Clashing Hearts by Nicky James

Narrated by Nick J. Russo

Like many long-time/frequent/avid audiobook listeners, I tend to be a narrator-driven purchaser. On the whole, that’s proved to be a good thing for me, as I’ve discovered lots of new authors and books through glomming narrators like Greg Tremblay, Iggy Toma, Kale Williams and Nick J. Russo, all of whom have pointed me towards books I might otherwise have missed or not taken a chance on. I hadn’t come across Nicky James until I saw books from her latest series – Hometown Jasper – in an Audible list of new releases several months back; I liked the city-slicker-meets-country-boy premise of book one, and with Nick J. Russo as the narrator, I decided to give it a try.

Clashing Hearts is an opposites-attract, enemies-to-lovers affair in which the two leads really are enemies (for a good reason) and not just a little bit antipathetic towards each other – and I enjoyed listening to city-dweller Lachlan gradually falling under the spell of both his Canadian cowboy and the great outdoors.

Lachlan Montgomery is, not to put too fine a point on it, an arsehole. He’s well-off, good-looking and likes the finer things in life – designer clothes, haute-cuisine – has never had a relationship and doesn’t want one. He works for his father’s property development firm and is his second-in-command, even though Montgomery senior treats him like crap, constantly belittles him and piles the pressure on all the time. All that does, though, is make Lachlan even more determined to gain his father’s approval, which he thinks he’ll do by being as arrogant and cut-throat as his old man. Montgomery’s latest project is to purchase 300 acres of land just outside Jasper in the Canadian Rockies, with a view to building a new ski resort designed to appeal to a “higher class” of clientele, comprising a lodge and million-dollar condominiums. The fly in the ointment is the existence of the Campbell Stables and Riding School slap-bang in the middle of the land he wants to buy – but Montgomery has the perfect solution. He’s learned the stables isn’t doing so well financially, and tells Lachlan to go to meet with the owner and make an offer he won’t be able to refuse.

Lachlan is a total snob and thinks small-town Jasper and its residents are beneath him. He opts to stay at the Lodge, the town’s most luxurious hotel, and is not impressed; still he’s only there for the weekend. When, at dinner the first night, he notices a seriously hot guy sitting with a large party in the restaurant, Lachlan thinks that maybe his weekend is looking up.

Easton Campbell is about as different from Lachlan as can be. When the book begins, he’s getting ready to attend the rehearsal dinner for his sister’s upcoming wedding – and is miffed at having to “dress up” rather that wear what he always wears, jeans, cowboy boots, checked shirt –and his trusty hat. Once at dinner in the Lodge’s restaurant, he can’t help noticing the attractive man checking him out from across the room; after the dinner finishes and Easton and a few friends go to the bar, the guy comes over and introduces himself. Easton enjoys the flirtation and the attention –and the blistering kiss they share is really something – but he’s never been into one night stands, and even though he’s sorely tempted to accept Lachlan’s invitation to his room, he turns him down.

Lachlan has never been so stunned by a kiss – or a rejection – but he’s in Jasper to do a job and should focus on that. He heads to the stables the following day in order to meet with Erwin Campbell, but doesn’t get that far. He’s surprised when the first person he meets there is Easton – they hadn’t exchanged last names the previous night – who, getting wind of why Lachlan is there, angrily tells him that he owns the land, not his father, that he has no intention whatsoever of selling it and that Lachlan should get the hell off his property.

Well. Damn.

The romance between these two very different men is a slow-burn, which completely fits the tone of the story, and if you’ve read the city/country trope before, then there are no real surprises as to the way this one is going to turn out. Attraction and chemistry are there from the beginning, but Easton and Lachlan have a lot to work through if they’re going to find a way to be together for the long run. Easton is the easier of the two to like; he’s warm and kind and knows who he is and what he wants, while Lachlan is, as I’ve said, an arrogant git who needs to get over himself. Easton has his faults however, mostly that he’s incredibly stubborn, to the point of being stubborn for stubborn’s sake; although his position of wanting to preserve his family’s business, land and way of life is understandable, at the same time, he has no idea what he’s going to do in order to stop the stables from going under.

Watching Lachlan interact with his father makes it easy to understand why he’s the way he is, although Montgomery Snr. is something of a caricature; all we see him do is yell at Lachlan and his younger brother (who is far less in awe of him than Lachlan is), and it’s a bit difficult to believe that a successful businessman of thirty-eight would keep taking all the crap thrown at him.

There are a few plotlines that are introduced and dropped or not fully developed. Easton’s medical issues (he has epilepsy as the result of a head injury some years before) and the storyline about vandalism – one of Easton’s barns is painted with homophobic graffiti – come and go, and then there’s Percy, an eight-year-old boy who is severely neglected by his dead-beat, drunk dad and who Easton does his best to look out for. That’s the strongest of the secondary plotlines, although I’m not sure how accurate the fostering procedure was. The biggest issue I had though, was with the speed of Lachlan’s transformation from business-oriented city-based snob to a man who actually cares about other people. It’s well written and I liked the way it’s done, especially when he takes care of Easton at a really bad time, and I bought that by the end of the story, he was ready to make changes and live his life differently – it just seemed to happen rather quickly.

Nick J. Russo delivers a really good performance in which he expertly captures not only the essence of both characters but also all the emotional content of the story. I was particularly impressed with the way he portrays Lachlan’s transformation; at the beginning he’s all self-satisfied smarm and snobbishness, someone who clearly doesn’t like it when he doesn’t get what he wants, and all that egotism is conveyed in the sneer in his voice and the slightly harsh edge to Lachlan’s dialogue. As he starts to fall in love with Easton and to see the stables and surrounding land through his eyes, Lachlan’s tone acquires more colour and those harsh edges are softened. Easton’s warmth and charm come through immediately, but given the story is set in Canada I had to wonder at the use of what sounded to me like a Southern US accent. Mr. Russo does an extremely good one, and maybe it was an easy way of signalling “country boy” – I’ve never met anyone from Alberta so I don’t know what the local accent is like. It didn’t bother me too much, but I did wonder.

All the secondary characters –many of whom will feature in future books in the series – are clearly characterised and differentiated, and I especially liked Mr. Russo’s portrayal of Percy, who sounds cute and convincingly childlike.

Clashing Hearts is nothing I haven’t heard before, but I enjoyed it thanks to the excellent writing and performance, and would recommend it despite my reservations. I’ve already picked up the next in the series and plan to try more of the author’s work.

Caz

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