Review of ‘Tricky Wisdom: Year One’ and ‘Tricky Chances: The Clinical Years’ by Camryn Eyde,

Audiobook narrated by Nikki Jacobs

The Tricky Series, Books 1 & 2 is a lesbian medical romance audiobook of more than 18 hours length narrated by Nikki Jacobs and available now through Audible’s Escape membership.

I was thrilled to see this one come up and immediately moved it up my ‘to be listened list’. I read these two books back to back a couple of years ago (the first one was released in 2015 and the second one in 2017; can we hope for another one in 2019?) and loved them. This was the beginning of my lesfic journey so I wanted to see if the ‘re-read’ would be as fascinating as my memory of it. The result is a mixed bag of feelings but a good experience overall.

‘Tricky Wisdom: Year One’ is the story of Darcy Wright, who leaves Minnesota for the city of Boston and Harvard Medical School. Told in first person from Darcy’s point of view, the reader gets inside all her insecurities and genuine cluelessness as she navigates a new challenging experience. She rents a room from Olivia Boyd, another first-year medical student. The sparks between them are anything but romantic as Olivia is anal, abrasive and just plain insufferable. Basically the opposite to Darcy, who is a small town sweet, laid back and carefree gal. As the new school year begins, Darcy’s closeted life is shaken when her Minnesota straight best friend and one-sided first love announces she is dating a woman. Darcy can’t believe she has missed out and begs Olivia to be her pretend girlfriend on her trip back home. And so the game of who loves who begins.

‘Tricky Chances: The Clinical Years’ is a longer read/listen and takes us through the end of medical school. The pressure of medial school is evident as the classroom gives way to clinical rotations. Long hours put stress on Darcy’s newfound relationship while new friends come in and help carry each other to the end.

Okay, so I gave this some thought. Perhaps the story reads more like they are coming out of high school than really a four-year college degree. The problem was exacerbated in my opinion by Ms. Jacobs narration. Olivia’s voice was terrible and made an unlikeable character (Ice Queen for those who like that) even worse. I had to really power through this narration in the first book. By the second one, either it got better or my tolerance grew. Either way, I was locked on this story and kept listening until the end (18 hours 11 minutes).

There is angst for those of us who enjoy it. Even I will admit enjoying the Ice Queen meltdown as Olivia’s past is exposed and some light shed on the reason for her guarded personality. The secondary characters are good and the friends form a tight group to share medical school misery with. This story worked for me because I could identify with Darcy. Her innocence (yes, yes, that was me) and her struggle to work through certain life experiences. That made the story plausible for me. And a little more real thinking about long hours at a hospital.

Overall, enjoyed this one although beware of the narration. I think the reading experience is better but I will still likely re-listen to this one along the way. The second book ends on a little cliffhanger. Rumor has it the third installment is on the works so worth catching up now gals. 4 stars