I am absolutely loving these STEMinist novellas from Ali Hazelwood! They are fun and witty and have plenty of geeky and nerdy references for such a short story. I'm not the biggest fan of the trapped (in an elevator) trope, but Hazelwood used her novella to perfectly divide the time between Sadie and Erik's current predicament and their first meeting, and subsequent first night, three weeks ago. I loved the nonlinear timeline approach for Erik and Sadie's story and I really like that both STEMinist novellas so far have covered past events yet have managed to handle them so very differently. I found the nonlinear timeline to really bring the tension to their relationship and, unlike in Mara and Liam's story, it allowed Sadie and Erik to be physical with each other early in their time together while still keeping the steamy bits of the book towards the end. And, wow, were the steamy bits good in this one. Equal parts dominating and caring, Erik is likely to end up being at the top of my list of favorite Hazelwood men. I could easily read or listen to a full-length novel featuring Erik and Sadie as they dive further into their relationship. Erik started off as a bit cold, but he quickly softened and became the right support system for Sadie's superstitions and claustrophobia. As with any Hazelwood couple, they end up being exactly who the other person needs, no matter how many spats they have along the way.
Stuck with You is narrated by Meg Sylvan. I absolutely love the decision to have each book/novella narrated by a different person. The subtle differences between the first two STEMinist novella narrators has really made the first two female main characters stand distinct from each other. Sylvan truly brought the wit, sarcasm, fun, and heartache to Sadie's character; it didn't even take a full chapter for me to know that I was going to love listening to this audiobook. I thought Sylvan did a fantastic job with all of Sadie's dialogue and nuances. I thought she did equally well with Erik; it's not always easy to pull off a smaller, hyper female character and a bigger, poised male with a slight accent, but Sylvan made it easy to distinguish between the two. I actually loved Erik's speaking voice in this audiobook, and I don't say that for many female-voiced male roles.
With a fantastic plot staring who might be my new favorite Danish fictional character and the type of STEM-y scenario we all love and now expect from Ali Hazelwood, Stuck with You is a great listen on audiobook and will surely make a great ebook when it's released in that format as well.
A huge thank you to LibroFM for providing an ALC of this title as part of their Librarian ALC program.
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Release date: 3/8/22 (audiobook)/6/7/22 (ebook)
Format: ALC
ALC provided via: LibroFM Librarian ALC program