Thank you to Recorded Books for the ARC. GiGi is a romance store owner who goes on a guided tour with her favorite audiobook narrator. Unfortunately things do not go as planned. All the characters in this book are so loveable and have their own story for being on the tour that will warm your heart. This story was beautifully written.

This book is lovely. I did anticipate feeling so many emotions when I started it, but the characters are so well-written that I feel like I know them and I was sad to see this story come to an end. It's not just a romance, but also an exploration of the messy parts of life that bring us to where we are today and taking the time to appreciate those moments and what we can learn from them. I listened to the audiobook narrated by the amazing Natalie Naudus and it's fantastic. This book will be added to my favorites shelf and is one I'll be reading again.

Gigi is gifted an expedition to England to participate in a guided tour by Zane, the audiobook narrator with whom she has been captivated. When she arrives in England, Zane is not there, and she meets the group she will be traveling with. She also meets Taj, the bus driver. Zane does join the group, though days later, and that's when she needs to decide whether she wants to pursue something with Zane or Taj. It's an exciting story about friendship, love, grief, self-respect, and determining what matters. The narrator does an excellent job of bringing the story to life.

This light hearted, easy novel was a nice break from some of the heavier books I’ve been reading lately. The writing is fun and expressive and the story was charming.

I love the self reflection Gigi goes through in this book. She is very set in her ways and beyond independent. She takes a surprise trip but still has a plan. Things rarely go according to plan though. It is how we handle what we are given that makes us who we are. Gigi had her challenges and had h th o figure out the impact. It was predictable but an enjoyable light read.

Wow! this was a great book! This was a witty romance with a funny cast of characters. We have Gigi who takes over a small bookshop from her parents and it quickly becomes her life. In order to help her restore some balance and pursue a life long dream her friends book her a European bus tour.

I am a big fan of the girl has long time crush, finds a way to possibility meet or date long time crush but along the way finds an unexpected friend ... or potential love interest? And that is what this book is! Gigi is such likable character who is a bit of a control freak who is out of her element. All the characters from the bus add some comedy and laughs to the story. You really find yourself rooting for her to find what is best for her life and learn to let go a little bit. As she struggles to decipher what she really wants verse what she thinks she wants there are a few missteps but it makes for a fun and meaningful journey.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a fun romance who doesn't mind a book getting a little deep along the way. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Audio ARC provided by NetGalley.

An audiobook created for a novel in which the plot is centered around the main character being obsessed with a male audiobook narrators voice, yet his parts are read in a deep voice by a female narrator? Either a huge oversight or a poor decision. The MC travels across the Atlantic to meet this man just because of his voice, so you’d think they’d get a make voice matching the book description to read his part, but no.

Aside from that, this was generally a very bland and unexciting story. A bit too Hallmark-y for my personal taste.

Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for this ARC.

Happy Belated Pub Day @chantelguertin!

TW:
Parental Death
Alcohol use, Excessive Drinking

Okay @natalienaudus may be one of my favorite audiobook narrators EVER. Her voice is so dynamic yet also feels like being wrapped in silk. She does such an incredible job doing very distinct and unique voice for each character.

Gigi is so real and relatable. Serial audiobook listener, romance book lover, lots of wine, doom scrolling. We would get along so well!

She owns a ROMANCE ONLY bookstore! We would be best friends. 😂😍

If you love the movie My Life In Ruins you will love this book. It has the same vibes with a woman who is thrown onto a bus tour that does not go her way from the moment she walks up to the bus. The side characters, all the other tour participants are so fun! You have the couple where the wife is terribly annoyed that they are on holiday, the stick up his a$$ know it all, the sweet middle age woman who’s welcoming and charming and so many more! There’s even a Bailey Sarian like charter with a Murder and Makeup channel, I LOVE Bailey and watch her stuff all the time.

The banter is hilarious 😂 There will be some surprises in the story that are so sweet.

Gigi’s story and her growth is so fun to watch. Breaking her routine to go on a spontaneous trip is so out of her comfort zone.

I can’t wait to hear what y’all think!

Get ready for a rollicking romantic comedy through the English countryside!

✨Book Review: GIGI, LISTENING by Chantel Guertin ✨

🇬🇧 Synopsis: Gigi wants a magical meet cute like her parents experienced, but isn’t meeting anyone new at the Michigan bookstore she inherited and now manages. Stumbling upon the audiobook that brought her parents together and feeling an immediate and strong connection to the narrator leads Gigi to think the narrator, Zane, could be The One. Feeling so deeply connected and attracted to a voice can’t just be a coincidence or one sided, right? A bit of reconnaissance later and Gigi’s friends have booked her a vacation in England with the Zane’s family tour company so Gigi can find her own magical meet cute. But, will the vacation and this mysterious narrator be all Gigi has hoped?

🇬🇧 My Take: Gigi shows strong character growth through the story and I like how she adopts people along the way, creating a sort of found family. The descriptions of the various English sites visited and how it’s all read by Natalie Naudus is beautiful and lush. My one criticism, though it’s also what makes the book work, is how fixated Gigi is on Zane, as if that’s the only possible happily ever after available to her. Thankfully, though through multiple trials and miscommunications, more than one positive outcome results from Gigi’s adventure abroad.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5/5 stars)

😘 Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the advance audiobook!

Oh man where do I start with this book?! I wholeheartedly did not like it at all. The main character felt super obsessed with this narrator guy and it bordered creepy how she was acting. Did she really think she was in love with him?!?! I couldn’t get behind this book to save my life.

3.5/5 stars

Thank you RB Media for the advanced listening copy!

For someone who runs a romance book shop, Gigi Rutherford has surprisingly little time for romance of her own. Instead of pouring over dating apps, she prefers to spend her days listening to the soothing voice of audiobook narrator Zane Wilkenson, whom she is convinced is her soulmate. When Gigi's friends give her the 30th birthday trip of a lifetime, to tour England on a bus guided by Zane himself, Gigi allows herself to imagine this as the fresh start she has been looking for. What she doesn't imagine, however, is her plan being entirely derailed by a delightfully chaotic group of passengers and a handsome, brooding, and surprisingly enticing bus driver, Taj. Gigi has to come to terms with what she's avoiding by focusing on this one, very specific future she has in her head and figure what she truly wants and needs.

This was a super cute and surprising romance! I really enjoyed the narration by Natalie Naudus -- her voice was really relaxing and comforting, while doing a great job of narrating the variety of characters in this book. I found the overall premise of this book to be cuter than the delivery. The Zane stuff lingered a bit longer than I would have liked and turned a bit creepy for my taste. This book was predictable in a good way; I liked having an idea of how things were going to go while listening to them unfold. Gigi's character was complex and dynamic and it was really enjoyable to watch her character develop throughout the story. Plus, I love a book with good side characters and this was exactly that!

This book was excellently narrated by Natalie Naudus, and it felt so escapist to travel along with Gigi and the gang of fellow bus-riders while suffering through a chilly spring on the other side of the ocean from them here :) I found the initial concept of this book to be a bit hilarious but also maybe a bit relatable as someone who loves and appreciates audiobooks - Gigi's crush on Zane, the audiobook narrator of a book meaningful to her family, was pretty funny. When she was given the opportunity to travel and have him as a tour guide, of course she'd go! However, it can't be quite as simple as that or we'd have no book, so there are some other significant characters (Taj! Angus! Charlotte!) along for the ride.

Books with travel and various other fun travellers are always fun and this was light-romantic fiction very well done. I won't spoil the way the story pans out, but the reader does come to root for certain characters more than others and overall Gigi did worm her way into my heart with her love of books (especially romance books! I'd say overall this book is a HUGE ode to the genre), and her desire to stick to a plan as well as her character development.

I definitely recommend this book by Canadian author Chantel Guertin and I look forward to watching the book succeed as it publishes. If you enjoyed Evvie Drake Starts Over, The Storied Life of AJ Fikry or Exes and O's, I
think you'd enjoy this one - OR if you just love a good roadtrip type of book :) The audiobook version I listened to was called Gigi Listening (the American title for the book) and in Canada it is being published as Two for the Road.

This is just an all around fun book.


I listened to the audiobook and I thought the narrator did a great job. Although I did wish there was an additional male narrator as well. The whole book is about how the main character is in love with a audiobook voice actor from listening to one of his books. You would think that the reader would get to hear the voice that she fell in love with. If I had to change anything about the audiobook, I would change that.

I did enjoy all of the side characters on the tour bus. I have been on a bus full of strangers in other countries, a solo trip to India with a tour group and a summer study abroad in Greece where we were in a different city every day. Meeting different personalities and feeling connecting after a short time is something that really does resonate with you if you ever took these types of tours by yourself.

If you love books that reference romance novels, clean romances, and fictional books about traveling that have great desciptions, I would pick this one up.

Pub date: 3/28/23
Genre: romcom
Quick summary: Gigi owns a romance bookstore, and when her friends gift her a bus tour narrated by her audiobook crush Zane, Until she shows up for the tour, and he's not there.

I enjoyed Guertin's last book INSTAMOM, and this homage to romance books sounded so cute! I loved Gigi's voice - she's perpetually single but still a hopeless romantic looking for the love like her parents had. I loved the real-life book references sprinkled throughout the narrative.

Gigi's bus tour turns out to be full of odd characters, and it was fun to see her build connections with the group, including grumpy heartthrob Taj. This was a pleasant audio to listen to - Natalie Naudus is a fave narrator for me. But ultimately, I wish there had a been a little more plot to fill out the book.

I'd recommend this one to grumpy/sunshine fans and Anglophiles!

Thank you to Recorded Books for providing an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at 45%.
It seems like a clever concept, but I was bored to tears.
What usually redeems it for me is the narration but on this, a story about a woman falling in love with a narrator you’d think the voice of the narrator would have at least been voiced by a separate male narrator with a voice we also fell in love with. Big miss.

I had a lot of fun with this one. It gave me “My Life in Ruins” vibes. If you’ve ever seen that movie, you’ll know why.

We follow our leading lady Gigi, as she travels on a spontaneous trip to England in hopes of meeting the man of her literal dreams. She believes that audiobook narrator Zane, is her actual soulmate. All she has to do is meet him on the book bus tour and he will know it too…hopefully. But of course, in true rom-com fashion, absolutely nothing goes as planned. Enter in her eccentric group of traveling companions.

This was a pretty quick and clean story. (heavy emphasis on clean! There is absolutely no spice in this book). Gigi’s obsession with Zane was a bit annoying and at parts made the story kind of boring. BUT that’s why we have side characters!! And boy did they save this story for me! They brought emotional depth to our leading lady and really emphasized the character growth I wanted to see. I wouldn’t say this was a genre bending story but it was fun and overall enjoyable. I recommend for anyone just looking for a quick and easy read, that might tug on some heart strings.

Gigi is in love with the idea of happily ever after romantic love. The kind that really occurs in books. So much so that her bookstore only sells books that it her agenda. She’s experienced a great deal of trauma in her life and has dealt with absolutely none, Instead she has built up a man she believes is the man of her dreams, having never met him except through the audiobook he narrated. She believes he is the man of her dreams. Her friends send her on a birthday trip to meet him. There is a lot of truth to the saying “Never meet your heroes”. Gigi connects with the others on her group tour, makes friends and ultimately learns to open her heart, her mind, let go of her very specific ways of doing everything and live her best life. At the start of the book I thought uh oh! Then I kept listening. So glad I did. A really sweet listen.

Gigi has no luck when it comes to men, failed date after failed date and she’s ready to call it quits. Gigi is sent on a 10 day bus tour by her friends which is to be lead by Zane, the man Gigi believes she is in love with after hearing him narrate a book that brought her parents together. However, when she gets to her destination she realizes the tour is not being led by Zane. This book is a great example of what it means to self explore and go on journeys to find yourself and love. Thank you NetGalley for the chance to listen to this book in exchange for my honest feedback!

This book starts out with MC Gigi on a set up date in a pub in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Gigi is a small bookstore owner, who is a hopeless, romantic and in love with the voice of an audiobook narrator. Not only is she in love with this narrator because of his voice, but also because he is reading the one book that brought her parents together in their love story.

She is convinced that this is the love of her life and fantasizes about him and no other man measures up to Zane. For her 30th birthday GiGi‘s friends purchase a ticket for her to fly to England and take a guided tour by a company run by none other than Zane, as his family owns the company. It turns out that Zane has only ever narrated this one book and so it appears that it is fate.

This book grabbed my attention immediately, because it was quite different than other books I’ve read of a similar genre. The idea that the main character fell in love with a voice because he read a book that brought her parents together was a premise I’ve never encountered in all of my reading. I found the characters completely loveable and quickly devoured this adorable romcom.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC copy of GiGi, listening, in exchange, for my honest review and opinion.

This was a cute charming story about a girl who goes to London on a tour ran by Zane's family. Zane narrated her favorite book that her parents fell in love over and listens to it every night before going to sleep. Her friends buy her a trip to London on that tour so she can meet him and see if he is the love of her life. When she gets there her trip does not start out as according to plan due to Zane not being on the guided tour due a family emergency. GiGi almost decides not go because that was the whole point of the trip but decides to go once she is told that Zane will meet up with the tour later. In the mean time she starts a relationship with the other folks on the trip including a hunky bus driver Raj. Once Zane shows up she gets swept up in the fantasy of him that she built up in her head and trying to convince herself the sparks are there. GiGi discovers that not every love story starts with a perfect beginning. Sometimes it is the middle that matters the most.