Jewels for the win!

Matt and Joel are industry enemies. Joel is the CEO of the company that overtook the business from Matt’s father. Now they have to work together for a special commission for a royal wedding. It starts a bit slow but when they finally accept their attraction and get together is awesome. It’s all about family, great coworkers and and royal newlyweds. I enjoyed the listen!

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Rough Diamond or Royal Jewels

I have to be honest about the first part of this book, and I almost gave up on it. It just didn't grip me at all. I kept stopping the audio, and it took me days to finally get far enough through that. I then got engrossed in it and couldn't put it down. I'm so glad that I persevered.

The two MC have a brief past without knowing who each other was. Then a rocky start to their working relationship with a hefty dose of hatred from Matt towards Joel.

The Jewellers Starsmith win the ultimate commission from the Royal Household to design the wedding bands for the Prince and his soon to be husband.

The story is good, and the characters are well written, but as I said, in the first quarter of the book, I struggled with it, but it redeemed itself.

Well narrated, clean and clear. Joel Leslie is always a joy to listen to.

Romancing the Rough Diamond

By: Clare London
Narrated by: Joel Leslie
Series: Dreamspinner, Book 4
Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins

❤❤❤ Overall
🎧🎧🎧🎧 Narration
📚📚 📚 Story
Read at 1.25 speed on Audible

I received this audiobook for free from GRR, and my review is my opinion and an honest review.

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Diamonds Are Forever.

MM, Insta Attraction, Contemporary Romance, an easy story to listen to. lots of ups and downs and misunderstandings but a mutual instant attraction. Enjoyable story with great characters. Joel Leslie loses a star as his Norfolk accent wasn't Norfolk enough! lol but otherwise a great job of narrating.

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A Delightful Gem of a Story! Fabulous Narration🎧

I enjoyed this book immensely, the story is original and entertaining with interesting storylines that immediately grabbed my attention and captivated it the entire time. Though this is the fourth book in the series it stands on its own, it is actually my first Clare London book and definitely not my last. The characters are realistic, easy to relate to and connect with, they are easy to care about too. Joel Sterling and Matt Barth are opposites in most way but they share an eye for jewelry design, they hit it off when they first meet but neither knew who the other was. Joel is the CEO of Starsmith Stones and they were commissioned the job to design the jewelry for the upcoming royal wedding, the youngest royal, Prince Arthur, is marrying his boyfriend Paola Astra. They want Matt Barth on the team, he has a great eye for design. Unbeknownst to Joel that he had already met Matt but their second meeting does not go as well as their first. Matt despises what Starsmith Stones did to force his father out of business. He much rather be digging for lost treasures on his sister’s farm, but it is an honor to work on the royal line and he could use the money. I loved these two together, they were perfect for each other and the chemistry between them was undeniable, they also made a great team. This is a fabulously plotted romance story, there is plenty of drama, angst, a touch of humor, some heartfelt emotions and some hot loving. Secondary characters are great too. Clare London, thank you for this wonderful story and emotional rollercoaster ride.

🎧📚🎧 And for the fabulous narration, Joel Leslie is a talented narrator and voice artist. He does an exceptional job portraying the characters, taking each role and making it his own, sounding believable in every role he played and is absolutely brilliant with accents, handles the dialogue with ease and switches roles flawlessly. He sets the perfect tone for the story, captures all the characters’ emotions and projects them into his performance. Joel Leslie is an entertaining storyteller and a pleasure to listen to. Thank you for another wonderful listen.

Thank you #GRR

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So Much Fun, Wonderful Performance by M. Leslie

So much fun!

Clare London sure has a way with regular lads. She writes terrific salt of the earth type characters, and I've really enjoyed getting to know Matt and Joel.

This is a fun peek into the jewelry manufacturing biz, and the cast of folks which surround it. (I especially enjoyed the scenes with the royal family.) And Matt's family are fantastic.

Some fascinating insight into the business of high end jewelry in London, England - and a little archaeological history as well.

Romancing the Round Diamond is nicely performed by Joel Leslie, and listening to him perform this is making me want to re-visit the With A Kick series. Mr. Leslie does a stellar job with those as well.

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Another great story from this author/narrator comb

Clare London rarely disappoints and neither does Joel Leslie, as a combo I've not had anything less than a stellar experience.

This is a later book in the Romancing the... series but each book is standalone and there's no need to have read/listened to any of the others (except you should, especially Ugly Duckling, which is my favourite).

I love hard headed, stubborn Matt and his rekindled love of his profession. And his passion for history and family. And there's a pair of meddlesome princes who are determined to play fairy godmother.

It's a very British rom-com romance with an excellent performance.

Highly recommended

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1 person found this helpful

Matt + Joel = adorable

I’ve been reading a lot of paranormal romances recently and so was looking forward to something different. This book is that something different in all the good ways. Meet cute? Check. Mild conflict? Check. HEA? Absolutely.

Joel is a businessman who is responsible for nabbing the job of producing the jewellery and other assorted baubles for the upcoming nuptials of the first gay royal couple in British history. A real feather in his cap so to speak. That’s all well and good, but he needs the right designer. The solution? Matt. The problem? Minutes after they’d met, they’d locked lips. Not knowing who the other was, of course. The other problem? Matt blames Joel for the takeover of his family’s business and Joel blames Matt for mucking up the deal.

But the prestige of a royal wedding is on the line.

Now, I have to say that I loved the royal couple and I had hoped they might’ve had their own story. Just super sweet adorable and very much mischief makers. I loved the idea there could be a gay royal wedding. Hopefully in my lifetime…?

Anyway, I keep saying it’s a cute story – and it is. There are also some steamy scenes and a truly hilarious scene outside Buckingham Palace. And what is the difference between a palace and a castle? Had to think about that one.

Rounding out this delightful book is narrator Joel Leslie. He did a fabulous job and was perfect for this quirky book. Overall I enjoyed it and I’ll be going back and picking up the others.

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Loved the ebook and the audiobook is even better.

I read Romancing the Rough Diamond back in September 2019 and I loved it. I was so happy to get a review copy of the audiobook – especially since Joel Leslie is on my list of favorite audiobook performers. He did a great job with this story but that’s no surprise as I always love to listen to his audiobook performances.

This is a great enemies-to-lovers story. I've haven't read too many books with this trope and I really loved this one. It has the added "royal" element of the two MCs working together to create something magnificent for the upcoming gay royal wedding.

Romancing the Rough Diamond kept me engaged right from the beginning and didn't let me go, even after I finished reading it.

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Did not finish

Shallow characters, who we are told like each other but I am not convinced. I read it for 50%. We got the 'kiss before becoming colleagues' cliché. The 'posh man on the farm' cliché . The 'rough man at court' cliché.
And Joel Leslie's performance could not make it better. Maybe he was as bored as I was.

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2 people found this helpful

Diamonds and Crowns

Romancing the Rough Diamond is the fourth book in the Romancing series. However, each book in the series is completely independent of each other abc should be read as standalones. This book featured an enemy-to-lovers trope which was done well. The passion between Joel and Matt was fiery and fierce which led to some steamy intimate scenes. I also enjoyed the characterization of the secondary characters who were all entertaining. There a few hilarious moments that caught me off guard and had me laughing out loud in public. This was a fun read with drama, slight angst, humor, and romance.

The audiobook was narrated by Joel Leslie who did a fantastic job. The characters were all voiced perfectly and performed well. I thought the overall audiobook production was smooth which made this a great listen.

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