Lily Morton’s books all have a certain kind of typical British vibe – the humor, the wit, the snarky and quirky characters, who are often overly grumpy or overly sunshine. They are often opposites in a lot of ways – rich/poor, white collar/blue collar, famous/ordinary and so on. And yet, they all are highly entertaining and diverse enough to enjoy each book for their own characters and their story. A Lily Morton book has some kind of trademark in a way that, as a reader, I’d always recognize her books, even when I would’t be aware of the fact it was written by her.
I love her writing and her story telling. From the first book I read by her, she’s been one of my favorite authors. An auto-buy, one click author, and most of the time all I need to know is that it’s her newest book, not even caring to read the blurb.
Of course I enjoyed some of her books more than others – even from a favorite author you can’t always have a 5 star read at hand. But overall, there hasn’t been a book yet that has really, really disappointed me.
‘After Felix’ is one of those that I clearly put in the category of the ones I really loved! It was one of the first of her books that I listened to, and even hadn’t read as an e-book yet. It was on my tbr for quite some time, but you know how that goes – that tbr gets longer and longer, and sometimes books just move further down, until you sort of lose sight of them and later come to realize you haven’t read them yet, even when it’s from a favorite author. So when I got the opportunity to listen to the audio, I took it.
I loved how Joel Leslie portrayed Felix – his English, posh accent was just wonderful. He really brought him to life with all his sassiness and his snark. I enjoyed Max’s character as well – so different from Felix, but it shows how well Joel Leslie does different characters, giving them their own distinctive voice.
When they meet at first, Felix and Max are in a Waterstones bookshop in London, and there’s an immediate interest there. They hook up and it’s quite the steamy hotel room meeting! So, that’s where it all starts – a casual hook up that becomes a regular one. No feelings, of course, because Max doesn’t do relationships and Felix knows Max isn’t interested in more than just sex.
Along the way, however, Felix has to admit he’s grown quite fond of Max and their escapades. And when Max reveals he’s been in love with one of his best friends and former reporter colleague Ivo
(who has his own book in the Finding home series where he gets his hea with Henry), Felix discovers he doesn’t like the way Max behaves when Ivo’s around. He starts to question if what he feels for Max could ever in the future, lead to something more than just a hook up status, something he, surprisingly, really wants.
After a terrible night with miscommunications and assumptions and all the things that could go wrong, did, in fact, go wrong, Felix decides he’s had enough.
That’s when the ‘After Felix’ part of the book starts. When Max finally sobers up long enough to realize what he’s lost. And so he starts on a journey to win Felix back. But Felix isn’t that easily giving in. He’s guarding his heart, protecting it with an iron fence and a thick wall. He doesn’t trust Max, and so Max has to do all he has in his powers, to convince Felix things have changed. That he has changed.
I really enjoyed how Max did everything he could think of to woo Felix, to charm him, to convince him things are different now. And I also enjoyed how Felix responded. He was deeply hurt, and I understood his reluctance to fall for Max’s attempts at winning him back. But Max, well, he certainly went deep and did everything he could to convince Felix!
This audio was highly entertaining – I think there’s something magic between Lily’s words and Joel’s performance. For some reason they fit perfectly. I really can’t wait to listen to more of their collaborations!