Charmed by the Bartender

This is fabulously delightful romantic comedy has everything you would want and need in a book, fantastic characters and a perfect balance of drama, angst, humor, heartfelt emotions, and smoking hot romance. I do not know how this is my first book written by Piper Rayne, I can only say it will not be my last. She is a gifted author with a wonderful writing style and her way with words that are smart and absolutely hilarious. The story drew me in right from the start, grabbing my attention and captivating it the entire book. The characters are realistic, easy to relate to and connect with, they are likable and easy to care about too. Whitney lost her job and had to move back to her grandparents’ house, her childhood home, not an ideal situation, but it is just until she finds a job. She stops in a bar and decides she is going to find a hook up on Tinder, but she even fails in that because she gets stood up. The bartender is super hot and super interested and the two hit it off, enjoy some cocktails, fun chatting and she winds up going home with him, but the problem is she does not remember doing that or anything that happened since the bar. She knows his name is Cole, and he had to run out in the morning, leaving her to do her own walk of shame. He asked her to leave her number, but she just left thinking she would never see him again. How wrong she was, it turns out Cole, the bartender, is far more than that, he is not only her best friend’s soon to be brother-in-law and the guy who stood her up all those years ago when they were set up on a blind date. How does she tell her best friend who her one-night stand was, especially since she is the maid of honor and he the best man and they are asked to help check out places for them for their wedding. Whitney has an impression of Cole stuck in her head, but it turns out he is far different than the person who stood her up those years ago. These two were great together and for each other, they fit and were perfect in every way. I loved how everything played out in this book, it is a cleverly plotted story and there is never a dull moment. Besides the amazing lead characters, there are great secondary and support characters, especially Whit’s friend Tahlia and Lennon, who are fabulous and I am looking forward to their stories as well. There is some great puppy love too. Piper Rayne, thank you for this wonderfully entertaining and enjoyable story, the laughs and the emotional rollercoaster ride.

🎧 📚🎧 And for the amazing narration, Piper Rayne could not have cast a better narrator to bring her characters and story to life. Joe Arden and Stephanie Rose are mega talented narrator and versatile voice artists. They had a complete understanding of the characters they portrayed, gave each a voice that was a perfect fit for that character’s persona, sounding believable in every role and just as I pictured the characters to sound. Stephanie Rose nailed it as Whitney, she captured her every emotion and had you feeling them, Joe Arden, did the same for Cole, the swoon-worthy smooth talker with a huge heart. Both were great at performing the roles of the secondary character as well. These entertaining storytellers are a pleasure to listen to and their narration enhances an already fabulous story to another level. Thank you for another wonderful listen.

Charmed by the Bartender is a quick fun listen. You also get drama, angst & sexy scenes. This will give you all the feels. I absolutely loved their banter, it seemed to make them bond all the more. This is an enemies to lovers story. I really enjoyed Cole and Whit, while Whit was a bit over dramatic at times, the overall story was fun. I loved Cole.
As for the narration I absolutely enjoyed the story much more due to Joe Arden an Stephanie Rose bringing life to these characters. Joe Arden was the perfect Cole and Stephanie Rose was a great Whit.

Story: 3.5 ⭐️
Steam: 4 🔥 med smut
Audio: 4.5 ⭐️

This is a super cute and quick romance! I love an enemies to lovers, forced proximity romance! I did feel like the enemies portion of the story didn’t last long enough but the smut definitely made up for it! I enjoyed the main characters and loved our heroines friends.

This was my first read from Piper Rayne and although I did enjoy the story as a whole there were parts where I just didn’t enjoy the writing. I think that it was obvious there was 2 authors on this and I think one of them just isn’t for me. The writing style felt a bit repetitive and cringey at times.

The duel narration on the audio was fantastic. I wish all audiobooks were narrated like this! Joe was perfect as always, Stephanie is a good narrator but sometimes I don’t love her her performance. I think that’s just personal preference though.