BUY THIS SERIES. PERIOD.

There was nothing I didn't love about this book. There's not a single thing I would change. I have literally listened to this on almost repeat for five days. I've listened to it 3 whole times. Michael Lesley is absolutely fantastic. I love these characters. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS BOOK! It was like bathing my brain in sunshine. 💓 How to Be a Movie Star is a happy, fun, no angst story told in Josy's single POV, and is almost impossibly sweet, with a fantastic (little wink to the fans) ending.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

6 people found this helpful

The Combination of Klune and Lesley Never Fails

TJ Klune is already my favorite author of books with LGBT+ characters. When you add the wonderful narration of Michael Lesley, it makes for an incredible experience. Of course this story will make you laugh and give you all the feels. That goes without saying with a book by TJ Klune. The story and characters alone are magical. This is how you do a consent-based romance. Michael Lesley's amazing talents bring these wonderful characters to life. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

5 people found this helpful

How to be awesome

Take TJ beautifully written story +Michale Lesley narration = hours of grins,giggles and guffaws. The combo is awesome. Well worth your time

3 people found this helpful

Q-Bert & Josaih, a match made in Abby

4.5 - 5 stars for book and narration. Josiah Erickson is another amazing character from the mind of TJ Klune. He ranks so close to Gustavo Tiberius in epicness. I am not a stoner and so some of this is not in my understanding, but it is still that zany Abby in Oregon and all the wonderful people that make this another winner in my mind. Sometimes it almost seems as if Klune uses the old Mad Libs from my childhood to create the fantastical places, situations, characters, etc that make up the stories from Abby. At times I thought I recognized Dr. Scott from Rocky Horror Picture Show and several other potential homages to past surreal characters. The actual romance is so sweet, as is the continuation of Casey and Gustavo's relationship as well. As the subtitle is called (How to Be, #2) and with such a large cast of unique characters that have not fully resolved, I am hoping that inspiration will occur for TJ and we will again be inextricable drawn to Abby again. Of course that will be a re listen to #1 and #2 again.

2 people found this helpful

Audiobook was amazing

I might actually lose sleep over the ending. Looking forward to the next installment in the series.

1 person found this helpful

a feel good story with amazing narration

Michael Lesley is my favorite narrator and he gives a wonderful performance putting his own special spin on the Abby, Oregon gang.

1 person found this helpful

Hilarious story but confusing voices distracted me

So first off let me say that How to be a Normal Person by TJ Klune might be my favorite story of all time. I loved it in audio and listen to it repeatedly. I also love and adore the story Tell Me it's Real by TJ Klune and it's another go-to fave for both reading and audio. This is why I struggled with the audio version of this story. The narrator who did Tell Me it's Real is the one for this book (Michael Lesley) and when he does the voices for the characters they sound JUST LIKE the ones from Tell Me it's Real. So when Gustavo speaks he sounds like Vince Taylor from TMIR. Serge sounds just like the waiter Santiago from TMIR, and the regular reading narration voice sounds an awful lot like Sandy from TMIR. My brain did not like that at all. I think it's a shame that the narrator for How to Be a Normal Person did not do this audiobook--it would have been quite a bit better. Michael Lesley is a good narrator but he doesn't do a great job of making the character voices distinctive enough in this reading. There were multiple times I was confused about who was speaking as the voices did not have enough distinction. For example, when Xander and Josiah had conversations the two voices were too close to be distinguished from one another. That made me stop listening to the story and start thinking to myself, "who just said that?" In my opinion that's not good narration. I also thought that the voices that were unique sounded like other characters I have heard him do in other stories and that was also distracting. So overall, loved the story. Loved getting a chance to catch up with beloved characters from other stories. Did not like the choice of narrators for this one.

2 people found this helpful

so good

I love everything Tj Klune. and Michael Lesley did a good job bringing this book and these characters to life.

I will buy anything from this author

I actually cried at how much I loved this. How to Be a Normal Person is my favorite T.J. Klune book ever. And honestly, I don’t think anything will ever beat it? It was the perfect book in my eyes. So you can imagine my excitement and dread when I saw it was getting a sequel following Josiah, Casey’s demisexual BFF. I was terrified that Josiah and Q-Bert wouldn’t live up to my love of Gus and Casey, I was scared we wouldn’t see Gus and Casey, I was scared this would ruin my view of the first book. Fear not! This is by far Klune’s sappiest and happiest book ever. And I’m here for it. Josiah is literal sunshine? Think of the most positive and upbeat character you’ve ever read about. Well Josiah has them beat. He’s a little dumb, and maybe sometimes too cheerful, but I adored him. I want him to be my best friend. Scratch that, I want him and Gus to be my best friends. Their friendship never failed to make me smile, I could read a whole book just on their banter. Q-Bert is Josy’s love interest in the story. The romance is super slow burn here. That doesn’t make it any less beautiful! Just be prepared to wait and agonize as to when they’ll get together. Q-Bert has anxiety and depression, he struggles a lot in certain aspects. He was such an endearing character! I wanted to hug him and make sure nothing bad ever happened to him ever again. I loved revisiting Abbey, Oregon. I got to see a lot of my favorite couple, Gus and Casey, and their iconic ferret. The We Three Queens are still amazing and fabulous. Oh, and we get to hear from our favorite Pacific Northwest technical support representative again. I will say one tiny little thing I could have done without. The whole plot of this book surrounds the movie Josy and Q-Bert are working on. There were quite a few scenes were we were transported into the movie, if that makes sense? We saw glimpses into the mind of the character Josy was portraying in the movie. Sometimes, to me, it went on a for a little too long. But anyway. This was a fantastic follow up to my favorite book. It was everything I wanted and more. Josy and Q-Bert made a grossly cute couple. Seeing Casey and Gus after their story ended was a blessing. This was filled with Klune’s signature humor. I could revisit these characters and this town forever. I don’t want to be that person, but… can we get another book?

little towns

Story: 9 Writing: 8 First MC: 9 Second MC: 8 Secondary characters: 7 Mystery: 2 Sexual tension: 4 Humor: 5 Hotness: 2 Product placement: 4 Ridiculousness: 3 Annoying: 2 Audio: 8 To re-read: 8