Gigi, Listening by Chantel Guertin was a British romance I didn't know I needed. This story took me on a tour of England filled with history and romance. This book was a light, feel-good romance and was a quick read. I loved the various popular bookish influences. When you combine romance with a travel experience and books, I'm hooked! Looking forward to more from this author!

This book was so weird. I liked the blurb, but the more I thought about what Gigi did (and her friends encouraged), the more weird I felt about it.

Gigi’s friends know she’s obsessed with an audiobook narrator and she believes they are soulmates without knowing him at all. Her friends buy her a trip to England on his tour so she can meet him. She is convinced they will fall in love. She gets to the tour and Zane is not running it, because of a family emergency. She considers leaving!? And then ultimately stays with the replacements Angus and Taj.

It was very obvious that Taj was her love interest and they’d get together in the end. Zane was boring and they didn’t have hardly anything in common. Her obsession with him was kind of creepy and off putting. I liked the side characters best in this one. And loved that it was set in Michigan, in one of my favorite cities.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good travel story, and this novel was no exception! Gigi, Listening is not only a lovely reading experience, but also a travel experience! This story will take you on a tour of England and is filled with quirky facts and bits of history!

This book was a light, feel-good romance and was a quick read. I loved the various popular bookish influences (and the list of referenced titles at the end!).

On the other hand, the writing style was fairly simple and the dialogue cringey at times. I was also a little weirded out by the MC's obsession with her beloved audiobook narrator (see synopsis).

Overall, this was an enjoyable read, and combined two of my favourite things: travel and books about books!

Read if you like:
✈ Travel
📚 Books about books
🇬🇧 England settings
💞 Closed door romance
☺ Happy endings

⚠️ Potential trigger warnings: loss of family member, grief, illness (may not be an exhaustive list)

🙏 Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Books for the gifted Gigi, Listening electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Gigi listening is a light romantic comedy. Gigi is struggling with the loss of her parents and escapes into a fantasy world by listening to an audio book. When reality meets fantasy is hilarious. Quick, easy, light read. Does not go into loss and reality vs fantasy deep, very light escapism fiction. Loved the English countryside descriptions.

I enjoyed this read! I’m a big fan of the U.K., so it was nice to read a book that was set there. I also thought this book was hilarious and enjoyed the concept of it generally. It was a nice read.

The story follows Gigi, whose friends sign her up for a tour in London guided by Zane, her audiobook narrator crush. Now that seems ridiculous, who'd travel across the planet for a voice? But bear with the book, it's so much fun.

Likes:

✨️The tour. I love learning about new places and looking them up.

✨️The characters were absolute delights, especially Francis, with his reciting totally random facts. Also, getting to know each character and the way they all united in the end was an enjoyment all on its own.

✨️The fact that Gigi owns a bookstore, defends it and her reading, and that she uses them as getaways. I mean, when she said, "I need the comfort of the bookstore as a reset." So real.

✨️Now to my favourite thing of all. Taj. His sarcasm and jokes? Perfect. The interactions? *chef's kiss*. The biceps? ;)

Dislikes:

✨️Mentioning 'The Unhoneymooners' and 'Colleen Hoover' had me crashing back down to reality. Major turn off.

Many thanks to @netgalley & @kensingtonbooks for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

ℝ𝔸𝕋𝕀ℕ𝔾: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.8/5

This was a super cute and charming book. At the beginning, I was a little skeptical because Gigi's reasons for going to London were cringe. But I ended up enjoying these characters so much!

“If I go for more than a week without hearing someone play Spice Girls on a harmonica I start to get the shakes.” —Taj. This is such a sweet and funny book. There were so many intricate characters and relationships throughout this story that I absolutely loved. I loved seeing the connection of other romance authors and bookstores through the book and of course the setting being a tour through all the great places of England. It makes me want to travel so badly.

Gigi, Listening
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Genre: Romance
Author: Chantel Guertin
GR: 3.69

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley, Kensington Books and RB Media and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

My Thoughts: This book was good and I enjoyed the story, however, I do wish some things were done differently. I did connect with the MC throughout the story. Gigi is constantly searching for a love that her parents had. She is convinced that Zane, an audiobook narrator, is her soulmate. Zane did the narration for the book that brought her parents together. Her friends surprise her for her birthday with a bus tour in London, that Zane runs. However, he is not there when she arrives and shows up towards the end. The eccentric passengers, grumpy tour guide Argus on this ten day bus tour through London with a surprising end.

The story is narrated solely by Gigi, in her POV. I would loved to have seen a male narration in there, especially for Zane. Gigi is passionate, caring, and just wants to find the love of her life. The supporting characters were eccentric, witty, and really added a layer to the story. The characters were well developed, had witty banter, chemistry, connection, and well done. Gigi has a long road of self-reflection and growth throughout the story. The author’s writing style was complex, some spice, some swoon, and overall flowed well and easy to read. The story has a wonderful ending.

Overall, I would recommend this book. It’s a quirky road map to a love story.

Gigi, Listening is a light, low stakes, low steam, relatively predictable RomCom that is well-written enough to forgive some of its shortcomings. Gigi grows throughout the story and the supporting characters are charming. A good vacation read.

It has been a long time since I read such a good romance. And a road tour in England with just the amount of interesting people added to my enjoyment. Thanks to #NetGalley and #GigiListening for advanced digital copy.

3.5 stars for this sweet little predictable romance! I loved the British setting as well as the very American (and Michigander) Gigi! She definitely is a woman who has been through a lot but has worked to develop herself, her relationships, and her passions. I thought the ending was just perfect and suited the story very well. I did round this down to 3 stars in the official review because let's not forget that Gigi travelled across the world in a stalker-ish capacity to go on a tour with her favorite audiobook narrator. Oh my goodness! I have SO MUCH to say about this level of ridiculousness. And if Gigi had been a George, well, a man would've been arrested pretty quickly for similar behavior. But Gigi is just cute and her friends are all in on this. It was, all in all, a sweet little predictable romance and would be a great travel read over the summer!

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

Gigi owns a bookstore and is obsessed with the narrator of an audiobook that once brought her parents together. She is convinced that Zane Wilkinson is her soulmate, which is why her friends gift her a guided tour through the UK, hosted by non other than Zane himself. Only when she shows up to that tour, Zane isn't there...
Instead, she starts spending a lot of time with the sarcastic bus driver and learns that you can't plan everything in life, especially not love.

I really enjoyed this book! Gigi really went on an emotional journey and I feel like her character developed greatly during the story. I loved reading about her and Taj, but all of the other side characters were amazing as well! Really lovely story!

Do you often find that you would rather be immersed in your book than dealing with real people? Do you often find that you have a preconceived idea of how things should go when dealing with people and aren't sure how to adapt sometimes when they obviously don't go how you expect them to? Then you will absolutely relate to Gigi, the main character of this story! It is a well written rom com that will have you going through all the feels! The decision becomes whether or not to stick to the ideal in your head or alter route and follow what is in front of you? Give up the ideal dream or live life messily? What would you choose? Better yet what did Gigi choose? To find that out you'll have to read the book and I promise that you won't be sorry! It was very well written and the characters are so relatable and realistic!

Gigi has fallen in love with a voice. Her parents' love story started with a book, now hers may very well begin with the same book decades later. When her friends book her a bus tour through England with the audiobook narrator as tour guide she joins a colorful cast of characters and finds that it is always better to listen to your heart.

Y'all, this book was so fun to read. The characters on this bus tour deserve their own stories, because they were a hoot. Each character was complex and woven together so well and it added so much to the storyline that wasn't just your regular romance novel tropes. Don't get me wrong, the tropes and romance were equally great. I loved watching Gigi grow through the tour and deal with her grief and shortcomings and Taj was a lovely grump (secret cinnamon roll!) Everything played out well in the end in a very PG and sweet way.

Romance bookstore owner Gigi is obsessed with Zane. He narrated the audiobook version of the novel that brought her now-deceased parents together. She finds solace listening to his narration--over and over again. When she learns that his family operates tours of the UK she is determined to meet him in person, convinced he is her soulmate.

Her friends surprise her with a gift of one of his tours for her 30th birthday, but she is crushed to arrive and learn he is delayed and the tour will be led by Angus. She makes the best of the situation, becoming friendly with Charlotte, a widow from Charlotte, and the busdriver, Taj, who seems over-qualified to be driving the bus. When Zane finally joins them, Gigi thinks all her dreams may be coming true. But she has a few niggling doubts. Zane is perhaps a little basic? Maybe even dull? And she feels guilty for jettisoning Taj, who is really much more intriguing.

Not gonna lie--I had trouble with the beginning of this book, because I really didn't like Gigi. The premise was too ridiculous--that she believed she was meant to be with this man she'd never met, and behaved as though his not being on the tour at the outset was the end of the world. But that's kind of the point of the book. Gigi learns that her fantasy was unrealistic and absurd as she forms genuine friendships with the other people on the tour, despite how annoying they seem at the beginning. Get past the first few chapters and fall in love with this book, as I did. #GigiListening #NetGalley

3.5 stars
Overall this book was okay! Not good, not bad…just okay lol it took me a pretty long time to read and I found myself getting bored in the middle chapters. However, I’m surprisingly really happy with the ending so I’m glad I didn’t DNF. At the beginning it felt like there were a lot of characters to keep track of, but once we got to know them more, I appreciated their side stories and how they added to the main character’s journey.

If you can get past the fact that the MC is a literal stalker who flies around the world in the hopes that an audiobook narrator falls in love with her, then this is a super cute, if predictable romance. The writing is very nice, and I really loved getting to know all the characters. Plus, a nice journey through England gave it a solid setting to lean into.

Reading the description, I just didn’t realize how intense the whole falling in love with the voice of a book thing was!

the story she’s obsessed with isn’t even that good.. like ok they were both reading the same book wow

The idea is that she "is love" with the voice of a man who narrates audiobooks, and we follow her through her quest to find this man.

It's funny, sometimes heavy, but entertaining.