I love a good romcom. I love the cheesiest and corniest plotlines. I love the unrealistic aspects and suspending disbelief because I love love. This was not the one for me. The premise is creepy (an adult woman is entirely convinced she is meant to be with a guy she has never met but his audiobook narration is enough for it to be true love and everyone in her life indulges this behavior so she goes on a trip to go on a tour he guides in a different country...yikes). Ironically, I did like the narrator of the audiobook of this book. Thanks to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC!

This is a sweet and funky romance about a woman named Gigi who is on the trip of a lifetime to find herself and the love of her life. But things aren't going her way when the planned trip isn't exactly what she had in mind, people aren't what she thought, and maybe true love isn't found in an audiobook?

This was great. I'm slowly coming around to romance and this should definitely be added to your list.

This is a book-ception story (and I'm HERE for it), the main character Gigi owns a bookstore in Ann Arbor, MI. inherited by her late parents, which inspired her love for romance themed novels based on their meet-cute. Attempting to find her "one" she falls in love with the voice of a man who narrators the book of her parents meet-cute origin story. She creates a fabricated world about this man, and his personality based on some deep-dive internet searches, finding he lives in the UK and his family runs a tour bus company.

A birthday gift from her friends present a 10 day bus tour in the UK led by the man with the voice. TLDR; he's a boring jerk and instead she falls for the bus driver, though, not before being classist and making comments about his job, until she finds out he's actually a med student. They fall in love despite her regretful classist comments and he moves to Ann Arbour to be with her.

I strongly enjoyed this book, finding it fun and silly (even with Gigi making outlandish assumptions about the man with the voice)... until the classist remarks were inferred or made. That was something I couldn't get past and felt like the book didn't fully address the dynamics of a white women being disrespectful to a PoC on the basis of his employment. I think the book would have been a 5/5 if this was not included in the story or worked through more thoroughly because I felt the resolution was rushed and not fully dealt with.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author, Chantel Guertin for an audio ARC!


3.9/5

-T

Gigi, Listening was a really cute story about finding yourself and going after what you want - even if it changes. I was invested in Gigi's story more than I have been in one for a while. I love stories that involve travel, but I didn't even pay attention to where they were, I was more interested in each character on the tour with her. She found a family in the strangers on the bus, and was able to change her life in so many ways in the end.

Gigi's parents had the perfect meet cute in her eyes- her father stopped in a bookstore and started reading a book aloud- it just happened to be the same book the daughter of the owners was reading. They were a perfect match and ran the bookstore together until tragedy struck. Now, Gigi runs the bookstore and comes across a new audio version of the same book that brought her parents together. And the narrator? His voice is perfect. She listens tot he book over and over, and falls in love with the narrator, Zane. After some research, she discovers his family owns a tour company in England. She sets off to England to meet her soulmate, Zane. When she arrives, nothing goes to plan. But she is still determined to find Zane and live happily ever after, no matter how many obstacles are in her way.

I started off really liking this, but less so after the first third or so. I guess the constant state of drama started wearing on me. Overall, I didn't dislike the book. I was just less enthusiastic as it went on.

It is a cute story, funny, and with quite a bit of personal growth for Gigi.

The audiobook is narrated by Natalie Naudus. I always enjoy Natalie's narrations and this one is no different. I do feel like a major opportunity was lost from a production standpoint. There are parts when you "hear" the audiobook Zane narrates. They definitely should have brought in a British guy to read those parts.

I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.

DNF'd at 47%. Honestly I was very bored. I felt like nothing was going on and I was already halfway through the story... I couldn't keep the characters straight because honestly I did not care enough. Im sure this is a good story for others but this just did not keep my attention.

Who among us hasn’t fallen for a book character before, right? But who among us as fallen for the book’s narrator? This is where we meet Gigi; a romance bookshop owner who “loves love” and is looking to write her own love story. Her friends surprise her with a trip to England, where she will spend 10 days touring the country with her dream guy, the narrator of her favorite audiobook! Will sparks fly?

(Side Note: I’ve dreamed of going to England someday, so I was pretty envious of Gigi’s birthday present. Her friends are the best!)

I love how Gigi throws in fun references to other popular books that she has clearly read herself including Finlay Donovan is Killing It, One Day in December, and The Rose Code. She is a bookish character who is definitely in the know! I wanted to love Gigi more, but I felt she was trying way too hard to get the love story she thinks she wants.

Overall: Cute romance to a foreign country, but the love story didn’t fly for me. And the other guests on the tour weren’t memorable for me either.

I thought this was pretty cute! I love the oddball cast of characters and how we get to learn a bit about all their stories. I liked the gradual build up of the relationship between Gigi & Taj. Taj was a great character, dry and witty but also very sweet and with a knack for good storytelling. Only a few things didn't work for me, but most of them were kind of major. I just hated the idea that Gigi was on the tour for some guy who she'd never met IRL and who had no idea she existed. It was creepy! I hated how upset she got when he wasn't on the tour at first. I just don't know what she realistically expected to happen. And when she does reveal to Zane why she was there, he actually took it a lot better than I think any real person would. Her infatuation with Zane is a major component of the story and I just don't like it. I think she could have gotten to London for a different reason and still had the story work out almost exactly the same, just way less stalkerish. Really the only other thing I didn't care for was how forced some of the writing felt sometimes. I don't want to hear about a grown woman "in her feels". It was just giving tumblr. That being said, I thought the book was overall enjoyable. Cute relationship, fun side characters, some personal growth, and ofc, a HEA.

I liked this book. I didn’t love it. I wanted to. Bookshop owner. London setting. Meet cutes. Grumpy lead. Scatterbrained sibling. It was all there.

For me it was Gigi. She was made to be to over the top about this meet cute and how it was supposed to be. With who SHE thought it should be. She is supposed to be an older character but I felt her to be to childish and not in a charming, hot mess lead character we all love kind of way.

The side characters and group adventure kept me interested enough to finish the book but overall I didn’t love.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review.

An adorable, if predictable, romance novel. Gigi Rutherford loves romance. She even owns a bookstore dedicated to that very subject. For her 30th birthday, her friends send her on a once-in-a lifetime touring trip to England, headed up by her most favorite audio-book reader, Zane Wilkerson. But when she arrives, Zane isn't there and Gigi starts off the tour with a quirky cast of characters, a sweet, septuagenarian tour guide and a grumpy (but very hot) bus driver named Taj. After Zane finally shows up, Gigi must decide if her happily-ever-after meet-cute story will end the way she thought it would.
Very enjoyable read!

*Special thanks to NetGalley & RB Digital for this audio e-arc.*

I love a story that has book-ish themes, and being an audiobook lover, this one fits the bill! The story itself is very charming, (though in real life perhaps a little creepy/stalker-y.. ). I also personally found it a bit slow to get going. Being a Canadian from a border city to Michigan, I found the characters would work well from a Canadian setting as mentioned in another review. Would make an excellent movie! The narration was decent, however I think the characters sounded rather similar so having a male narrator for male parts would've been nice.

Thank you to RB Media, Recorded Books and NetGalley for this ALC!

I really loved this one! I love a bookish story, and especially one with audio books as well! The quirky cast of characters was so fun, and I couldn't stop listening once I started! Highly recommend to all bookish book lovers!

I listened to the audio and it was wonderful, great narration!

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this one. All opinions are my own.

Gigi Rutherford is a romantic at heart. In fact, she runs a bookstore dedicated to romances. Her own romantic life is quite lackluster at the moment. When her friends surprise her with the gift of a trip to England, booked with the tour company run by one of her favorite audiobook narrator's family, it's the setup for her own perfect meet-cute. The trip becomes more than Gigi bargained for when Zane, her audio-crush, isn't there. Can Gigi enjoy what's right in front of her, rather than the fantasy she's created in her mind?

This book was very sweet albeit incredibly slow. However, the scene where Gigi connects with her love at the end, it was one of the BEST, most clever, and carefully crafted reunions I've ever 'witnessed'. That scene alone made me bump up my review by a full star. The motif of 'listening' really came together at that point and it tied up so many things beautifully.

Gigi herself is relatable in some ways, and annoying in others. For example: she owns her own successful business, and has already gotten through some intense personal challenges, but she is filled with self-doubt. The self-doubt becomes an important plot point but it was hard for me to square a successful 30-year-old woman with some of her less-decisive moments. Her character growth was incredible realistic but also very slow.

Zane was the perfect not-what-you-expect guy. What he turned out to be mirrored Gigi's own self reflection incredibly well. I just didn't like that we had to wait so long to put two and two together. The other characters on the bus were written so lovingly that the lessons/sentiments they represented felt authentic and real.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

There was nothing wrong with this, but it didn't really do enough to stand out either.

I kept expecting there to be some small "twist," but no, everything was pretty straightforward.

The premise was unique enough (albeit creepy), but it was executed in a fairly standard and predictable reality-is-better-than-fantasy kind of way. And the most unique part of the plot, audiobook narrator Zane and Gigi's unhealthy obsession with him, didn't occupy too much of the plot in reality.

My favorite part of this was just the general atmosphere of the UK and the tour bus camaraderie. The side characters really shone, and I liked how Gigi developed friendships with her fellow bus mates.

I did find it hilarious how Gigi kept expecting other people to be fangirling over Zane and his voice, as if that's a totally normal thing to obsess over.

This story got off to a bit of a slow start for me. It felt like there was a bit more set up than was strictly necessary. But once things started moving, and Gigi got over her jet lag, I really began to enjoy the story. The cast of unusual bus mates made for a fun ride. It was pretty obvious from the start how this story would turn out but, as with travel, the journey is the worthier part.

One thing about the audio, I found that the narrator struggled a bit with doing different voices, so audiobook Zane and real-life Taj sounded the same. I spent a good chunk of the story suspecting that maybe Zane was a front and we would find out that Taj was the actual audiobook narrator. This story might have benefitted from having a male narrator either do Taj's parts just to give a little variety up front before real Zane showed up.

All in all, I think it is a good book. I'm not sure why the author chose to set it in Michigan though. Her main characters felt very Canadian (how many Americans in their mid-20s know that The Old Apartment is a song by The Barenaked Ladies, let alone can sing the words to it?) and the bookend North American bits would have worked just as well set in St. Catherines as they do in Ann Arbor.

Cute, charming, I loved it so much.

I wanted to scream a few times for the MC being SO blind, but really, would it be a romance if you didn't?

Looking forward to some of Guertin's other books.

5 out of 5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and RB Media for allowing me to listen to this in exchange for an honest review.

I think I am entering my Rom-Com era because I really have been enjoying them more than I have in years. "Gigi, Listening" was not only fun but very heartwarming. I found myself identifying with Gigi in many ways. Would I go to London just so that I could find the narrator whom I am hardcore crushing on them? Nope! That doesn't mean that it didn't make for an incredibly fun and surprisingly sweet story. When romance book shop owner Gigi's best friends/romance book club members surprise her on birthday with a ten day tour of England that is led by her crush she thinks that her love story will start. Instead she finds a romantic surprise and a wonderful found family.

Natalie Naudus was great and the story made me laugh and cry. I loved the way this handled grief and the spicy scenes were just about right for me.

Thanks, RB Media, and NetGalley for the chance to listen to Gigi, Listening by Chantel Guertin. My first book by Chantel and I want to say that the cover sold me, plus I saw myself on Gigi. I'm a romance reader so I was happy to read this book. Did I enjoy reading this book? yes, but I wasn't so much into it. It was a straight flat story, with no steaminess at all, and no smut. and I love that in a book. BUT Gigi sounded more like a creep rather than a book lover.in love. with a guy or someone real. Don't get me wrong, I understand her because I love to imagine I'm the perfect woman for my Hollywood crushes, but that doesn't mean I go stalking them.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an audio copy to listen to in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun story - some serious parts, tons of laughs, and of course - a happy ending. I love how the timeline is laid out according to the tour - helps to keep the timeline straight and really helpful to see how Gigi evolves. I love the secondary characters. The whole story really makes me want to take a bus tour in England.

This is a wonderful romance story that explores how, sometimes our "perfect" match, isn't exactly who we think they are.

As Gigi falls for the voice actor who narrated her favorite audiobook, she dreams of meeting him one day. So for her 30th birthday her friends all chip in and buy her a vacation package that ensures she'll get to meet her "one and only."

The problem is, while the voice may be the same, the man is nothing like she imagined! And yet the bus driver who seems to rub her the wrong way at every turn starts to become more interesting the more she butts heads with him. And the connections she builds with the other members of the tour start to open her eyes to what really matters in life.

I truly enjoyed this HEA romance and am thankful to Chantel Guertin, Kensington Books and NetGalley for an advance review copy.