Tag: contemporary (Page 12 of 119)

So This is Christmas by Jenny Holiday, narrated by Cynthia Farrell

November 15, 2022 / Kaetrin

So This is Christmas by Jenny Holiday, narrated by Cynthia Farrell. I found the narration a little cold. (Pardon the pun)

So This Is Christmas is the third book in Jenny Holiday’s A Princess For Christmas series. This time, the starchy Mr. Benz, equerry to the King of Eldovia, gets his HEA. He’s played a pivotal cupid-like role in the earlier books, A Princess For Christmas and Duke, Actually but apart from that, until now, readers knew little about him. I’m here to tell you he’s a complete cinnamon roll. Not grumpy, but stiff and a little awkward on the outside and all marshmallow on the inside.

Cara Delaney is a change management executive from New York. She’s been supervising a subordinate, Brad, leading the project to modernise Mornot, the company wherein the Eldovian Crown holds a major stake and which is the main driver of the Eldovian economy. Mornot makes luxury watches but business hasn’t been good and the country’s economy is in danger. Brad broke his hip after falling from a roof and Cara had to take over the project at the last minute. She will spend the next month in Eldovia, flying home only on Christmas Eve. She will meet with the Mornot board, unions and employees and deliver her report of recommendations before she leaves. She’s sad to miss Thanksgiving with her parents, with whom she’s very close.

“Modernise” of course, usually means downsizing and layoffs so Matteo Benz is not happy to meet Cara. It’s not personal – he didn’t want to meet Brad either. When Matteo picks Cara up at the airport, he’s not only starchy, he’s outright prickly. He’s very open about not being happy to meet her.

Cara is pretty starchy herself, just in a different way. She’s very business oriented and doesn’t let a lot of feelings out. She avoids romantic entanglement.

Of course, romance listeners know that the sparks which fly when Matteo and Cara are in each other’s orbit means they’re destined to be together. I think I’d have been unconvinced in real life though.

Over the course of the month, Cara and Matteo are thrown together in various ways, going from a cold low-key hostile relationship to a truce, to a friendship to more. Even though they do get thrown together, there seemed to be a lot of time when they were doing things separately. I would have liked more of them together. They go from FWB to HEA at lightning speed. Their declarations of love felt hasty. There was an epilogue a year later which helped to embed the relationship but I felt like I missed the bit where they really fell in love. I did see their move to friendship and their blossoming attraction. It’s just that they jumped straight to the end from there and I had a kind of whiplash about it.

Possibly that was affected somewhat by the narration. Cynthia Farrell is a new-to-me narrator. She has a pleasing voice but it’s also a little on the strident side. The softer emotions were less impactful as a result. I didn’t warm as much to Cara as I think I may have in print.

Technically, Ms. Farrell performed well. There were no audible breath sounds or annoying tics. Her pacing was good.

There were however, multiple times where Cara’s voice and Matteo’s voice kind of blended and when one character began to talk it was not always clear to me who it was. Their voices were different but it felt like Ms. Farrell was a bit confused at times about which voice she was supposed to be using, so at the beginning of a piece of dialogue it would be equivocal and then settle into the right character. It was a little jarring.

Mostly though, I felt a certain lack of warmth in the story coming through the narration.

Having listened to all three books in the series now, my fondest wish is for all of them to have had the same narrator (preferably, the first one – Charlotte North). We now have three books where the character voices and their accents are all different. There is no narration consistency within the series – here, for example, Princess Marie had a thick German accent unlike in A Princess for Christmas and Imogen, the owner of the local pub did not have the Irish accent I expected to hear.

Ms. Farrell’s narration wasn’t bad. But I wonder if she might have been a bit mismatched to this project.

I enjoyed finding more out about the mysterious and stiff Mr. Benz and I’m glad he got his HEA. But So This Is Christmas didn’t have quite the warmth and charm of A Princess For Christmas had. That first book remains my favourite of the series and not inconsequently, it also has my favourite narration.

Grade: B

Review at Dear Author

October 5, 2022 / Kaetrin

I’m over at Dear Author with a review of Bad Girl Reputation by Elle Kennedy. A bit of a mixed bag.

Review at Dear Author

September 21, 2022 / Kaetrin

I’m over at Dear Author with a review of A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy & Sierra Simone. Super hot, super funny and super sweet all at once. Recommended.

The Best Man Problem by Mariah Ankenman, narrated by Charlotte North

September 15, 2022 / Kaetrin

The Best Man Problem by Mariah Ankenman, narrated by Charlotte North. Didn’t love the conflict at the end but otherwise a fun listen with great narration.

I’m a big fan of Charlotte North’s narrations and this led me to try a new-to-me author so I can get more of her in my ears. The Best Man Problem is book two in the Mile High Happiness series but can be read as a stand alone with no problems at all.

Lilly Walsh and her two BFFs run Mile High Happiness, a wedding planning business in Denver. (I admit I don’t know much about the wedding planning business but the setup of Mile High Happiness seemed a little unusual to me in that it seems that Lilly does the actual wedding planning and the other two women run other aspects of the business.) The book starts with what I assume is the wedding of the couple who were the protagonists in book one. Lilly is a bridesmaid for her best friend and has a hot one-night-stand with a handsome man she meets in the hotel bar after the event. It’s unusual for her (not that it matters if it wasn’t) but Lilly had an amazing time and can’t stop thinking about the man she only knows as Lincoln. From their conversation in the bar, she believes he’s in town for business and isn’t staying so she doesn’t think there is any chance a relationship could come of it.

Then Lilly’s next clients come in and introduce their best man – and you guessed it: it’s Lincoln! Not only is he the best man but he’s moved to Denver after a messy divorce (two years ago) and in fact there is no barrier to a long term relationship for he and Lilly except for two things: Lilly has a strict “no dating a member of the wedding party” rule and Lincoln is soured on relationships and happy-ever-afters following the implosion of his marriage. Still, the attraction between Lilly and Lincoln is intense and they keep being thrown into one another’s orbit. Add to that a matchmaking bride and BFFs who don’t mind meddling and, as the wedding draws near, the couple are rethinking their attitudes.

I enjoyed the banter and the chemistry between the love interests and I liked the humour of the story and the general feel-good vibe of it. What I didn’t love is the conflict near the end. Lilly’s rule about not dating a member of the wedding party is as a result of a lesson hard learned and when she tells Lincoln about it, after the wedding and they’re free to explore things with each other, his reaction is pretty terrible. Lincoln’s ex-wife was a cheating cheater who cheated and he clearly has some work to do to put it behind him and be able to move on. As we all know, just because one relationship ends doesn’t mean they all do. The way he took his ex-wife’s behaviours out on Lilly was not okay with me. And, I didn’t really see him doing the work of processing his feelings so that I had confidence he wouldn’t massively overreact again. Lilly was altogether too forgiving in my view.

Still, overall, I did like both Lilly and Lincoln and I wasn’t unhappy they ended up together. It’s just that I’d have liked Lincoln to have either not freaked out the way he did or, having done so, made better reparations than a grand gesture. The man needed therapy!

Charlotte North’s narration was, of course, a delight and that made the story all the more enjoyable. Ms. North has a lovely tone and cadence to her voice generally which makes it pleasing to hear but she also delivers on character voices, emotion and humour. Her comedic timing is very good. I especially liked here that she had a distinct voice for all three of the ladies of Mile High Happiness.

The only thing I don’t love about Ms. North’s narration is a personal pet peeve when it comes to audiobooks. When there’s reference to a chuckle or a cough or similar, I want to either hear it in the dialogue or hear it described in words – but not both. She will do the “he coughed” and then make a coughing noise. Do not like. Like I said, this is a personal pet peeve and probably plenty of other listeners could not care less about it.

Most of The Best Man Problem was a lot of fun, though not without touching on some heavier topics (the bride Lilly is working with is a cancer survivor, cheating ex-partners on both sides and a problematic parental relationship) and the narration was very good. Lincoln showed his feet of clay near the end though and didn’t quite manage to convince me – though the epilogue some months later did help a little.

Grade: B-

Thank You For Listening by Julia Whelan, narrated by Julia Whelan

August 30, 2022 / Kaetrin

Thank You For Listening by Julia Whelan, narrated by Julia Whelan. A delight for my ears.

Julia Whelan has long been one of my very favourite narrators. I love the way she presents characters, her emotion, her style, and, at base, I just like her voice. It’s very pleasing to my ear. She’s a talented actress who brings those skills to her performances as well and that combination is just killer. Any romance narrated by Julia Whelan will get my attention and so, as soon as I established that Thank You For Listening does in fact have a HEA, I was all grabby hands.

Sewanee (pronounced “Swanny”) Chester is an actress who lost her career when she also lost an eye in an accident seven years before the book begins. She turned to audiobook narration, at first in romance, under the pseudonym, Sarah Westholme. But Swan, as she most commonly goes by, doesn’t believe in love and happy ever afters and got out of romance and into general fiction, using her real name.

While at a book convention in Las Vegas, she meets “the rake” (the chapters have titles) and they have one hot night together. She uses the alias, Alice, on the basis of “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” and only knows Nick by his first name. His Irish charm is winning though and Swan keeps thinking about him when she returns to LA.

Swan’s beloved grandmother has dementia and is an assisted living facility. She will soon need more care and that is going to cost a lot of money she doesn’t have, so when a fantastic offer is made to revive Sarah Westholme one more time for a duet narration with the fan favourite, Brock McKnight, Swan says yes.

Brock is famously secretive about his true identity (think someone like Sebastian York – although Brock is emphatically NOT York – more on this later) but his voice has apparently melted panties all over the USA and probably parts of the rest of the world too. For myself, I don’t think of narrators quite that way. I do appreciate a sexy voice (I mean, who doesn’t?) but I don’t then sexualise the narrator. Apparently there are a lot of (mainly) women who do. There’s a whole world over on Facebook I’m only peripherally involved in. Brock is uncomfortable with the way he’s been sexualised by his fandom and doesn’t really love audiobooks or romance but he’s good at it and it’s a living. Brock has his reasons for the way he feels which I won’t go into here because spoilers but I admit I had mixed feelings about both narrators in the novel not liking romance. To be honest, I couldn’t help but wonder…

Which brings me to that “more on that later” I mentioned earlier. Right at the end of the audio is an author’s note chapter titled “on Autobiography” where Ms. Whelan talks about how the book came to be and specifically says that Swan is not her (even though they do share some commonalities, which she details) and that Brock is not based on any narrator from real life. Brock is a work of fiction and so is Swan. I was relieved to hear that Ms. Whelan loves her job. I’m really glad she included that chapter because as she mentions at the beginning of it, the nature of her actual job and the characters in the book mean there will inevitably be questions about just how fictional the story is.

Some of the book is nonetheless fairly meta – discussion about not outing a narrator’s pseudonym for example (don’t do that) and about some of the more rabid areas of the romance fandom are true, and the nuts and bolts of audiobook narrating are rooted in reality. Because of that mix of real and fictional, it was, I think, especially important for her to be clear and I’m glad she was.

Back to the book. As Sarah and Brock begin to record their duet narration for what is a serial to be released weekly in eight parts, they start to trade texts and emails and build a connection outside of work. It’s flirty and fun and sexy. They grow closer and eventually they decide to meet. In person. In real life. This is a BIG deal. Both are nervous.

For the listener there are many questions. Brock’s voice is not Irish so he can’t be Nick, so who is the HEA going to be with? Will there be a love triangle? Is Brock good-looking or does he just have a sexy voice? What will Swan think of him when they actually meet? Where’s Nick? Is he coming back or was Nick kind of a breaking of a seal which enabled Swan to open herself to Brock? Where, exactly was this promised HEA coming from? So many questions!

There are also family issues with Swan’s father and grandmother, unresolved issues related to Swan’s accident and her grief about it, the possibility of acting again with her best friend and fellow actor, Adaku. I have to mention that I fell a little in love with Swan’s mother’s new partner, Stu. He was so funny and sweet. I laughed hard at the text messages he sent.

Thank You For Listening is a hybrid of women’s fiction and contemporary romance but there is definitely a romance and a very satisfying one too. In some ways, it is two books, smushed together; there are particular sections which are very romance-y and others which are not. As for heat, there’s not a lot of on-page sex but what there is brings some steam. I didn’t feel robbed.

The narration, of course, is stellar. I very quickly cared about the characters and Julia Whelan’s vocal performance only added to my enjoyment. Because Ms. Whelan also wrote the book, she knew the characters inside out and that had to be an advantage when she was performing them.

Audio narration is acting and the best narrators do more than just read us a story. There’s a bit of discussion in the novel about AI maybe eventually being a significant player in audiobook narration and I cannot tell you how vehemently I rejected the idea. But, as the novel points out, there is an entire generation of listeners who may not know the difference. How sad that would be for them.

Grade: A

Bet On It by Jodie Slaughter, narrated by Angel Pean

August 25, 2022 / Kaetrin

Bet On It by Jodie Slaughter, narrated by Angel Pean. Much heavier in tone than I expected.

I’m usually really good at ignoring a cover image and not falling for the “illustrated cover equals romantic comedy” trap but with Bet On It I slipped and fell in. To be fair, there is a content note right in the beginning saying that the book deals with mental illness, which I knew already from the blurb:

The first time Aja Owens encounters the man of her dreams, she’s having a panic attack in the frozen foods section of the Piggly Wiggly. The second time, he’s being introduced to her as her favorite bingo buddy’s semi-estranged grandson. From there, all it takes is one game for her to realize that he’s definitely going to be a problem. And if there’s anything she already has a surplus of, it’s problems.

In Walker Abbott’s mind, there are only two worthwhile things in Greenbelt, South Carolina. The peach cobbler at his old favorite diner and his ailing grandmother. Dragging himself back after more than a decade away, he’s counting down the days until Gram heals and he can get back to his real life. Far away from the trauma inside of those city limits. Just when he thinks his plan is solid, enter Aja to shake everything up.

A hastily made bingo-based sex pact is supposed to keep this…thing between them from getting out of hand. Especially when submitting to their feelings means disrupting their carefully balanced lives. But emotions are just like bingo callers—they refuse to be ignored.

but I really wasn’t expecting the book to be as heavy in tone as it was. After all, there’s a sex pact! Those expectations affected my experience of the book. Dear AudioGals reader, if you do not have the same expectation going in, this book may well work for you much better than it did for me.

The mental health representation in the book is excellent. It’s accurate and sympathetic. And detailed. At times it felt more like a primer for how to be friends with someone with a mental illness than a romance novel. The focus on mental illness and mental health took up a lot of real estate in the novel which I also wasn’t expecting.

There is a strong focus on Aja making friends in her new town, which was incredibly important to her but it, too, took up a lot of space in the story which wasn’t time she was with Walker. I love strong female friendships, but I really love a lot of the main characters together and given a choice I’ll pick the latter most of the time. This is very much a personal preference so YMMV.

There were some laughs for me in the book (the reference to an intervention for example) but they were few and far between.

More than anything else though, it took a long time for anything to happen and there was a lot of detail about the things that did, which only served to slow the pace down. I found myself getting bored and interrupting the book to listen to other things instead. Always a bad sign.

I’ve read and listened to plenty of novels with great mental health rep which were also moving, entertaining, funny and/or otherwise very enjoyable. But Bet On It felt very dense to me (mostly because of that slowness factor) and there were too-few lighter moments to break things up. I had been hoping for lots of snappy banter; more zing and sizzle, less internal monologuing.

The sex was scorching hot though. Ms. Slaughter sure knows how to write a sex scene.

The narration was good but not good enough to get me over the hurdle of the slow pace of the story and its density. The character voices were well differentiated. I particularly liked Miss May’s characterisation.

I’m honestly not sure if Ms. Pean’s pacing was just a little slow or if it was entirely the story but either way, I found myself impatient for things to move faster.

I liked the accents used for the various characters and the differentiation given to them. I would certainly listen to Ms. Pean again.

I’d also listen or read more from Jodie Slaughter but I might do a bit more research first so that my expectations were better calibrated beforehand.

Grade: C