Review of ‘Three reasons to say yes’ by Jaime Clevenger,

Audiobook narrated by Abby Craden

When Julia Maguire meets Reed Baxter on a holiday in Hawaii, she knows that their relationship has no future. Reed is the mother of 4-year-old twin girls and a busy doctor with no time to have a full-time girlfriend. But their attraction is undeniable and Julia decides against her own convictions to engage in a holiday fling. Soon she realises that she has feelings for Reed but a relationship with her is impossible. Or is it?

This author has caught my attention since the release of her erotica novel ‘Party favors’.

‘Three reasons to say yes’ is a slow-burn romance with some family and inner conflict on the side, set in the idyllic island of Hawaii. The main characters are well rounded and believable, and kudos to Ms. Clevenger for introducing an interracial couple. Writing this novel in third person exclusively from Julia’s point of view is a great choice as Reed is a mystery to the reader that slowly is revealed to Julia and to us. The butch-femme relationship works here perfectly as Reed fits ideally as the dark and broody type of butch. But her character is far from being a stereotype and so is Julia. The secondary characters are multi-layered and well written, especially the twins and Julia’s best friends, Kate and Mo.

The plot is tightly woven with attention to detail. It has a perfect balance between angst and joy, conflict and harmony. All the intimate scenes are convincing and sizzling with a little twist that is not usually dealt with in lesfic and Ms. Clevenger handles it skilfully.

I’ve read this book when it was released and made my list of best lesfic books of 2018. The audiobook is performed by Abby Craden, one of my favourite narrators, as it’s included for free with my Scribd subscription so listening to it was a no-brainer decision. As usual, Ms. Craden delivered the performance outstandingly. This novel has a good number of very important secondary characters which makes it really hard for a narrator, but Ms. Craden created them all with distinctive voices according to their ages and personalities. As always, her performance of the range of emotions is spot-on. As this novel finishes with a bit of a cliffhanger in the relationship between the secondary characters, it is a bonus that the audiobook of its sequel ‘All the reasons I need‘ is already available and also free with Scribd.

Overall, a well-performed lesbian slow-burn romance audiobook with some family and inner conflict on the side. Highly recommended. 5 stars.