One narrator carries two first-person voices through this audiobook, and the description makes the switch impossible to miss. The first half of the blurb belongs to a girl watching the school heartbreaker and saying he does nothing for her anymore; the second half belongs to the heartbreaker, describing the girl everyone else has written off. Teddy Hamilton is the only performer credited across 15 hours and 56 minutes, which means both halves of that argument arrive in the same voice.
A Closer Look at Ruthless Knight
Cole Covington is the star quarterback at Royal Hearts Academy, popular in the way that costs something, and the copy is careful to say the gorgeous armor is hiding an ugly truth. Sawyer Church is the girl the school has decided is the chubby, Jesus-loving geek, described by Cole as sweet, curvy and sarcastic, and above all as someone who never pretends to be anyone else. The plot lever is the oldest one in the drawer: he asks her to be his fake girlfriend.
Sawyer's half of the description is the more interesting of the two, because it opens on a refusal. Every guy wants to be him, every girl wants him, except her, and the reason given is that she has seen what sits under the armor, followed immediately by the admission that she may have been wrong about that. Setting a new adult romance in motion with the heroine already immune is a smarter structural choice than the fake dating premise suggests, and it gives the second half of the blurb, where he notices her, something real to push against.
Podium Audio put this out in August 2020 with a single name on the credit. A book split between two first-person narrators is the standard case for dual casting, and this production does not take it, so the separation between Cole and Sawyer has to come out of one performer's choices. That is a genuine demand across nearly sixteen hours, and no note anywhere here describes how it is met, which leaves the credit as the only evidence a buyer has. Romance listeners have grown used to two performers on alternating chapters, enough that a solo reading of a book built this way is now the exception, and that is a choice worth weighing before committing to a full working week of listening.
Rhanna Penalva, writing from Brazil, offers the most concrete observation available: Ruthless Knight runs to a hundred chapters plus an epilogue. Against a running time of nearly sixteen hours that works out at a shade under ten minutes a chapter, which is an unusually granular structure and one that suits listening in short bursts. Penalva also argues that the writing has developed between the first book and this one, with a visible difference in how the sentences are put together.
BookTok is the route in for at least one of these responses. Writing a spoiler-free response, that reviewer admits to having been steered by the algorithm more than once and says this is the first time the recommendation paid off, describing a book substantial enough to require deliberate slowing down. Coming from someone who freely admits to enjoying lighter reading, that is a specific compliment: it is the difference between a book that fills time and one that holds it.
Readers cry at this one, and they say so plainly. A response from France is titled around exactly that reaction, and Penalva reports crying through most of the book while identifying with several of the subjects it covers. A response from India praises the emotional writing and the idea of soul mates finding each other unexpectedly. The French entry is a small mystery of its own: the body reads that the reader could put it down, which is either a missing contraction or the least enthusiastic five-star grade ever filed. Four countries turn up across five responses, which says something about how far this one traveled on word of mouth.
Things to Know Before Starting Ruthless Knight
Dates deserve a look before you weigh the praise. This recording went on sale in August 2020, and two of the five responses carry dates from January and April of that year, months before any recording existed to comment on. They are enthusiastic and they are about the text. Nothing in them, or in the three later ones, tells you what Hamilton does with a hundred chapters of alternating narration.
Four points are missing from a clean sweep, and the page tells you where they are not. A ten-vote average of 4.6 fixes the total at 46 out of 50, and every one of the five visible grades is a five. Since the readable half of the vote is perfect, every one of those four missing points sits with the five people who graded without writing. A 4.6 on this listing is not a soft consensus; it is unanimity in the comments and a quiet deduction somewhere you cannot see.
Sports is the tag attached to a romance about a quarterback and a girl who reads her Bible, which will send precisely the wrong people here. Note also the standalone claim: the copy calls this book 2 in the series and then says that although it belongs to Cole and Sawyer it also works alone. Penalva's comparison to the first book suggests the reading order adds something, so treat standalone as a promise about plot rather than about context.
Who Should Pick Up Ruthless Knight
Send this to romance readers who want angst more than comfort, which is what the publisher promises in a warning printed into the description: flawed characters, drama, and boys who are bad to the bone, with an explicit note that anyone wanting a safe sweet romance and perfect heroes should look elsewhere. Fake dating fans, high school and new adult crossover readers, and anyone who likes a heroine who starts out unimpressed will all find what they came for.
Listeners who need trigger warnings spelled out will not get them here beyond that general caution, and anyone who dislikes hearing one voice play both halves of a couple should weigh the single credit carefully. Buyers expecting a sports novel because of the tag should move along. Bring tissues, ignore the badge, and take the publisher's warning about flawed characters at face value, because the reviewers who cried through it clearly did.
In Brief
- Performance: Teddy Hamilton is the sole credit on a book that alternates between two first-person narrators, so both halves of the couple share one voice.
- What it covers: Fake dating, enemies to lovers energy, hidden pain behind popularity, faith and body image at a rich kids' school.
- Feel: Emotional and high-angst, built to make you cry more than swoon.
- Our call: Worth the sixteen hours for angst-hungry romance readers, and a poor fit for anyone who wants their leads likeable throughout.
Good to Know
Does one narrator handle both points of view in this audiobook?
Yes. Teddy Hamilton is the only performer credited, while the description alternates between Sawyer's first person and Cole's. Dual narration is the usual solution for a book built this way, and this production has not taken it, so the distinction between the two voices rests entirely on one reader's choices across nearly sixteen hours.
How explicit is this audiobook, and what should I be warned about?
The publisher's own note promises drama, a touch of angst, and boys who are bad to the bone, and states that the characters are flawed. Nothing on the page assigns a heat level, though the blurb's language leaves little doubt that it is not a sweet romance. Expect emotional heavy lifting alongside the attraction.
