I was three hours into a holiday card design project — you know, the kind where you're layering snowflakes over serif fonts for a client who keeps saying "festive but corporate" — when Jakobi Diem's voice hit me somewhere around the sternum and I had to put down my stylus. Just... set it down. Frida looked at me from her spot on the monitor stand like, you good? No, Frida. I was not good.
Here's the thing about Naughty & Nasty: it's two novellas bundled together, and they're doing very different things with a shared DNA. Both are about what happens when the heat refuses to stay casual. Both are about people who think they can keep it physical and then get absolutely wrecked by feelings. But one's a Christmas story about neighbors who've been orbiting each other for years, and the other's a messy, rules-are-for-other-people situation between two people connected through siblings. And the way each narrator handles their half? Completely different energy. Completely complementary.
Jakobi Diem Made Me Set Down My Entire Stylus
Let me talk about Jakobi first because — Lord. The man narrates like he's in it. Not performing. Not reading. He sounds like a guy who's realizing in real time that what started as physical is pulling him somewhere deeper, and the slight catch in his delivery during those vulnerable moments? That's not a technique. That's a vibe. When Justin Steele starts catching feelings for Nedra in "Naughty," you can hear the shift. There's this rawness to how he voices a man who's been patient for years — who's watched this woman go back and forth with Darryl — and finally gets his shot. The wanting is in his voice. I literally paused the audiobook and texted my friend Mia: "this narrator is a problem." And I meant it as the highest compliment.
Compared to a lot of male narrators in romance audiobooks who either go too flat or too breathy-soap-opera, Jakobi threads something genuinely emotional without ever losing the swagger. It's a balance I rarely hear pulled off this well. The closest I've come to that kind of slow-burn emotional pull through narration alone was in Once Burned: A Night Prince Novel, where the male lead's voice work carries a similar weight of restrained wanting.
Wesleigh Siobhan and the Tashena of It All
Okay. Wesleigh Siobhan. I've listened to enough romance audiobooks to know that the best friend character is where narrators either coast or commit. Wesleigh commits. Her voicing of Tashena — Nedra's best friend — is a whole performance. She goes from dead-serious emotional support to the kind of commentary that made me laugh out loud while exporting a PDF (and almost mess up the bleed margins, but that's my problem). The way she shifts between Tashena's energy and Nedra's quieter internal voice is genuinely impressive. It's not just pitch changes — it's tempo, it's attitude, it's the way she drops a comedic beat and then pulls you right back into something tender.
In the second novella, "Nasty," Wesleigh handles Phalin with real care. There's a backstory involving Phalin's cancer that Sabrina Scales develops with actual emotional weight — not as a plot device, but as something that shaped this woman and the walls she's built. Wesleigh doesn't oversell those moments. She lets the writing breathe. That restraint? That's what separates a good narrator from a great one.
Where the Seams Show
But — and I say this with love — neither novella quite gets the landing it deserves. "Naughty" builds this gorgeous slow burn between Nedra and Justin, all that years-of-tension energy, and then it wraps up faster than I wanted. I was invested in these two beyond the bedroom and the story felt ready to go deeper but didn't. Like getting a beautiful appetizer and then the entrée never arrives.
"Nasty" has the opposite issue. It goes further emotionally — Seth and Phalin's connection has real stakes, real obstacles — but the ending feels like it was written in a rush. I wanted more resolution, more of that "where do we go from here" conversation. At nine hours total for both novellas, there was room. I felt it.
Sabrina B. Scales writes erotica with genuine emotional stakes, which is harder than it sounds. The physical scenes aren't just spice for spice's sake — they're revealing character, shifting power dynamics, showing vulnerability. That's the good stuff. I just wanted her to trust that readers (listeners?) would follow her into the deeper emotional territory she kept hinting at.
Who This Is For (And Who Should Swipe Past)
If you love romance audiobooks where the narrators are the main event — where the performances elevate the material and make you feel physically present in scenes — this is your listen. If you want two quick-hit stories with serious heat and enough emotional texture to make it more than just steam, you'll be happy here. Abuela would have clutched her rosary through approximately 60% of this audiobook and then asked me to replay the sweet parts. Miss you, Abuela.
But if you need a fully fleshed-out ending to feel satisfied? You might be a little frustrated. Both stories leave you wanting — and not always in the intentional, romantic-tension way.
This Book Felt Like a Holiday Playlist That Ends One Song Too Early
The vibes are immaculate when they're on. Jakobi Diem's voice is going to live in my head rent-free for a while. Wesleigh Siobhan's Tashena is the best friend narration I'll be comparing everyone else to. The emotional core is real, even when the structure doesn't quite hold it. I'm giving this a solid recommendation with the caveat that you'll want more — and honestly, wanting more from a book is not the worst problem to have.
