Narrated by Matthew Lloyd Davies

I’ve enjoyed some Jay Northcote books in digital format in the past and Caz enjoyed Matthew Lloyd Davies’ narrations in the KJ Charles Society of Gentlemen series so I decided to take a gamble and give The Law of Attraction a go on audio. It was a gamble that didn’t pay off.

The Law of Attraction is a contemporary male/male romance set in present day London, about two lawyers (Alec and Ed) who meet at a bar and hook up and are then slightly horrified to find out the following Monday they are going to be working closely together.

Alec is deeply closeted – he has a friend, Belinda, who plays the part of his girlfriend for family and work social functions and he’s initially frightened that Ed might out him at work somehow. Once they are over that, Alec is tempted by Ed at every turn and would like to hook up some more but Ed is resistant. He likes Alec but Ed is out and proud – he won’t go back into the closet for anyone. Over the course of the story, Alec realises that if he’s to have any chance for a satisfying and happy life, he needs to come out. But will Ed be there when he does?

Exactly why Ed liked Alec so much wasn’t always clear to me. Alec is closed off, cold and often mean. After Ed rebuffs an advance, Alec piles even more work onto Ed and makes him work even longer hours (and they were already ridiculous). I didn’t like Alec all that much for a lot of the book. By the end, I was beginning to see the attraction but I didn’t ever go all warm and fuzzy for him. I don’t think the narration helped me here. Alec grew up wealthy and has a lot of money now so it wasn’t at all unreasonable to give him a snooty upper crust accent but it only served to distance me from him further.

Ultimately, I felt Mr. Davies was not best suited for a contemporary novel. There was something about his narration that jarred in a modern setting. I think I’d enjoy his skills better in an historical.

Even so, (and perhaps it’s just me) hearing a super-toffy voice reading explicit sex scenes felt incongruous and vaguely uncomfortable. I was kind of expecting a bit of “What ho!” and “Jolly good old chap!” which totally didn’t fit this book at all.

Further, Mr. Davies does not, unfortunately, do a convincing female voice. Not remotely. There was one female character (fortunately not in the story a lot) who was described as having a “slight Spanish accent” – but what I heard was a cartoonish Mexican stereotype. It was. Not. Good.

I liked Mr. Davies’ performance of Ed however. Ed was a much warmer character and much easier to like. The accent given to him was consistent with his background of growing up in a more working class family.

I had some issues with the story too. For a long time, I couldn’t decide if Ed was a paralegal or a lawyer. On the one hand, he was temping at Alec’s firm and was responsible, as the newbie on the team, for getting coffee. He also did a lot of photocopying. That read to me as a paralegal (but really, closer to an admin assistant. I’ve been both so I know of what I speak.) But there were other markers that indicated he was a lawyer (going to Manchester for two years to “qualify”, the money he was anticipating earning, the hours he worked). Late in the book Alec says “We’re both lawyers” and it was really only then I knew for sure – but Ed is not like any lawyer I know of. Maybe things are different in England but lawyers don’t temp here. And you wouldn’t hire a temp lawyer to come in on the final stages of a major merger/acquisition and pay him casual pay rates and make him work 12-15 hour days and get him to make coffee. That makes no sense. I could see hiring a temp paralegal (maybe) or better yet, a temp admin for that, but not a lawyer. But a temp admin/paralegal wouldn’t be working those hours. I know lawyers burn the midnight oil but the junior staff are not usually required to.

Also, Ed is a newly qualified lawyer with an interest in employment law. Why then is he working on a project involving a merger/acquisition? Law firms don’t work like that. There were other things. Ultimately, I didn’t believe the setting. It did not feel authentic to me.

While I liked Ed, much of the rest of the story felt forced and unbelievable.

It’s hard to tell how much my lack of enjoyment in the book bled over to a lack of enjoyment in the narration. Perhaps I’d have liked Mr. Davies’ performance better if the story had worked for me? While I wasn’t the worst book I’ve listened to by any stretch, I can’t say it was successful either.

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