Gunner

I’ll admit: I rolled my eyes at the ‘one-night-stand-with-consequences’ setup. But *Gunner* disarmed me within chapters. Sharp’s writing is lean and mean—no purple prose, just razor-sharp dialogue and a plot that moves like a tactical strike. The audiobook’s dual narration is a masterclass in contrast: Summer Morton’s Della starts as all sugary bravado (that ski-lodge flirting is *delicious*), but she peels back the layers to reveal a woman who’s never been allowed to scream, much less fight. Lee Samuels, though? He *is* Gunner. That voice—smoky, weary, with a current of violence just beneath—makes you believe this is a man who’s seen too much but still chooses to stand in the line of fire. Their back-and-forth in the early chapters had me grinning; their arguments later left me gripping my headphones. Here’s the but: the middle act sags slightly under the weight of its own suspense. Sharp juggles a kidnapping plot, a corrupt security detail, *and* Gunner’s internal demons, and at times, the pacing feels like a sprint with too many hurdles. I also wished the villain had more depth—his motives are serviceable but forgettable next to the leads’ electric tension. Still, the production saves even the weaker moments. The sound mixing is impeccable (listen for the way Gunner’s flashbacks echo, as if heard through a tunnel), and the narrators sell every beat. By the final act, I was fully invested—not just in the romance, but in whether these two broken people could build something unbroken together. If you like your love stories with teeth and your heroes with scars, this one’s worth the credit.