First-Time Caller (Heartstrings, #1) by B.K. Borison Narrator: E.J. Bingham, Hathaway Lee
Format: audiobook, eARC
Source: borrowed from library, supplied by publisher via Libro.fm
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: contemporary romance, romantic comedy
Series: Heartstrings #1
Pages: 420
Length: 11 hours and 54 minutes
Published by Berkley, Penguin Audio on February 11, 2025
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads
A hopeless romantic meets a jaded radio host in this cozy, Sleepless in Seattle-inspired love story from beloved author B.K. Borison.
Aiden Valentine has a secret: he's fallen out of love with love. And as the host of Baltimore's romance hotline, that's a bit of a problem. But when a young girl calls in to the station asking for dating advice for her mom, the interview goes viral, thrusting Aiden and Heartstrings into the limelight.
Lucie Stone thought she was doing just fine. She has a good job; an incredible family; and a smart, slightly devious kid. But when all of Baltimore is suddenly scrutinizing her love life-or lack thereof—she begins to question if she's as happy as she thought. Maybe a little more romance wouldn't be such a bad thing.
Everyone wants Lucie to find her happy ending... even the handsome, temperamental man calling the shots. But when sparks start to fly behind the scenes, Lucie must make the final call between the radio-sponsored happily ever after or the man in the headphones next to her.
My Review:
Lucie Stone and Aiden Valen make real magic in the radio booth – but first they have to get there. And that takes some doing on the part of practically every single person in Lucie’s life – including her twelve-year-old daughter.
Which is pretty much the dichotomy that powers this entire grumpy-sunshine romance.
The first part of the story is the setup. Aiden Valen – who broadcasts as Aiden ValenTINE, is the host for a romance hotline on an independent Baltimore radio station. A station he is literally tanking, all by himself, because he’s fallen out of love with love and is spreading his disillusionment all over his show.
Obviously, Aiden is the grump in this pairing.
Lucie, on the other hand, is the sunshine, even though her life doesn’t have quite as much sunshine as it ought to have. At least not according to her daughter Maya, her daughter’s dads, her coworkers, her bestie, and seemingly everyone else in her life.
And that’s where the conspiracy comes in, the fun begins, and the magic happens. Because Lucie is all about the magic of love, even if she’s never managed to find it for herself. Which is why her daughter concocts a scheme to call into Aiden’s radio show on her mom’s behalf, in the hopes that Aiden can help Lucie find what she’s looking for.
Lucie hears her daughter on the phone in the middle of the night talking with a man. From under the covers, the better to muffle the sound. At first, Lucie goes ballistic on both of them, not unreasonably so. But it’s late and she’s tired and she’s more tired of being lonely than she wants to admit.
So she ends up talking with Aiden for the rest of his shift, and she’s honest about life, dating, the universe and pretty much everything. And it goes VIRAL. Lucie’s struck a chord with the entire Eastern Seaboard. With Aiden along for a ride he never thought he’d EVER want to take.
Because Lucie still believes in magic, while Aiden doesn’t even believe in love. Until he does.
Escape Rating B: I ended up with an epic amount of mixed feelings about this one. The second half of the book – once they get into the booth together and start talking to each other and to the people of Baltimore who are shipping it like mad – it really is magic.
But getting there, that first half of the book, was a bit of a slog. It seemed as if every single person in Lucie’s inner circle was a boundary-stomping jerk. While this setup may have been exactly what Lucie needed, the way it happened and the way they all, collectively, went about it was absolutely NOT what she wanted or how she wanted it.
The relationship that Aiden and Lucie develop once they get into the booth – and out of it – was all about consent. Specifically hers. But getting her there was the absolute opposite, a campaign conducted by the people who did love her and did mean the best for her with their interference. But does that mean it’s okay to ignore someone’s expressed wishes because you ‘mean well’ and where does that end? It’s a situation that I find triggering and others may as well, but your reading mileage hopefully varies.
Once they interact directly with each other, the whole thing is utterly magical. I adored their banter, I loved the way they played off each other, and it was extra fun that it seemed as if even though we were experiencing this story through their alternating first-person perspectives, that Aiden didn’t have a clue about his own feelings, while Lucie steadfastly avoided getting a clue that the entire city was shipping the relationship that neither of them recognized they were having.
I also adored that Lucie was in a male-dominated profession (she’s a car mechanic), that she’s doing it well and is well respected by her co-workers, and that all four of her somewhat grumpy, older, male coworkers are shipping it along with the rest of Baltimore just added to the fun – and to the magic.
Speaking of magic, the audiobook is magical, and it’s also a terrific medium for experiencing this particular story. The experience is all the better because the alternating perspectives are voiced by not one but two narrators, Hathaway Lee for Lucie and E.J. Bingham for Aiden. Because we’re so deeply inside their heads for this, it worked so much better that each had their own narrative voice to go along with their own internal voice.
In the end, the good outweighed the ‘less good’ parts of this story, although I have to confess that I’d probably have bailed if so many friends hadn’t talked both the book and the author up so much. It also helped that the radio show parts of the story reminded me very fondly of Turn It Up by Inez Kelly, a story I read a while back that was also about co-hosts on a radio program that talk their way into romance with the same kind of banter.
Which leads to one last comment. According to the author, this book is meant to invoke fond memories of the movie Sleepless in Seattle. Whether it does or not is certainly in the eye of the beholder. Howsomever, a second book in this Heartstrings series has been announced, And Now, Back to You, inspired by When Harry Met Sally. I can’t wait to see if the iconic scene from that movie is replicated – and how!
