Love Her or Lose Her by Tessa Bailey was one of my most anticipated Romance releases of 2020. Married Couple Romance is becoming a bit of a trend and I’m all for it!
However, in the end, this was only a 3-star Listen for me…
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Love Her or Lose Her**
Hot and Hammered Book 2
written by Tessa Bailey
narrated by Charlotte North
The Story
I really loved the set-up! Rosie’s and Dominic’s struggle with their marriage is so realistic and something I really felt.
Dominic believed he did everything right in their relationship, working hard to provide for Rosie. However, Rosie felt lonely and unloved because of the lack of communication and time spent together.
Throw a hippie therapist into the mix and you get a warm and beautiful love story about a couple who were stuck in very traditional roles but worked their way out of it through determination and love.
There are no if’s and but’s. I loved the main storyline of Love Her or Lose Her!
Dominic and Rosie are both interesting, complex characters with strength and weaknesses. And I wholeheartedly rooted for them!
But…
So, why did this book not leave me happier considering how wonderful the love story was? You can call me petty for being this put off by it, but I hated the set-up for the next book in the series WITH THE BURNING PASSION OF 1000 SUNS!
In this book, Wes and Beth meet and instantly hate each other. WHY??? Their scenes were so utterly ridiculous and on-the-nose, that I couldn’t enjoy the book anymore. I cringed too hard.
I love enemies to lovers like the next Romance reader, but one thing that sets apart stories I enjoy and those I don’t enjoy is whether being enemies makes any sense. And it just didn’t. He said something stupid most people would just ignore, she came at him in a pretty embarrassing way. And bam, enemies!
They were both so embarrassing!
And so unlikable!
I just wasn’t feeling it. At all. Way too overdramatic. And plain weird.
If I had read the ebook and could have just cut out those scenes beforehand, I would have enjoyed Love Her or Lose Her so much more. I honestly wish Tessa Bailey would have handled that differently.
Related article: These are my favorite Enemies to Lovers Romance audiobooks!
The Narration
The narration by Charlotte North was perfect! She has such a great range of voices and accents. And I enjoy listening to her very much.
Hearing her give back Dominic’s feelings when he feared to have lost Rosie really crushed me (which is a good thing).
Recommendation
Overall, I definitely recommend Love Her or Lose Her by Tessa Bailey to fellow Married Couple Romance fans. I loved hearing about the path this couple took to get closer to their Happily Ever After!
Maybe you’re less sensitive in regard to the exposition for Hot & Hammered book 3, or – with this warning – you can just ignore or fast-forward those scenes.
Because other than that, this audiobook is really worth a listen!
Get it on Libro.fm** (and support an indie bookshop of your choice)
Reviews /