REVIEW: Audiobook “Shawn’s Law” by Renae Kaye
ABOUT:
Shawn is single, 29, the full-time carer of his Alzheimer’s-stricken mother, and a frequent victim of Murphy’s Law – although his family calls it Shawn’s Law. Other than caring for mom, his day consists of painting nude men and spying on the guy who walks his dogs along the street every day at four o’clock. When Shawn takes a spectacular fall on his front steps, who is there to witness it other than the man of his dreams?
Harley doesn’t believe in Shawn’s Law – but he soon changes his mind.
The two men make it through a memorable first date and Shawn’s sexual insecurities to begin a relationship stumbling toward love. But when Shawn’s Law causes Harley to be injured, Shawn is determined to save Harley’s life the only way he knows how – by breaking up with him. Not once, but twice. Throw in a serial killer ex-boyfriend, several deadly Australian animals, two dogs called Bennie, a mother who forgets to wear clothes, an unforgiving Town Council, and a strawberry-flavored condom dolly, and Shawn’s Law is one for the books.
BOOK INFO:
Title: Shawn’s Law
Author: Renae Kaye
Publisher Dreamspinner Press
Length: 6 hours and 19 minutes
Release Date: 07 – 07 – 2015
Purchase Links: Audible
REVIEW:
So far I’ve enjoyed three or four books by Renae Kaye and I’ve really enjoyed them. I love the humor she inserts into her stories, which never fail to make me smile or roll on the floor in laughter.
Shawn’s Law is not short on any of those things. I even thing that, maybe, this one had a bit too much humor for my taste.
Shawn is this curvy dude who has the worst of luck. Really, the worst. Every single calamity that you can imagine, yes, chances are that Shawn has gone through that, and more. For this series of unfortunate events (which, really, some of them will make you laugh a lot) he has a name: Shawn’s Law. I mostly liked him, except that by the end of the book I wasn’t sure if I was a bit tired of his bad luck, or a bit tired of some of the things he did/thought. One of the things I liked the most about Shawn was that he’s a great son. You see, his mother has Alzheimer’s, and the guy is there for her pretty much any time she needs. Yes, there were moment where desperation hit the place, but he managed to calm down and stand strong most of the time.
Our jinxed hero has this huge crush on his neighbour Harley. Everyday, at the same time, Harley walks his dogs, and Shawn does everything he can to see Hippy Hotpants walk by.
One lucky afternoon Hippy Hotpants invites Shawn on a date in which, of course, something goes wrong. Then they have a second date, and of course, something goes wrong too.
I liked Harley a lot. I think that I liked him even more than Shawn. He was loyal, and sweet, and he was very patient. He laughed at all Shawn’s Law tragedies, but funnily it never stuck me as him making fun of his lover. But then, maybe this is because I appreciate when my partner and friends take my own bad luck moments with certain humor. I suppose that being on an endless strike of bad luck, like Shawn’s sure is a bit more tiring.
All in all I enjoyed this. There were a couple of things that I wish had been worked in a different way. One of them was the Alzheimer’s. A joke or two were okay, but it came a point where it was too much and it stopped being funny… In the end Alzheimer’s, like many others, is not an easy disease, and it came a point that, in my opinion, the illness was a bit caricaturized. Again, this is my personal opinion, and how I perceived it. Another thing that was all the miscomunication issues. God, they needed to talk. A lot. The fact that everyone in the Hospital knew everything also bothered me a bit, even if I got the humor in it, I personally thought that it was a bit too much.
About the Narration of the story: I didn’t love the narrator’s voice, Casey Hunter, but I did like it. I think that in the beginning it sounded a bit monotone, but it picked up as the audio went by. My only real niggle about this was that the voices of both MC’s were fairly similar, so it was sometimes hard to pick up who was saying what. There is the advantage, though, that the characters are well written, so there was usually a word, a phrase, or something, that would tell you who was speaking in that moment.
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