bigcootie 's review for:

Pain in the Axe by Daphne Elliot

5.0

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Chloe LeBlanc is not a very happy woman.  Driven, intense, resentful, grouchy, always feeling the need to prove herself, always feeling she won’t be enough.  The only thing that might make her happy, if only for a little while, is exacting revenge upon her ex-husband Gus Hebert.  Ruining his life like he did hers twenty years ago, when they were young, newly married – and then divorced.  Buying his family’s lumber company, becoming his boss, making him miserable is too good to pass up.

 

Both Gus and Chloe grew up in the lumber business in nearby towns, Lovewell and Hartsboro.  Both with fathers that turned out to be not very good guys.  Gus thought he would follow in his father’s footsteps and finally make his father proud of him.  Surprise - that didn’t work out and his criminal father is now in prison.  And all Gus’s hard work can’t save the family business.  Chloe’s father and grandfather were clear that women didn’t belong in the lumber business and there was no place for her; off to college she had to go.  Chloe proved them wrong, becoming very successful in the business, but she wants more.  And what she wants right now is to take Gus’s company away from him and make him stick around for a year to rub it in.

 

Funny, though, how things don’t always work out like we think they will.  How maybe that revenge doesn’t taste as sweet as we thought it would.  Gus is happy to help, makes it clear he wants to be around her – and why, oh why, does he have to be even more irresistibly handsome and hot than when they were 20?  She hates him, right?  She has to hate him.  Neither has remarried or even been in serious relationships.  Chloe’s  memory is that Gus chose his father and the business over her.  The way Gus remembers it, Chloe left and he was presented with divorce papers.  Author Daphne Elliot skillfully, frustratingly keeps up the suspense about what really happened between them until near the end of the book.  Just when we think they are finally going to compare memories, author Elliot moves Gus and Chloe to a new scene and we still don’t know the rest of the story.  It’s wonderful torture for the reader.

 

Chloe’s father effectively withdrew from fatherhood when her mother died.  They were never close and their relationship is strained now.  Gus never felt he was enough for his father and was blindsided when he learned of his father’s illegal activities.  And the divorce has left both of them stirred up or closed off or angry – and never talking about what happened.

 

As we knew they would, things heat up rapidly as Chloe and Gus spend more and more time together.  He’s a big, handsome, grumpy lumberjack but he’s thoughtful and sweet and sincere in his desire to prove himself worthy of her.  She can’t believe she still feels that pull, that attraction, but it’s there all right. And then, what else is going to be there is a baby!

 

Pain in the Axe is fast-paced, well-plotted, hot, sexy, funny.  You want to see these two back together the first time they see each other again.  They are surrounded by interesting, complex friends, family and coworkers, irritating law enforcement members and unknown entities out to do harm – whether to the lumber company or to Chloe or Gus directly.  The forest is beautiful, Lovewell is a great place to live – if they can just resolve the ‘Chloe vs. Gus’ problem to a ‘Chloe & Gus’ solution.

 

The icing on the cake is the two experienced, talented narrators who are perfect for the characters they voice.  Chloe is whiny, sharp, sarcastic, nervous, afraid, uncertain and yearning.  Her volume goes up and down. Always having second thoughts, dragging her feet, afraid to let go, dramatic, outspoken.  Chloe is a mess and that comes across very clearly in C. J. Bloom’s excellent-as-always performance.  Gus is in fact often grumpy; he doesn’t like to “people” very much, but he’s devoted to his family and Aaron Shedlock’s performance of Gus is a tantalizing g mix of slow, sexy, intense, protective, possessive, matter of fact, patient – and a man very much in love with this woman.

 

What an amazing, entertaining, satisfying audiobook Pain in the Axe was.  This is the first book in the series I’ve listened to; the first book I’ve experienced by author Elliot.  It will not be the last.  I am definitely going back to read and listen to the first book in the series, and I cannot wait to listen to the next and the next and the next.  I received an advance listening copy of Pain in the Axe from Home Cooked Books.  I loved it and recommend it without hesitation.  I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own.