I found this very entertaining. I’m sure Mal would irritate some people & he certainly has some not-great moments, but if I had been in his position, I’d be even more disagreeable than he was. I’d be wallowing with a jar of Nutella & a spoon, personally. He might have been snippy, moody & not all together honest, but he did leave the house. Bryce has a couple imperfections, but is, in general, lovely & admirable. I enjoyed seeing their admiration for one another’s good points and how they understood one another, despite having seemingly nothing in common. Seeing characters from the previous books make appearances was a real bonus.
I did figure out a bit of a riddle in the story WELL before the characters did & wanted to smack them on the head repeatedly for being so clueless. I’m sure most readers will want to yell at them as well. Maybe that’s part of the fun?
For the audiobook, it was very quintessential Joel Leslie, so you either like it or not, depending on how you feel about him as a narrator. If you haven’t heard Joel Leslie before, I say give it a try. He does snark and voice differentiation very well. His sex scene voice acting isn’t all my bag, (and this book as more & hotter scenes than the previous one), but it might be good for others. 😉
I’m very much looking forward to starting the next book, as the Bard has definitely got my interest piqued.