Quick Take
- Narration: Jakobi Diem’s performance anchors the emotional weight of the dual timeline with skill, and listener reviews specifically call out how he and co-narrator Wesleigh brought the characters to life.
- Themes: Second chances, mental illness, long-distance love across time
- Mood: Emotionally intense with comic relief, intimate and patient
- Verdict: A satisfying second book in the St. Louis Sires series that handles mental illness with unusual directness while maintaining the warmth Alexandria House’s readers expect.
I came to Holding without having read the first book in the St. Louis Sires series, which I suspect is not the ideal order. But Alexandria House writes with enough contextual generosity that the backstory of Terrence Ford and Krystle arrived naturally through the dual timeline structure the book employs. I was curious going in about whether the past-and-present structure would work, since readers often find it either an irritant or the most effective device in the author’s toolkit. In this case, it earns its complexity.
Terrence Ford is a lineman for the fictional St. Louis Sires, and Krystle is his ex-wife. Their history together goes back to childhood neighbors, enemies, best friends, and lovers before arriving at unhappily apart, which is where the book opens. The synopsis frames this as a story about whether an ending is really the beginning of something stronger, and House means that literally: the novel is structured around the question of whether two people who have loved each other across almost their entire lives can find their way to a love that actually holds. That question takes time to answer, and the book takes its time.
The Timeline Structure and What It Costs
The dual timeline is the most technically ambitious element of the novel and also the most polarizing. One reviewer called it thrilling in the way it made the story more engaging. Another, the most critical voice in the reviews, found it slow and said something was missing despite the humor and spice being present. A third read the entire book in a single day, describing the timeline movement as a feature rather than a bug.
What I noticed in the audio version is that Jakobi Diem handles the temporal shifts by making subtle tonal adjustments rather than announcing them through dramatic vocal changes. The past scenes involving younger versions of Ford and Krystle have a slightly warmer, more tentative quality in his delivery, while the present-day scenes carry more weight. It is not a showy technique, but it works. The reviewer who called out Diem and co-narrator Wesleigh specifically, crediting them with bringing the characters to life and slaying the story, is responding to this kind of careful calibration. Narrators who can sustain tonal consistency across a dual timeline are rarer than the description implies.
Mental Illness as Central Plot Rather Than Background Texture
The most distinctive element of Holding, and the detail that most distinguishes it from the standard sports romance, is the way Alexandria House integrates mental illness into the story not as a complication to be resolved but as an ongoing reality to be navigated with honesty. Several reviewers praised this specifically. One called it a silent struggle that can be a killer and described the book as being about awareness, struggle, survival, patience, and love. Another singled out the author for weaving mental illness into the storyline without making the book depressing, which is a specific and difficult craft achievement.
Ford is, by the accounting of the critical reviewer, a good guy who is too unsure of himself, which reads as weakness. I read it differently. A character navigating mental illness in a sports romance is not supposed to be consistently decisive or confident. The uncertainty is the point. House is writing about the gap between who someone is publicly, a professional athlete with physical power and professional success, and who they are in the interior spaces of a relationship that has always mattered too much to them.
The Alexandria House Signature and How This Book Fits It
House has built a loyal readership by combining genuine emotional depth with warmth and humor, a combination that sounds simple but is extraordinarily difficult to sustain across a series. The reviewer who called this book meh compared to other House titles they had loved is a useful data point: this is a slower, more interior book than some of her other work, and readers who come expecting primarily pace and heat may find it unsatisfying. The author seems to be deliberately expanding her emotional register here, using the sports romance frame to examine something more psychologically complex than the genre typically attempts.
At six hours and eleven minutes, the audio version is on the shorter end for the material it covers. The dual timeline compresses a lot of history into that runtime, and some of the past sequences feel slightly rushed in comparison to the present-day scenes. But House trusts her readers enough not to overexplain, which is the right call. The ambiguity she allows at certain points is a sign of authorial confidence, not of incompleteness.
The Co-Narration Model and Why It Works Here
The decision to use dual narrators for a book structured around two timelines and two distinct voices is a production choice that pays off. Diem and Wesleigh work with enough collaborative discipline that the handoffs between them feel purposeful rather than arbitrary. Several reviewers called the performances out specifically by name, which is not something that happens when narration is merely adequate. When listeners credit narrators by name in reviews of romance fiction, it is almost always because those narrators shaped the emotional experience rather than simply transmitted the text.
Who Belongs in This Listener’s Seat
Start with the first book in the St. Louis Sires series if you can. Readers already invested in House’s universe will find this book rewards their emotional investment significantly. New listeners who enjoy African American romance with serious emotional underpinning, dual timelines, and mental health themes handled with genuine care will find it a strong entry point to House’s work. Listeners seeking fast-paced, heat-forward sports romance will find this more interior and slower than they may want.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I read the first book in the St. Louis Sires series before starting Holding?
Strongly recommended. Terrence Ford appears in the first book and the emotional history between him and Krystle carries much more weight if you have seen his earlier context. House gives you enough backstory to follow along without it, but the impact is greater with the full setup.
The reviews mention mental illness themes. How directly does the book address this, and is the portrayal handled responsibly?
It is central to Ford’s characterization rather than a passing detail, and reviewers with personal connection to the topic have called it both honest and non-depressing. House does not sensationalize or resolve it neatly, which is the responsible approach.
Is the dual timeline between past and present easy to follow in audio format?
Yes. Jakobi Diem handles the temporal shifts through subtle vocal calibration rather than dramatic announcements, and the transitions are clear enough that listeners rarely lose their chronological bearings.
How explicit is the romantic content?
The synopsis notes mature themes, and the series contains explicit scenes. This is adult romance, not fade-to-black. Reviewers mention spicy love scenes as a feature of the book, so listeners who prefer clean romance should know what to expect.
