The Club

Man Whore meets Law Student

While I believe Lauren Rowe has the potential to be a great writer, I found the "rich man whore meets younger naïve woman who teaches him how to love" plot has been done to death. The book starts when Jonas (age unknown) spends $250,000 to join an international sex club that would match him up with women who only want anonymous sex, no strings attached. What a guy!

Sarah (24), a smart & funny law student, works part-time for the Club screening male applications. When Sarah sends Jonas a smart ass e-mail pointing out what a jerk he is, they begin sparing electronically. Soon, Jonas uses all his assets to learn Sarah's identity and begins pursuing her. Jonas wasn't a bad person - blessedly not into sexual violence - but he was too arrogant about his sexual prowess.

The dual narration did not match the main characters as written. The person doing Sarah's voice was particularly grating - she sounded like a teenage drama queen, not an intelligent law student. Her "overacting" was extremely distracting. The male voice wasn't as bad but still not good.

22 of 23 people found this review helpful

NO....NO....NOPE....JUST YEAH NO!

I feel like I should go into a rant about all the wrong things with this book but that will take forever. Let me point this small part out:

Chapter 15 (approximately 14 mins 20sec until the end of the chapter)- This part is narrated by Lauren

"When he sees my eyes go heavy with desire, he smiles at me."
"I think I missed the word desire"
"When he sees my eyes go heavy with desire, he smiles at me..."

At first I thought I missed something, so i jumped back 30 seconds and sure enough Lauren's commentary is loud and clear! Someone definitely didn't do their job well on this particular day......

Next, let me point out the narration was just so lacking. I saw all the high reviews of John Lane's performance but nope I completely disagree. To me his narration of Jonas made him come across as such a tool I could not stand him. As far as Lauren Rowe's performance, I would really REALLY suggest she does not narrate. Yes, she can narrate a book but i would recommend she try some other genre, this is not it.

Finally, the book itself. The concept behind this book was exciting. I expected more though. More of everything from the chase to the dialogue to hot & sexy times but sadly this book just did not deliver the promise. I am no prude mind you. I enjoy well written romance including the erotica sub-genre but maybe this was really something meant for the '10%'. Where was romance? From the beginning, the book hits on sex, focuses on sex and tries to force lust turn into love? Of course now that I know Jonas is supposed to be this god of sex and fails, YES FAILS, to do his job on so many tries that to me he just comes across as a one-minute-kinda-guy. There is nothing hot about this kind of guy.

I think I will stop here. This is a listen with so many holes and so many issues that I really would not recommend. Save that credit for a better book.

37 of 40 people found this review helpful

No thanks

Won't be reading any more of this story. Too many repeated lines. Didn't like it at all.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Decent story but it has a cliffhanger

Would you try another book from Lauren Rowe and/or Lauren Rowe and John Lane ?

not sure

Would you be willing to try another book from Lauren Rowe? Why or why not?

not unless it's confirmed that the book doesn't have a cliffhanger ending

Would you be willing to try another one of Lauren Rowe and John Lane ’s performances?

Lauren, no i don't like YA books and thats what her voice is better suited for
John yes he did a great job with what he was working with.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

the story reintroduced me to two songs i forgot about but liked.

Any additional comments?

First off i would have given this book a 3 or 4 star rating but NOOOOOOOOOO the author wanted to jump on the serial bandwagon and drag this mess out and give this book a cliffhanger. FORGET THAT MESS!! I will NOT go on to the next books out of spite. The story was good, the premise was great. I can even over look the 24yr old girl and whatever year old guy who slips into 12yr old crushing girl mode more times than i can count. But that cliffhanger ending was a deal breaker for me.

PUT UP A DAMN DISCLAIMER AUTHORS!!!!

story 3.5 honestly but I refuse to rate it that high due to my issues stated above
narrators - 1.5 for the girl 3 for the guy.

Dear Ms Rowe, there is a reason why it's ill advised for authors to narrate their own books. No offence meant, but you made your character sound like a high school girl instead of a woman. Your voice is more suited for younger characters in a YA book filled with teens, not a sexually active adult woman who's exploring sexuality with a very sexualy active man. Your words on their own are not bad but your words paired with your voice make it a bit difficult to get through (sorry). My advice is to keep writing, do not narrate your own books except if you write a YA, and do not drag a story out and leave cliffhanger endings. Most readers do not like that and think of it as a cheap ploy to keep us reading. If your story is good, your characters loveable, and the writing is good we will keep coming back i promise. But as for me, if you do go on to write other books outside of "The CLub Series" then I will not be buying until someone can confirm it's a solid book with an ending.

BUT, to add something positive in this review, you made me fall in love with two songs I've long forgotten, so thank you for that.

ps - no 24yr old says holy moly that much if at all (I'm putting my money on not at ally by the way). Things like that had me feeling like this was just Twilight fanfic and I didn't get the memo yet.

18 of 20 people found this review helpful

leave the narrating to the professionals!

I listen to 8-10 audiobooks every week while I work. I have never before encountered a narrator who Made me squeamish to the point that I did not think I could continue listening. Her author/ female narrators voice was pleasant enough, but every time she pauses you could hear the liquids in her mouth. It thoroughly discusted me. The male narrator never did it. Either the author should leave the narrating to the professionals, or edit out her swallowing swishing yucky mouth noises. Ruined the book for me.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Female Narrator - OMG - HORRID!!!

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Never allow a author to narrator their own story. She completely ruins this book! She makes a 24 year old Sarah sound like a young teenager. Listening to her is one of the most awful experiences I have ever had from an audible book. If I had to listen to "holy moly" "sweet baby jesus" one more time I really thought I might throw up!

Would you be willing to try another book from Lauren Rowe? Why or why not?

I was sucked into the trilogy to finish out the story - but I was ready to die after having to listen to Lauren as a narrator. It took everything out of me to actually listen to any of her parts.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Interesting story. Terrible female reader.

Would you try another book from Lauren Rowe and/or Lauren Rowe and John Lane ?

Not if Lauren Rowe reads. Having written the book one would assume she would recall the female lead was supposed to have gravelly voice and be top of the class law student. She played the character as a bubbleheaded ditz. I could not finish listening to the book.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Fairly interesting plot killed by over zealous female reader.

How could the performance have been better?

Get another female reader.

Was The Club worth the listening time?

No. It was frustrating listening to the female reader butcher what could have been an interesting character.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

This book was HOT!!!

What a fantastic book! This book was so good, I read it straight thru in 1 day! This is my first read by the Author Lauren Rowe and it won't be my last. While it is an Erotic Romance, it is also a suspenseful love story. At one point It even brought tears to my eyes.

Sarah a young woman age 24 is going to law school by day and works for a match making service by night. One night a application came in from an arrogant studly man who sounded so good, Sarah swore he must be lying. It is Sarah's job to screen the applicants and check up on them to verify what they say is true. Sarah is shocked to learn that everything her new applicant Jonas has said is true. Sarah want Jonas for herself. You have to read the story to know what all happens through out this book. It is exciting, romantic, dangerous and hot, yet twisted at the same time!

The author Lauren Rowe did a fantastic job writing this book. The excerpt caught my interest and the story itself held my interest. The plot was excellent and for an added treat, Lauren also narrated this book along with narrator John Lane. I love John's deep voice, the one he used for Jonas. Both Lauren and John did a great job delivering this story to us with so much energy , excitement and desire too! This is one book everyone should read in audio format! Lauren is a natural at narrating! Indeed, this is a great book! Kudos to both narrators! I look forward to the next book and PLEASE make it in audio format too!

15 of 19 people found this review helpful

really really awful

The book lacks any real character development plot or motivation. This is one of the worst books I read in the past 5 years; I couldn't finish it.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

WFT! Is This The Same Book

First I bought this book because of the good reviews. But I have to say I do not agree. The couple don't even meet until 40% into this book. And up until when they do meet there is about six lines of actual dialogue between anyone. This author repeats herself SO much; I've never listened to an author who takes it that far. BORING! The same repetitive sex scenes over and over again. A good sex scene should take pages and should be different and exciting. I started skimming a third of the way through the book and I never stopped.

Another thing that got redundant very fast was the amount of internal dialogue that takes place in this book. I started to get worried when there were 45 minutes of internal dialogue at the begining of the book. There wasn't enough character interaction outside of the dynamic duo. Even when Sarah and Jonas were interacting with one another, it wasn't long before the inner chatter would strike again for pages to come.
Another thing that got old very quickly was the use of the words “lick” and “oh my”. I could hardly finish the book and then a cliff hanger end just finish me off. I am not going back for anymore of this torture.

Lauren Rowe , John Lane were OK with the delivery of a very bad story.

26 of 35 people found this review helpful