Narrated by Kasha Kensington

I confess I started Major Misconduct in digital format a while back but put it down after the first couple of chapters. I just couldn’t get into it. I was hoping that the audio experience would be different. It was.

Lovey Armstrong has just arrived (uninvited and unexpected) in Chicago from Wisconsin, to stay with her brother, Duncan. Aka “Army”, Duncan plays hockey for the Chicago Aces. His roomie is Marc Dupuis, the captain of the team, a Quebec-born Canadian transplant who was drafted by the Aces eight years earlier.

Duncan reluctantly lets his younger sister stay but he’s unhappy (understandably) that she’s just turned up and announced she’s: broken up with her boyfriend, quit her job and decided to move to Chicago. Lovey is portrayed as (and for most of the book, Duncan believes her to be) a complete flake. I found myself impatient with her at the beginning but I was glad I stuck with it because actually, Lovey is not a flake at all. She has a plan but she wants to put it into action and have some success before she announces it to her family. She is convinced (not unfairly) that they will not believe in her abilities and she doesn’t want the downer while she’s embarking on this new venture.

The other thing which struck me as off in the first chapter or so was that there was a big party at Duncan’s place shortly after Lovey arrived and the players were partying until two am THE NIGHT BEFORE A GAME. I thought this was very unrealistic. These are professional athletes. Partying and drinking the night before a game seemed very unprofessional behaviour.

However, once those bits were done, the story smoothed out quite a bit. I’m still not entirely convinced that the portrayal of how a professional hockey team works was 100% accurate, but it certainly improved enough for me to relax into the book.

Marc and Lovey (and, really, I’m not a fan of her name – I kept thinking of Mrs. Howell from Gilligan’s Island which was so NOT the picture I wanted in my mind) are instantly attracted but Duncan has warned all of the Aces away from his little sister. Lovey is 24 and well old enough to make her own decisions about who she hooks up with. She wants Marc but Marc manfully resists. What Lovey wants however, Lovey most always gets and pretty soon, she and Marc are scorching up the sheets on the sly.

What elevated the book for me was that Lovey and Marc actually talked to one another. There was a lot of conversation between them about all kinds of things and I could hear them falling in love. Yes, the sex was smokin’ but it was more than a casual fling from the beginning (even if Lovey doesn’t acknowledge this consciously for quite a long time). I have complained in the past about books which contain something like “and they talked for hours and hours about all the things” and that is about the extent of the getting to know you phase of a relationship. I was delighted that actual dialogue about all the things was included here.

Marc is known on the team as “Captain Codger” and Lovey is a wonderful foil for him. She is a pure extrovert and loves to socialise. She makes friends in about five seconds flat and gets along with just about anyone. I know people like Lovey – I’ve always been envious of such abilities.

The narration was good as well. Marc is described as having only a slight accent – his father was an Anglophone. (I think that should actually be Anglophile but Anglophone is what’s in the book.) In any event, Marc grew up fluent in both French and English. He breaks out the French endearments and exclamations from time to time and for both Lovey and myself, it was a bit of a treat. Ms. Kensington did a great job with the actual French as well as the faintly French-accented English Marc spoke. For the latter, there was only a trace of the accent and it fit the story perfectly.

I was also impressed with her male character voices and how she differentiated the various cast members.

There was a thing (I know that’s vague, sorry) about her cadence sometimes which felt a little off to me. It’s hard to describe. It’s kinda-sorta like she was occasionally asking a question when the text didn’t call for it but I’m afraid I can’t describe it much better than that.

For the most part however, I enjoyed both the story and the narration. For listeners who balk at Lovey at the beginning – stick with her – she really isn’t the spoiled princess/flake she first appears.

Kaetrin

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was provided to AudioGals by for a review.