping complete with dramatic
rescue. There are also multiple jokes about sex toys (“Dildo Shaggins”). Much
of the story is an over the top romp. However, at its heart it is a sweet, sexy
tale with a hero who is head over heels for his lady and that’s my favourite
kind.

The narration was top notch. When I was
wondering if Hitched was going to be just too silly for me (and it was
at first), both Jacob Morgan and Virginia Rose kept me listening. They invested
the characters with charm and heart, and I found myself caring about them.

Both narrators had excellent comedic timing
and with just the right tone to keep things on the right side of “too weird for
Kaetrin”. Their character voices, pacing and emotion were also very good.

To be honest, I’m not sure if the story
would have worked as well for me in print as it did in audio. The performances
by Mr. Morgan and Ms. Rose elevated my experience so much and brought a little
gravitas to the tale as well; I thought of Blake and Hope as real people (if a
little strange – well, in Hope’s case, a lot strange) and I cared about
what happened to them and much of that was down to the narration.

Listeners who enjoy a good pun and don’t
mind a silly frame may find Hitched is just the ticket.