Narrated by CJ Bloom
I admit when I first started listening to Just the Thing I didn’t have a good feeling. But, what a pleasant surprise it turned out to be! Just a warning: the hero is kind of a dick right at the beginning and in the current post-Weinstein climate I have far less tolerance for that kind of behaviour. It’s very likely I’m over-sensitive to it at this point. I’m sure Gavin Donnigan was supposed to be perceived as charming. In fact, the text says as much. And certainly our heroine, Zoe York, finds him so. But my initial reaction to him was not positive.
Gavin is a 32-year-old Marine veteran suffering from PTSD following a significant injury which kept him out of action and which meant he wasn’t with his team when they got blown up by a landmine. The guys who died were not only fellow Marines, they were close friends he grew up with. Over the course of their various military careers, they didn’t always work directly together and they had been happy to finally be teamed up again. Then it all went wrong.
Gavin got a medical discharge and when the book begins, he is working as a personal trainer at Jameson’s Gym while he decides what to do with the rest of his life. He is used to exercise and finds it excellent stress relief. When he first returned home, he found alcohol and willing women excellent stress relief too but his family staged an intervention and he’s quit drinking. He’s apparently also trying to be a little more discriminating when it comes to hook-ups but when we first meet him in Just the Thing, he’s only a month out from the most recent one so I didn’t really buy that.
Gavin has been chasing Zoe since he first laid eyes on her at the gym some months ago. What the text said was charming felt more like sexual harassment and a lack of interest in Zoe’s consent rather than something I’d be amused or delighted by. He came across as sleazy to me and I wasn’t exactly sure why Zoe didn’t complain to the management or something, rather than brushing it off as harmless and fun. However, to my great relief, once Zoe agrees to go out on a date with him, he does calm down and the behaviour I found objectionable stops.
Gavin does like to get a rise out of people and some of his humour is deliberately designed to make people think he’s terrible. I mostly gave him a pass for that as he didn’t actually believe those things and his behaviour (at least after the first couple of chapters) was that of a good guy.
Zoe started going to the gym for similar reasons to Gavin actually. Her twin sister died in a car accident some months earlier and she’s learning to cope with her grief. That connection brings Gavin and Zoe closer together, as they both understand what it’s like to lose someone very close to you and struggle with how to go on.
Gavin is in therapy and working hard to get his life together. He openly acknowledges he’s not in the best working order but asks Zoe to take a chance on him anyway.
Ultimately, the story was very much about Gavin’s struggle with PTSD and feeling worthy of happiness given he’s the only one of the four friends who came home. Does he deserve someone as wonderful as Zoe?
Once Gavin and Zoe start to spend time together, I enjoyed their chemistry and connection. They talk to each other, enjoy each other’s company and, of course, have great sex. There is a (very mild) BDSM vibe going on at times, with Gavin calling Zoe “mistress” and inviting her to tie him up and have her wicked way with him. For those who don’t like a lot of kink in their books, don’t worry. It’s all in fun and extremely mild. There’s not a safeword in sight.
Possibly what won me over the most with Gavin was how he celebrated Zoe’s take-no-bullshit personality – he loves that about her right from the start. He is also turned on by her brain and her competence at work. He’s not at all intimidated by her success or skill – the opposite actually. Him demonstrating that admiration went a long way to making up for a rocky start.
The other big win in the book was the “Prank Wars” which the entire Donnigan family engage in throughout the story. The four Donnigan siblings and their parents take turns in pulling pranks, each trying to one-up the other. The family are very close and loving but also clear-eyed as to each other’s faults. Their banter had an authentic feel to it. I also enjoyed the open way they welcomed Zoe into the fold.
The narration, by CJ Bloom, was very good. Her pacing and emotional delivery, particularly in the more angsty and PTSD-related sections, were spot on. I don’t think the narration had anything to do with my initial dislike of Gavin – in fact, I’m sure it helped me get over it and come to enjoy his character.
While the story does cover some heavy subjects and I even shed a tear or two as I listened, it is mostly light and sexy fun, with plenty of humour. Zoe in particular puts Gavin in his place often and Ms. Bloom’s delivery only added to my enjoyment. I laughed more than a few times during the listen, appreciating Ms. Bloom’s comedic timing. I love it when a narrator injects laughter into her (or his, as the case may be) voice when a character is said to be amused and I got that pleasure in Just the Thing.
The cast is fairly large so Ms. Bloom had the opportunity to try out a wide range of character voices and all were consistent and easily identifiable, albeit that the Donnigan brothers did sound quite similar.
Just the Thing may have had a slightly rocky start for me, but it ended up being… pardon the pun… just the thing I wanted to listen to (boomtish).
Kaetrin
Buy Just the Thing by Marie Harte on Amazon
