Child of Mine: a nostalgic romantic comedy

This is the fourth book in the Boston Classics series. Isabella (Bella) and Henry's story, set in the 80's, is beautifully written, emotional, and captivating. Isabelle, a single Mom, is beautiful, strong, and independent. Henry is grumpy, but handsome and very supportive. They are opposites attract, but they are perfect together. I loved to follow them in their journey to love. Bella's daughter is such a cute and awesome kid! I liked the humor in this story. This is an excellent retro romance / secret baby romance / second chance to love. Erin Mallon and Tom Taylorson did an excellent job with the narration. I like this series.

I have read this book now 3 times (I read BETA, ARC and now ALC).
Yes, I still love this story after my third read-through, and in fact, it is that much better with the enhancement of the super-awesome narration! I love Karen White/Grey, I love her Boston Classics series, and I seriously love this book!

Karen’s incredible words and Bella’s story is brought to life by my number one gal, Erin Mallon. Erin has the most soothing, dynamic and expressive voice and is able to do so many characters, so well. I’m always excited when I see her name attached to any project, and I was especially excited for a book so special to me.

Tom Taylorson is a new-to-me narrator, and I have to say - big fan! Henry is perfectly created and even more clear in much mind in this third read having Tom bring him to life for me, than reading the words on the page… which is why I’m always such a huge fan and advocate of audio. His voice was perfectly Henry and made this character even more real to me than he already was in my first two readings.

The audio version of this beautiful story is a must-listen, and Erin and Tom were perfect picks.

Everything about the storyline is excellent, the characters are fantastic and as with all her books, they are so extremely well-developed, the chemistry is fantastic, and I love that the previous characters appear.

Anyway, if you enjoy a secret baby romance, a second chance, and workplace romance, a really sweet and very smart child, and handling the aftermath of being a child TV star (ie. substance abuse, rehab and everything that goes along with it, which is well researched and very well handled in the story context), you will surely love this one as much as I did! You don’t have to read the other books in the series first, but you will meet Bella throughout and quite a few of the other characters along the way in this one, so it wouldn’t hurt! (It’s a different side to Bella in this story)

Bella and Henry have the best childhood crush, secret baby, workplace, second chance romance you could imagine, with a lot of twists and so many really fun times to get there. You won’t want to miss out on this book and the whole entire series!

Absolutely 5-stars!

Bella is special to me (she is me, afterall - lol, kidding! My IG handle is just Bella, this story isn’t similar to me in any way at all!!!), and as I’ve joked with Karen many times, I claim this as “MY” book. I have ownership of this story now 😉. My name is even in the acknowledgements!! Hahaha!

Book 4 of the Boston Classics Series but fully stands alone. You get quick hits and cameos from characters from the other books but if you haven't read them, you won't feel like you're missing anything. They are awesome little moments woven in that made me sigh happily going "yay!!".

Every time I listen to one of Karen Grey's audiobooks I'm transported back to the 80s in the perfect blend of time travel and nostalgic flashbacks. In this installment we have Soap Operas, Kid's TV and all around ways of life (phone cord wrapped around a finger, quarters for a payphone, introduction of the "clicker" for the TV).

This specific story revolves around Bella, who has appeared as a side character in previous books and Hal/Henry, the father of Bella's absolutely adorable almost 6 year old. They had one night together with no last names and now they are working together on the same TV show. Even though it's been 7 years, the instant connection they had that once, it's still as electric as it was then.

In addition to the "hey, guess what? you're a dad!" that is at the core of the story for Bella and Hal, we also have some really interesting topics that get explored. There's deep emotional thoughts and explorations of addiction, mental health, edutainment (educational TV) and child actors, and even a little on the plight of the independent book store vs. big box chains in malls.

This story packs a lot of punch, but it wasn't at all heavy. It was done in such a beautifully organic way that ebbed and flowed. I would love to have this as a book club read. It would be so great to unpack a couple chapters at a time and just talk it all out because even though it's utterly addicting and you just don't want to stop reading, there would be a lot of amazing things to discuss with another reader.

This audiobook was performed by the ever amazing Erin Mallon and new to me Tom Taylorson. Erin brings a wonderful range to Bella (including her inner voices) and perfection to little "5 & 3 quarters" year old Lilah. I love Erin's kid voices, so precious! Through all the rollercoaster moments of Bella's journey, Erin's performance detached me from reality at times leaving me fully immersed in the story. Tom was perfect as Henry. The slight burr in the voice bringing out the North Carolina. There were some intense moments of the book that occurred in Henry's POV and Tom just made me feel them all. It was incredible.

Another reason I adore listening to Karen Grey's books is that it's almost like they are written with the intension of being heard. When working with formatting of a book to be consumed visually, you have a lot of tools that can be used to separate portions of the scene setting from the story. However, in audiobooks, it can be a little harder since you can't "format" the narration. But Karen always finds a way to bring in these elements in a way that completely reflects the personality of the characters or the theme of the story. In this one, the chapters all start with a little blurb from her take on Soap and TV publications which would be fun to read as they set the mood and help keep track of the timeline. But when heard, they are a pure delight since interwoven with the quick snip of gossip or trade news is the sound of a typewriter. It's like aural formatting. I love it!!

I requested and received an advance copy of the audiobook. This is my honest review.