Heart Wrenched (Hollows Garage, Book 1), by Kate Crew | Free Audiobook

The setup is catnip if you like the tropes. Quinn is rebuilding after getting burned, Ransom is the high school crush who grew into a street-racing mechanic with his own crew, and the two of them get thrown together until the tension snaps. The found-family element around the garage is the part I did not expect to love as much as I did. The crew shows up for each other, and that warmth gives the romance a backbone.

Ransom falls hard and fast, and depending on your taste that is either the appeal or the catch. I wanted the slow-burn tension to last a little longer before he went all in, and a couple of reviewers felt the same. The plot also runs hot, with a problem to solve in nearly every chapter, which kept me listening but occasionally tipped into a lot happening at once. For a debut, though, the momentum rarely flagged.

On content, this is an adult romance with explicit, open-door scenes and a decent amount of heat. It also touches some heavier territory, including bullying and violence, so it is worth checking the trigger list if that matters to you. None of it is a surprise for the genre, and the happy ending lands where you want it to. I closed it ready to start book two.

The dual narration is what sells it on audio. Aaron Donahue gives Ransom a low, cocky warmth that suits a bad boy with a soft center, and Mandy Figueroa makes Quinn guarded and funny without losing her vulnerability. Splitting the leads across two voices fits a dual-POV story like this one, and their pacing through both the banter and the steamier scenes kept the energy high. At just under eleven hours, it never dragged.