...Bookfanatic

'Personal Changes' is actually book #2 in K. C. Wells series 'Personal' but apparently I'm not very observant these days because I listened to the audio book for this one first. Cornell Coliins is the narrator for this one as well as for books 1 & 3 and he's a new to me narrator. 

The MCs for this story are Rick Wentworth and Angelo Tarallo. We were introduced to Rick in 'Making It Personal' or at least those of us who read or listened to this series in order were. Not being in that group I can officially say 'There's no problem reading this series as standalone stories'. While there is some cross-over with the characters in the stories. As I said Rick was in the first book and Blake and Will the MCs from that story appear in subsequent  stories as do other secondary characters I had no difficulty following who was who and what they did, etc. Blake is Rick's boss and Will who is now his partner was his PA but well get to that in my review for 'Making It Personal'. 

The other thing that we found out in the first book was that Rick had a longstanding crush on Blake, whom he'd believed to be straight and this is part of what leads to Rick's realization that he needs to make some 'personal changes' in his life. Rick's tired of the club scene and one night stand, bathroom hook-ups. He wants what Blake and Will have a real relationship, commitment, someone who looks at him as if he's the center of the universe. in plain English he wants what most of us want...a partner who's as committed to us as we are to them. So he makes the decision to change his lifestyle no more f*cking on the first date with essentially nameless people. He's going to take the time to get to know someone see if maybe they could have more than just one night. It's this decision that brings both Angelo an Julian into his life.

Rick first encounters Julian at a local club and as the evening goes on he begins to wonder if he hasn't met Mr. Perfect. Julian seems to be everything he's looking for and he just seems to do everything right and here is where I need to add that ironically, for me, Julian's voice was the one voice that just didn't work and maybe this is superficial on my part but Julian's voice made me skin crawl it was whiny at times and held an undertone that just make me think 'what are you up to?' from the word go I did not trust that voice and as the story progressed...surprise! I was right, Julian was a sleezeball not to be trusted.

Equally as ironic is the fact that while Rick is being charmed by Julian, he's also being watched by someone who decides from the minute he lays eyes on Rick that he wants to get to know him. Everything that he sees tells him that this could be the man for him. But it's not until Angelo and a friend rescues Rick from the less than welcome advances of the less than Mr. Perfect, Julian that we truly meet him and begin to get a sense of who he is. (This is all in the blurb so have no fear there were no spoilers here).

Now for as much as I didn't like Julian's voice I did like Angelo's. I actually found Angelo's voice to be soothing and comforting and as the story progressed I really came to like Angelo. I liked Rick as well, but I do have to admit in this story Angelo was my favorite. 

Angelo comes from a traditional Sicilian family and unfortunately this is a bit of an obstacle for these two men and also created a bit of a problem for me with some of the ending. Overall the story worked for me. While it was good and enjoyable I wasn't totally enthralled with it. 

I liked Cornell Collins narrations with the exception of Julian's voice the other character voices worked for me and I was comfortable with them. They were definitely expressive and conveyed emotion well. 

'Personal Changes' was an enjoyable story about how what we think we want isn't always what we get but if we're lucky fate will make sure that we end up with who we really need.