Audiobook Review, Exclusive Excerpt and Giveaway: Natural Twenty by Charlie Novak

Natural Twenty By Charlie Novak, Performed By Joel Leslie

Genre: Contemporary Romance, GLBTQ, MM

Released: January 29, 2021

Publisher: Self-Published

Series: Roll for Love, Book 1

Length: 8 hrs, 10 mins / 276 pages

Cover Design: Natasha Snow

Synopsis

Plants are easier than people—that’s Leo’s rule of thumb. After all, nobody really wants a man who looks like he belongs in a biker gang but would rather spend his time buried in books and flowers. It’s just easier to be single. Until he meets the owner of the new book shop.

Jacob Morris knows two things: he’s really attracted to the man who runs the local flower shop, and he doesn’t date. Not when he’s still healing from a bad breakup, has a new business to run, game nights to organise, workshops to host, and a website to build.

When friendship blooms into something more, Leo and Jay must decide whether to roll the dice and take a chance on love or keep forging ahead on their quests alone. Will their roll yield a one or a perfect, natural twenty?

Natural Twenty is an 80,000-word contemporary MM romance featuring Dungeons & Dragons, secret flower language bouquets, a spoilt Staffy (or two), and a best friend who is basically a gothic prince. It is book one in the Roll for Love series and can be read as a standalone.

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Review

Reviewed by ButtonsMom2003

I enjoyed this a lot.

Natural Twenty is the first book I’ve read by Charlie Novak and I really liked it a lot. I have to admit right up front that I don’t know much about Dungeons and Dragons so a lot of the references to that game went right over my head. However, that didn’t really affect my enjoyment of the story.

Listening to the audiobook was really great. I give Joel Leslie a lot of the credit for my audiobook addiction. He performed the first audiobook that I truly loved (others failed to hold my attention) and I haven’t looked back since. His range of accents is phenomenal and I’ve never failed to enjoy any audiobook that he’s performed.

The story was really great all by itself. I loved all of the references to flowers and their meanings and the way that Leo used them to woo Jacob (Jay) even though Jay didn’t realize what was going on. Jay recently opened a bookstore and Leo loves books so he pays the shop a visit during its grand opening.

Jay is struggling with his new business and his confidence is at a low point. His ex-boyfriend really did a number on him and it’s caused him to doubt nearly everything he does. Leo really has to work hard to get Jacob to agree to date him. Once they get together things really heat up until Jacob begins to doubt himself again.

This story has two great MCs, sweet rescue dogs, a great epilogue and Jacob’s fantastic best-friend, Edward. Edward’s story, Charisma Check is available now.

Performance: ♥♥♥♥♥

Story: ♥♥♥♥♥

O Factor: Scorcher

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Excerpt

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT:
Jay

My heart hammered in my chest as I waited for his answer. It felt like I could hardly breathe. Leo stared at me for a second, his amber eyes gazing into mine, then he nodded.

“Yes. I do.”

Warmth, coupled with sheer relief, enveloped me, and I stepped closer to him, still clutching the paper bag filled with cake. If I looked down, I knew my knuckles would be white. Leo’s hand reached out, gently cradling my jaw, and a little shiver ran over my skin. We were as close as we had been in the basement of The Lost World, but this time, there would be no interfering friends to stop this from happening. I didn’t care if anyone saw us. I needed him to kiss me more than I’d ever needed anything before.

I pushed onto my toes, tilting my head as he drew me towards him. His lips were warm and firm against mine, and I sighed into the kiss, melting against him as his other hand wrapped around my waist. Sparks danced across my skin, and in an instant, I felt more alive than I had in years. How could one kiss make me feel this way? How could one man change everything?

I wanted to stay in this moment forever, even though I knew it couldn’t last. The kiss broke but neither of us moved. Leo’s eyes searched my face, trying to gauge my reaction.

All I could think to do was kiss him again.

Hints of chocolate lingered on his lips, and I pushed my tongue against the seam of his mouth. Heat flared in my veins. The same heat I’d felt that night I’d dreamt about him inside me. His mouth teased my lip ring, sending a jolt through me. I let out a tiny moan, and Leo’s hand tightened on my waist. He broke the kiss, desire dancing in his eyes.

“We probably shouldn’t do this here,” he said. “I don’t think the cathedral staff would be impressed by us making out outside their building.”

“Probably not.” My skin was tingling, and I was pretty sure I was the same colour as my hoodie. “But I do want to do it again. Soon. And a lot. Yeah, definitely a lot.”

Leo chuckled. “Me too.”

“Really?” I surprised myself by asking. Apparently, my brain hadn’t quite accepted that Leo wanted to kiss me, despite the fact he’d been doing it not thirty seconds before.

Books in the Series

Roll for Love Series

♥ Amazon US ♥ Amazon CA ♥ Amazon UK ♥

Giveaway
To celebrate Charlie’s debut Audio release, we are giving 1 lucky winner the chance to win an US or UK Audible code for Natural Twenty as well as an e-copy of Natural Twenty!

Direct link to giveaway.

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About Author

Charlie lives in England with her husband and a dachshund named Biscuit. She spends most of her days wrangling other people’s words in her day job and then trying to force her own onto the page in the evening.

She loves cute stories with a healthy dollop of fluff, plenty of delicious sex, and happily ever afters — because the world needs more of them. Charlie also believes that loves comes in all shapes and sizes.

Charlie has very little spare time, but what she does have she fills with cooking, pole-dancing, reading and ice-hockey. She also thinks that everyone should have at least one favourite dinosaur…

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About Narrator

Joel Froomkin (aka Joel Leslie), an eight-time Earphones Award-Winning narrator, is a UK transplant, growing up with American parents in a British commonwealth. A classically trained actor with an MFA in theatre from USC, he is often cast for his unique ability to deliver native, authentic combinations of British and American sounds. His great range and ability to bring characters to life with honesty, wit and versatility delights producers and listeners alike. He has won Earphones Awards for 1st person British, American and Australian narrations.

He was the winner of three 2020 Independent Audiobook Awards, including Best Male Narrator. He has nearly 300 full-length audiobooks to his credit and over 25,000 five star reviews on audible. His narration of JJ McAvoy’s Ruthless People was a #1 Romance Best-Seller on audible. He served as Director of Drama at Manchester University and has been a Theatre Professor at Indiana/Purdue University.

He is a dialect specialist and has taught accents and speech at NYU, Tisch School of the Arts as well as coached accents for major regional theaters, Broadway stalwarts and national tours.

He has had the pleasure of working with Audible Studios, Penguin Random House, Dreamscape, Scholastic, Podium, Blackstone, Harper, Bee Audio, Brilliance, Deyan Audio, Tantor, Punch and Hachette.

Joel also records in the romance genre as ‘Joel Leslie’ and has developed a very strong following and garnered many awards including m/m Audiobook Narrator of the Year 2018 from openskyebookreviews and numerous Audiobook of the Year-winning titles.

Joel has consistent access to his home studio for all production needs. When not in the booth he spends his time chasing after two loquacious wiener dogs.

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