Audio Review ~ Filthy ~ Winter Renshaw

*I received a free copy of Filthy from Tantor Media via Tantor Media. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *

Filthy mouth. Dirty mind. Messy past. I'm no saint, and I hear my reputation precedes me, but you can't believe everything people say.

I've made a living playing by the rules only when the clock is ticking, the ball has been snapped, and I'm cleat-deep in AstroTurf. But I screwed up last year. I went too far with the girls and the partying and the benders. As a result, the team owner sentenced me to live in some gated, Floridian retirement village until I can "calm down".

The rules are clear: no girls, less booze, zero publicity stunts. If I lay low and repair my reputation, I won't get cut. It's that simple. Everything was going well. For the first time in my life, I was living by someone else's rules, and then she showed up for the summer.

My next door neighbor's great niece is visiting, and it doesn't take long for me to see Delilah Rosewood is the perfect mix of sexy and smart. She makes me want to break all the rules and draw every penalty just to get a taste. But there's one problem: she hates me with the passion of a thousand Florida suns.

Although I’ve been listening to audiobooks for a few years now, I still consider myself a noob. This was made more definite when I debated on whether or not to listen to Filthy, and thereby finish the Rixton Falls series to date, due to the fact I just wasn’t loving the story. In the end, I decided to go ahead and HOLY WOW! What a difference narrators make! Filthy is narrated by Lydia Dornet and Roger Wayne, a team that was awesome!

Highlight of Filthy:

• Setting
  This installment took place in Florida rather than Rixton Falls which meant I got to avoid some of the issues I was having with the Rosewood family. And I was introduced to Aunt Rue who was an absolute delight! I enjoyed the politics of the retirement community she lived in and how they affected Zane – the young football player forced to live there in order to clean up his filthy reputation. 😉
• Close-knit Family
  I adored the close relationship Delilah had with her aunt and I still got the family element I love about this series. Besides Aunt Rue and Delilah, we also spent some time with Daphne, Delilah’s twin sister. I enjoyed seeing more of the dynamics between them – their similarities and differences. Hopefully Renshaw will write Daphne’s story one day.
• Chemistry/Plot
  The chemistry between Delilah and Zane was palpable. The first time they meet had me rolling with laughter. That Zane was living in a retirement community in order to clean up his reputation and therefore keep his position on the team was funny. His and Delilah’s attraction, which he shouldn’t have acted on, proved to be something neither could ignore. And the path they followed to love and the obstacles they faced felt realistic and believable. I liked the football element and how Renshaw wove in issues a player would face in real life – things that also created bumps in the road for Delilah and Zane.
• Narrators!
  Now, I’m not saying there was anything wrong with the narrators of the 2 previous books. In fact, there were things I really enjoyed. However, when I started Filthy, I immediately knew there was a marked difference – that being Dornet and Wayne’s delivery. They performed the story rather than simply narrating it and that made all the difference in the world. I found Filthy to be an experience I want to repeat. I hope to learn better how to tell the difference between narrators I like and narrators that make the book for me so my listens are more fun.

About Brandee @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

Brandee is a mom of 3 and a soon-to-be empty nester. She is also an avid reader, a genre omnivore, and a compulsive one-clicker - but she's in recovery. Besides being a reader, she's also a writer and hopes to divide the vast quantities of spare time she'll soon have between reading and finally publishing her first book.

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