Eloise and the Grump Next Door

Oakley Island Romcoms, Book 1

By: Emma St. Clair, Jenny Proctor

Narrated by: Stephanie Rose, Rock Engle

I’m not sure which is worse: the lawyer handling my grandmother’s estate or the attack pelican living on the screened-in porch. Just kidding—I’ll take the pelican any day.

After graduation, I thought I’d be off to grad school, doing research on my favorite poet. Instead, I’m renovating my late grandmother’s home and posting about the process on Instagram. Talk about a detour…

But here I am. Turning Gran’s beach house into a bed and breakfast; a process that would be a lot easier if I didn’t have to deal with the grumpy lawyer living next door. It doesn’t help that the night Jake and I met, I got a little tipsy, and he had to carry me back to my hotel.

But the longer I stay on Oakley Island, the more I feel a connection to my childhood and to my grandmother. This isn’t the life I dreamed of, but dreams can change. Especially when new dreams include a future with Jake. On the outside, he might be pricklier than a puffer fish, but I catch glimpses of a delicious, cinnamon roll center.

Did I mention the tattoos he hides underneath those crisp button-down shirts? Yowza.

When I’m suddenly presented with the academic opportunity of my dreams (former dreams?), my picturesque life on Oakley starts to unravel.

A part of me wants to stay. If only a certain tattooed grump didn’t seem so determined to send me away…

Eloise and The Grump Next Door is a grumpy sunshine, closed door romantic comedy. The Oakley Island Romcom series follows three very different sisters as they renovate the house they inherited and find love on the island along the way. Each book will have sizzling chemistry but no spice.

©2022 Emma St. Clair and Jenny Proctor (P)2023 Podium Audio

Narration was very stilted.

I love these two authors, but the book did drag on a bit. Still. I'm excited for the next book in the series.

Cute

Cute story. The love story was cute. Sisters were great. The bird was great. it was a funny twist.

Clean, age-gap romance with some cute moments

Took a chance on this during an Audible 2-for-1 sale. It was good (with a few changes could have been really good) and overall I don’t regret buying it. It was on the sweet side with some funny moments. The story was a bit too insta-love for me, with Jake starting out gruff and grumpy, then quickly and suddenly swooning like a 16-year-old girl. The change in him was almost like reading about two different characters. I’m not drawn to age gap stories, but this one (Lo 21, Jake 32) is handled well and the story is basically a clean one. The ending/epilogue is…odd. It left me confused, so I decided to rewind the ending to re-listen thinking I had missed something. Nope. Just strange.

The narration was good, four stars. The story is a solid 3.5 stars based on the things mentioned above. It was good, just fell short on a few things. I rounded up to four because it’s better than a three-star story. If you need something cute that you don’t have to concentrate heavily on and you are okay with no spice (kissing and clean touching only), I think you should give this one a go.

Loved it!

It was one of those books you can’t stop listening too. You fall asleep too. Hope they come out with Merritt’s story soon!

Cute story, poor performance- forced.

Predictable. Cute storyline with some strong girl attitude and charm. Narration was the worst I’ve heard in a long time. It has potential but fell flat.