Narration by Ariela Crow
From the publisher:
An utterly delightful and sexy second-chance romance between a black cat and golden retriever with Mazey Edding’s signature sparkling voice!
Eva Kitt never expected to be the host of Sausage Talk, interviewing B-list celebrities over lukewarm hot dogs, instead of pursuing the journalism career she dreamed of. But when Eva’s impromptu public call out of her college ex goes viral, she’s thrust into the spotlight. It doesn’t help said ex is Rylie Cooper, a beloved social media personality that has built a platform on deconstructing toxic masculinity and teaching men how to be good partners.
Forced to confront Rylie on a live episode of Sausage Talk, he offers Eva a deal: allow him to take her on a series of dates to make up for his toxic behavior, then debrief them on his channel to show he’s changed. Eva refuses to play nice, but agrees to the scheme to advance her own career and continue defaming Rylie’s good name. When these manufactured dates start to feel real, Eva has to wonder if the boy that broke her heart has become the man that might heal it.
“Edding’s latest rom-com is a second-chance enemies-to-lovers romp that nails her signature style, combining razor-sharp wit with an unexpectedly earnest story.” ―Booklist
“Witty… The setup is clever and the eventual love scenes are sensuous. The author’s fans will not be disappointed.” ―Publishers Weekly
“Readers who enjoy remarkably strong women leads and crave emotionally redemptive story arcs will adore this radiantly hot enemies-to-lovers romance from Eddings.” ―Library Journal
The female lead, Eva, hosts a quirky podcast where she eats hot dogs with guests—apparently a riff on the YouTube channel Chicken Shop Date. She works for a media company that dangles the promise of a real journalism job to keep her compliant. Eva’s personality is a tough sell: she’s petty, mean, and whiny, which makes her hard to root for.
Rylie, the male lead, undergoes an unconvincing transformation from villain to hero. He and Eva had a disastrous one-night stand in college, after which he ghosted her—hardly an uncommon college experience, yet the story treats it like a major betrayal. Rylie has reinvented himself with a successful podcast about dismantling toxic masculinity, which infuriates Eva. Fueled by jealousy, she goes live to publicly recount their college hookup, criticizing his bedroom skills and questioning his right to call himself a “good guy.”
That live stream goes viral, and Eva’s boss wants to capitalize on it. They convince Eva and Rylie to do a podcast together and hash out their issues. He uses that to basically force Eva into dating him, and we learn that he really feels bad for the way he acted in college and still harbors feelings for Eva.
Despite being marketed as a romantic comedy, this book delivered neither romance nor comedy. Their chemistry doesn’t spark until they sleep together again, and suddenly everything clicks. What was meant to be witty banter often felt like Eva being cruel and whiny, while Rylie inexplicably adored her for it. I just couldn’t grasp their dynamic. And while I’m heaping on, let me add that Rylie constantly calls Eva “kitten,” which I found annoying at best.
I chose to read this book because it was selected for the August LibraryReads list, written by a Hall of Fame author I hadn’t tried before, so I was genuinely excited to dive in. This was one of the rare LibraryReads picks that didn’t work for me.
I kept pausing to read other books—actually finishing two entirely different audiobooks before returning to this one. I struggled to reach 75%, then gave up. I tried again and stopped at 89%, then finally forced myself through the last 11% out of stubbornness. It didn’t improve.
The narrator, Crow, did a solid job with the material, so I don’t fault the performance. If you’ve read this and loved it, I’d be curious to hear your take. It’s sitting just below four stars on Goodreads, and I did browse some of the positive reviews, but none of them changed my mind.
9/2025 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
WELL, ACTUALLY by Mazey Eddings. Narrator: Ariela Crow. Macmillan Audio. August 5, 2025. Listening Length: 11 hours and 33 minutes.
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