Are the Kingmans my new Bergmans?
I love an interconnected series featuring a close knit family. This book was pretty light and easy to listen to. The romance between Chris and Trixie was fun and the narrators did a great job bringing the characters to life. At times, the ploy did seem kind of silly and unrealistic, but generally I liked it!

I was given an ALC by NetGalley and Dreamscape Media. All opinions are my own.

I’m just gonna be honest, this audiobook was funny as heck but it got too cheesy for my tastes lol. I love a good romcom but this one just kinda missed the mark for me!

Thanks to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the ALC of this beautiful audiobook.

The C*ck Down the Block
by Amy Award

Narrated by Stella Hunter and Christian Fox

Story Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (0-5)
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧 (0-5)
Overall Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (0-5)
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 (0-5) I bump up for public places.

What I’m Starry-Eyed Over:
🤩 Steamy romcom goodness with beautiful narration. These narrators are everything and boost all the feels so deliciously.
🤩 Best friends-to-lovers.
🤩 Librarian and professional football player.
🤩 “I… need a favor. It’s kind of a big one too.” Fake dating!
🤩 Kingman family game night, when Chris starts flirting with Trixie.
🤩 Delicious slow burn with so much secret pining while they “practice” being a couple.
🤩 So fun and funny, especially when the other “cowgirls” (team wives/girlfriends) tell her to “Ride ‘em, cowgirl.” And, of course, Luke the pet chicken.
🤩 When it becomes “real” before the 50% mark.
🤩 Baby, good girl, and so much sweet and dirty talk.
🤩 High school reunion perfection!
🤩 I just love the plot drama and how they deal with it. It’s so much better than a third act breakup.
🤩 I definitely cried when Chris Kingsman supported Beatrix Moore and professed their love to the whole world.

What I’m Wishing/Dizzy About:
💫 The tease of fun phone times but not getting to experience it.
💫 The tease of childhood bedroom fantasies but not getting to experience it (I’m so greedy, I know).

First I would like to thank Dreamscape Media for providing me a copy of the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

This is the perfect friends to lovers, fake dating, curvy girl, sports romance that I didn’t even realize I needed in my life, add to it the amazing audiobook and I was hooked from the first min.

What I Loved:
Nicknames, everyone in this story has a fun nickname for each other but he calls her Chickadee and I love it
Big Family, Chris comes from a big family of mostly football playing men and I’m obsessed they have decided to all move back to their hometown neighborhood and look out for each other
Dual POV, the voice actors for this book did an AMAZING job with the dual POV of the book and I kept making excuses to listen to this book cause I was obsessed with them
Trixie, she did not have the most traditional childhood with her mother’s career and does a great job embracing her uniqueness
Chickens, Trixie has a bunch of chickens and the have the BEST names (all Star Wars themed) and it was such a fun/random thing in the story I continued to giggle about

Overall there is so much about this book that I absolutely loved. For reference, as soon as I finished the audiobook I ran out and bought the physical book cause I know at some point in the (near) future I will want to revisit this story cause Chris is book boyfriend material for sure and Trixie’s chickens were just too fun. If you are looking for a funny, friends to lovers sports romance with an amazing cast of characters you MUST read this book and bonus if you get the audiobook cause the quality is unmatched.

I absolutely loved this book - it was pure fun. It was a great escape after a heavier read. My feelings towards it may have also been elevated because I'm experiencing something very similar to our FMC.

I love that she is plus size and soooo comfortable in her skin. Also - loving just how much the MMC loves her body too. I loved the speice - but I'm not really sure how many people would fanatize about losing their virginity in a locker room. Yuck.

Recommended if you like:
-dual POV/dual narration
-open door romance
-great cast of side characters
-sports romance
-FMC

🥰Enjoyment: Ok I am definitely slumping a bit, this one had all the elements I should be obsessed with. I did enjoy it enough to say that you shouldn’t skip it on my account, but it fell flatter than I expected. The second half definitely had my attention more though.

📖 🎧 Writing &/or Audio Style: Writing style was easy to read and enjoyable. The narration was very good too. I really liked the female narrator but the male narrator also did a great job.

👥 Characters & Relationships: I think this was where I struggled the most with this story. I found Chris, the male lead pretty bland. Normally I’m obsessed with he fell first but he was just… not that interesting. I loved Trixie’s character, her personality, her interests and her strength really held up the book for me.

⁉️Plot, Intrigue & Logic: The first half was pretty standard, but I though the back half of the book really redeemed some of the areas I was struggling with. I liked the “scandal” and how it was dealt with etc.

🏞️Atmosphere & Setting: Satisfactory, no notes.

🚨 For Reader Awareness: Female lead is a fat character. She is unapologetic about this and I loved that. There is some external fat phobia throughout the book.

📣Recommended for fans of: Spicy sports romcoms

🎭Mood Reader Classification: Enjoyed it, looking forward to the brothers books, assuming they’ll be getting them. Don’t need to own or re-listen.

A plus-size romance is the best kind of romance to me mainly due to the fact that there are just so few of them! This one was just so cute! The pining of a pro football player for this librarian was so stinking adorable! I loved the Kingman family so much! I can’t wait to see more from them!

Holy smokes this book was so much fun! I was very excited to finally get my hands on this audio and I was not disappointed at all! Loved Stell and Christian together.
Love me a good friends to lovers and this one was perfect, flirty and adorable.

Plus chickens right?

trixie and chris have been friends forever, so when trixie asks chris to be her fake date to get back at her high school bullies, he says yes. what trixie doesn’t know, is her friend now a super popular quarterback, has feelings for her and this fake dating is real on his end … he just needs her to realize her own feelings too.

Ugh. Was it a light and fluffy read? Yes. Did it feel immature? Yes. Being damn near 30 I like to think that we grow emotionally and move past high school bullshit. All of this drama could’ve been avoided. I’m now dating the a football star? Who gives a shit what someone who peaked in high school has to say?

I listened on audio and while I enjoyed the narrators, it took me 3 days to finish, and this was not a very long audiobook.

RATING : 4.5/5

SPICE: 2/5

GENRE: Romance, Plus Size, Sports

TROPE: Fake Dating, Friends-to-Lovers, Virgin Trope

I want to start off by saying that I am someone who is picky and critical when it comes to the books I read, and more so when it comes to the tropes. That’s why this book was has a 5-Star rating for me, as it has done something that no book has managed to do for me: Change my opinion on a trope.

Firstly, I couldn’t put this book down. I have been eyeing this title for a while because it has a lot of the elements I look for when trying to decide what to add to my TBR. Romance? Check. Plus size Romance? Check. And I have been recently dabbling my hand in the Sports Romance genre and this book fit the bill. Especially after the Superbowl! Perfect read.

Trixie (MC) and Chris (LI) have been friends for a long time and when Trixie is faced with a few Mean Girls who peaked in High School, she lies and tells them that in fact she and Chris are dating. Let the FAKE DATING scheme commence!

Now, back to my VIRGINITY TROPE comment, please note below there are some MILD spoilers.

Trixie hasn’t had it hard because she a plus size gal and men “don’t desire” plus size babes. That is what most of the books I have encountered with the plus size characters and the virginity trope imply. In this case, the reason for Trixie being a virgin so long is that her mom was a porn star. The novel explains that due to the over-sexualization of her mother, she often came across guys who would overly sexualize her in association to her mom. For example, she had a long time boyfriend, and when they were at the moment to have sex for the first time he suggested they put on porn FEATURING HER MOM! What are are men?!?!?! Honestly though, its something I can picture a man suggesting. It made it so real and the explanation super understandable… I also enjoyed how her loosing her virginity wasn’t a huge planned out magical spectacle. I won’t describe it here because… it was HOT.

I really really REALLY wanted to love this one. But this was just not for me. I love the idea of it, the tropes, but I just kept wanted to speed through the audio and didn’t care if I missed something. It also was very cringe at times 😭

The narrators itself I really enjoyed their voices! I’ll give them. 4/5!!

This was hot! Seriously hot! However, the plot was surprisingly good and light hearted. LIke the author notes, it is fluffy, but it also has an important theme. Being a larger girl myself, I felt seen, heard and given space, which I think is a wonderful result. I think the author wrote about this topic in an extremely sensitive way, and I appreciated that. I also really enjoyed the football aspects and the Kingsman family in general. I listened to this as an audiobook and the narrators, Stella Hunter and Christian Fox, were fantastic. Mind you Christian could read me a grocery list and it would be hot!

Big thanks to Netgalley, Dreamscape Media and Amy Award for this early release audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to @Netgalley and @Coffee Break Publishing for the ARC. Once I saw this title and the cover I could not stop laughing at the play on words. I knew this book was going to be fun to read and I was not disappointed. I enjoyed Chris' love for Trixie and it so pure it melts your heart. This is a must read, it will make you laugh, swoon and want to read more of Amy Award books.

3.5 stars

This was fun light and cheeky and the narrators just improve the overall story.
I love the fake dating trope and this one was done wonderfully!
Overall a super fun read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to listen to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I ended up really loving this one and i think that the audiobook enhanced the original story in a sense. This was one that I originally loved due to the cover but had a hard time getting into with just a physical copy. The narrators really embodied how i thought the characters wouldve sounded. There was a bit of a lag/delay between chapters but i think that is an easy fix.

The title is the reason why I started listening to this book in audio format, but the relationship between Trixie & Chris is why I stayed. Read this if you enjoy friends to lovers, plus size representation, funny banter and fake dating.

I had a great time reading this book. It had the perfect amount of spice and humor. I couldn’t help but root for Chris and Trixie. Was the story silly at times? Absolutely but honestly I like to read stories that shock me. I don’t expect fiction books to be realistic. I read books to escape my normal life and this book was a great one to lose myself in for a few hours.

Whole load of fun!
It was a really light, cheeky read with really loveable characters. Friends to lovers with the MMC obsessed with the FMC from the beginning, sign me up!
The book follows neighbours and high school besties, Chris and Trixie. Both of them adore each other but don’t know how to admit their love until they have to fake date and then the rest is history!
I LOVED the double narration, top notch!

This was super cute!!

I loved the plus size representation and really appreciated the message that you should never apologize for taking up space.

I will say while I really enjoyed it, there wasn’t much will they won’t they which I really love in fake dating. Maybe I like slower burns with fake dating? BUT I still really enjoyed and read in less than a day.

Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy!

I received this book via Netgalley for review in audiobook format for review.

Trixie is a sweet and sexy librarian who - thanks to some gross men obsessed with her former porn-star mom - is still a virgin in her late 20s. Chris is her best friend, who’s had a huge crush on her since middle school. The two start fake dating to get Trixie’s former HS bully off her back but it quickly turns to more as Trixie realizes what Chris has known all along, they’re good together. (Like, *really* good together).

The audiobook narrators did a great job. One problem with dual POV audiobooks is the producers have to decide if the narrators will read all of their own characters dialogue or have the narrator of the POV you’re in pitch their voice up or down. This company chose the latter and it was executed very well. It wasn’t comical in it’s sound, and you can tell both narrators were able to work off of each others pieces so the main characters had the same sort of cadence as if the original narrator of their voice was talking. It allowed for consistency in how you saw the characters.

The book itself was really good. The spice scenes were hot and well written. Succinct enough that you didn’t end up with weird, extra descriptions of things you didn’t need, but elaborate enough to be believable and toe-curling.

This book does not have a third act breakup. Instead, you get two people in love facing a problem together. They present a united front against their problems, which is why I’m confident that if these people were real their relationship would actually last.

I did have one thing I didn’t like about the book, and thus the reason for deducting 1 star from a book I genuinely enjoyed. In the first couple of chapters I felt a little weirded out by how Trixie was described by Chris. Yes, he’d had the hots for her forever, but it took too long getting into the book to understand that he doesn’t just have an obsession with her body. The C*ck Down The Block was an otherwise very body-positive and sex friendly romance that I would highly recommend to anyone who needs a bit of spice in their life.

This book was an absolute treat. Spicy, funny and a perfect escape. The narrators were great and brought Chris and Trixie's story to life. The main characters are so lovable. I really enjoyed the authors forward where is she explains that her book is for fluff and escapism. I truly needed this style of read. I can't wait to hear the rest of the Kingman brothers stories!