Musings on Romance

Category: audiobooks (Page 5 of 93)

The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren, narrated by Cindy Kay and Jonathan Cole

The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren, narrated by Cindy Kay and Jonathan Cole. I loved it. One for the best of list.

Illustrated/cartoon style cover with beach scene - a guy and is carrying a girl in his arms, camera lighting is visible.

 

I’ve had some great success with Christina Lauren books in the past – whether reading or listening to them and something about the blurb for The True Love Experiment called to me. A TV producer (single dad!! Yes!) and a romance author pair up to create a reality TV dating show, a la The Bachelorette. I’m not even a huge fan of reality TV, let alone dating shows. Still, I was super keen to try this one.

Connor Prince III is an English guy who has been living in the US for some years – he still has his yummy accent though. (Another yes!) He is divorced and has a remarkably great relationship with his ex-wife, Natalia– who is more like a best friend than anything else – and together they share custody of their 10-year-old daughter, Stevie.

Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is a popular romance author who is in both a dating and writing slump. She’s bubbly, energetic, generous and fun. She has never really thought that there would be a soulmate or “the one” for her but she likes romance and sex and is pretty disappointed that she’s had a significant dry spell.

Connor is a producer at a TV production company which had been specialising in environmental documentaries. Only, the boss, Blaine, has decided they need to get into reality TV to make a lot of money and Connor has been tasked with making a reality dating show. He’s not enthused but there is not a lot of work for producers in San Diego. If he leaves for LA where there is more work, he will be too far away from Stevie and that’s not what he wants at all. He’s a hands-on dad who sees his daughter every weekend (although there is a large amount of flexibility between him and Nat, as required, when one or the other has something on). His own father was absent and Connor will not be that guy. Plus, he loves Stevie to bits. He’s been promised money for his next nature documentary if he comes through on the dating show so he’s going to suck it up.

A chance encounter at a bar when he sees Fizzy across the room inspires him and before you know it, Fizzy is the lead in the dating show and, at her suggestion, he’s casting hero archetypes as her potential love interests.

Prior to the show commencing filming, Fizzy challenges Connor to undertake joyful (non-sexual) activities together and over this time each begins to feel more and more the pull of attraction.

Once filming starts, things only get worse – while the “heroes” are all well and good, none of them are Connor. What to do?

It was a delight.

Special shout out to River Pena, the hero from The Soulmate Equation (which I now definitely have to read) who is one of Fizzy’s BFFs. Her other BFF is his wife, Jess. Fizzy is not at all shy – about sex or anything else. She is delightfully blunt. Poor River tends to walk in on Fizzy and Jess in the middle of an explicit conversation – “It was the size of my fist!” – and immediately, without a word, turns around and leaves. It made me laugh out loud in glee.

The romance between Connor and Fizzy is wonderful. Sexy and charming and sweet and just great. I enjoyed the characters separately but together they were something even better.

I loved the narration. If I had one tiny criticism it would be that very occasionally – and I mean very occasionally, I thought the way a certain line was delivered didn’t quite fit the text but that is a tiny criticism as compared to my overall enjoyment.

Cindy Kay does a great English accent for Connor – this actually feels pretty rare to me. Commonly, a British narrator will do a good US accent but the reverse isn’t as often true. Her deeper tone for Connor worked great for me too. Fizzy is well named – she has this chaotic energy about her and Ms. Kay imbued her voice with just that quality without making her annoying or over the top.

I just went and checked my audio file because I could not for the life of me remember if Jonathan Cole used a US accent for Fizzy’s voice. And do you know, he does not. And I DID NOT NOTICE when I was listening. I did not care. How weird is that?? Ordinarily I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to accents. Perhaps it was merely that I found Mr. Cole’s accent overall delightful to listen to – he definitely had a touch of the Richard Armitage’s about him – that I was in a daze the entire time. Whatever is the case, I ought to probably have liked the listen less on the basis of Mr. Cole being unable to or choosing not to use an American accent for the American Fizzy. I ought to have but I didn’t.

Both narrators delivered on character. Mr. Cole was as able to express Fizzy’s energy as Ms. Kay. And Ms. Kay was as good at embodying (emvoicing?) Connor as Mr. Cole was.

I raced through this listen. Just about everything about it worked for me.

In hindsight, I would have liked to have had a little bit more information about how Blaine reacted to the denouement and what consequences, if any, it had (and if none, why) but when I was listening I didn’t really feel any lack.

The True Love Experiment is definitely going to make my best of list for this year, no doubt.

Grade: A

Point Last Seen by Christina Dodd, narrated by Vanessa Johansson

Point Last Seen by Christina Dodd, narrated by Vanessa Johansson. Not my favourite.

Long view of a beach with a rock formation in the background which has a gap in is through which light can be seen. There is a woman in the middle ground standing on the beach facing the light.

 

I used to read a lot of Christina Dodd contemporary romances back in the day so when I saw the prequel novella Welcome to Gothic for her Last Seen in Gothic series on Audible as a Daily Deal I decided to give it a go. It was one of those rare prequels which was a complete (if condensed) story, complete with HEA and it inspired me to request Point Last Seen for review – officially book one of the series.

Whereas the novella included a time travel aspect, Point Last Seen doesn’t.

Gothic is a quirky town near Big Sur, basically owned by a famous acting family. The current “heir” is more of a self-help guru rather than an actor, with many businesses, a line of clothing and ready-to-eat meals. She owns most of the businesses in the town and leases them to the locals.

Adam Ramsdell moved to Gothic for unknown and secret reasons. He’s basically a loner and he likes it that way. He’s an armourer/metal artist. His introduction is more mysterious than it needed to be.

Despite Adam’s reluctance, he’s clearly been adopted by the town and whether he likes it or not, he’s part of them.

Adam is told by “Madame Rune” the local psychic to go to the sea and find a “lost soul”. He does, because reasons, and he finds a woman washed up on the shore. She’s bruised and battered, having clearly been the victim of some violence before ending up in the ocean. He can’t find a pulse but when he lifts her body to transport it, she spews out water and returns to life.

She is “Elle”. She knows there is more to her name but she cannot remember it. She cannot remember very much actually, the trauma of her “death” having caused amnesia.

Point Last Seen wanted me to accept a number of propositions I struggled with. One was not taking Elle to a hospital or even an actual doctor. No, instead Elle is taken to a vet (at least he was formerly a doctor – in the war in Korea) who does not even examine her. This woman had been strangled and drowned. These are things which need to be checked out.

The next was Adam and Elle sharing a bed almost immediately (non-sexually). I know there are romance reasons but I found it hard to believe someone who had been the victim of violence and who had amnesia would snuggle up to Adam the very same day he found her.

The day after, Adam and Elle were talking and Adam said “you know me” in the context of “you know me, I always do this”. When the fact was Elle didn’t know Adam – at all. There were a number of times things like this jarred me out of the story. It made me crabby.

It becomes apparent early on that Elle had been on a research ship in the ocean and had got into a fight with the funder of the expedition because of something illegal he wanted Elle to do which she refused. He was injured and almost killed. Elle went overboard. NOBODY LOOKED FOR ELLE. Logically the first thing you’d do when there’s such an incident (with funder of the expedition being found on deck nearly dead) is at least do a head count!

The villain was so much of a caricature – my eyes hurt from all the rolling.

But wait, there’s more. There was another villain too. This time it was Adam’s nemesis – he was also eye-rollingly bad.

In between those mysteries and the question of who Elle really is (and it’s clear some people in the town recognise her looks somehow even though they’ve never met her before), there is a lot about the quirky locals. There was a vast tonal shift between the serious danger Elle was in and these parts, which didn’t work for me.

Vanessa Johansson narrated both audiobooks. I enjoyed her performance well enough in Welcome to Gothic but less so in Point Last Seen. One of the reasons was that she chose to present Adam as hesitant and nervous – almost to the point of him having a bit of a stutter – when he wasn’t described that way by the text. There was also occasional confusion between which character was talking. Not often, but sometimes, the wrong character voice was used. The text did Ms. Johansson no favours though. I wasn’t enjoying the listen and that makes me prone to being nitpicky.

Point Last Seen was long. So. Long. The time period of the story was only about 3 weeks but the listen clocked in at 11 hours 19 minutes – but it felt longer than that. It could easily have been cut by a third with nothing significant having been lost. There was too much extraneous detail.

I did not enjoy this one.

 

Grade: C-

Forgotten in Death by JD Robb, narrated by Susan Ericksen

Forgotten in Death by JD Robb, narrated by Susan Ericksen.  When I said I was right back into the series, I meant it!

picture of a cityscape on the lower half, on the top is ragged-edged checkerplate metal in blue (like aged copper).

 

Homicide detective Eve Dallas sifts through the wreckage of the past to find a killer.

The body was left in a dumpster like so much trash, the victim a woman of no fixed address, known for offering paper flowers in return for spare change—and for keeping the cops informed of any infractions she witnessed on the street. But the notebook where she scribbled her intel on litterers and other such offenders is nowhere to be found.

Then Eve is summoned away to a nearby building site to view more remains—in this case decades old, adorned with gold jewelry and fine clothing—unearthed by recent construction work. She isn’t happy when she realizes that the scene of the crime belongs to her husband, Roarke—not that it should surprise her, since the Irish billionaire owns a good chunk of New York. Now Eve must enter a complex world of real estate development, family history, shady deals, and shocking secrets to find justice for two women whose lives were thrown away…

Forgotten in Death is a twofer – two separate crime scenes a block apart, two separate murders decades apart. Are they connected? This one is a less ambitious story than the previous book with a plot which is somewhat disjointed at times but still entertaining. I did appreciate Eve taking the time to go back into the first victim’s past and setting that right (as right as it could be at least).

Susan Ericksen’s narration is a large part of the enjoyment. I recognised the regular characters by voice alone and I love the way she helps me connect to the new characters – some of whom have only very brief airtime. I know that she will deliver a great narration – it’s part of why I keep coming back.

I get through an In Death book very quickly – 3 or 4 days tops – and after 53 books, it’s impressive it still holds my interest so well.

Grade: B+

Faithless in Death by JD Robb, narrated by Susan Ericksen

Faithless in Death by JD Robb, narrated by Susan Ericksen. After taking a break from the series, I’m right back into it.

mostly its the titles but in the background is a window with a red glow outside of it

 

What looked like a lover’s quarrel turned fatal has larger – and more terrifying – motives behind it…

The scene in the West Village studio appears to be classic crime-of-passion: two wine glasses by the bed, music playing, and a young sculptor named Ariel Byrd with the back of her head bashed in. But when Dallas tracks down the wealthy Upper East Side woman who called 911, the details don’t add up. Gwen Huffman is wealthy, elegant, comforted by her handsome fiancé as she sheds tears over the trauma of finding the body–but why did it take an hour to report it? And why is she lying about little things?

As Eve and her team look into Gwen, her past, and the people around her, they find that the lies are about more than murder. As with sculpture, they need to chip away at the layers of deception to find the shape within–and soon they’re getting the FBI involved in a case that involves a sinister, fanatical group and a stunning criminal conspiracy.

After a long break between In Death listens, I’m right back into the series. Faithless in Death is a strong entry into the series, with awful bad guys and a message about acceptance and a rejection of bigotry that hit the spot for me. Mavis and Leonardo are buying a house and there are updates with Peabody and McNab as well as the usual (welcome) interludes with Roarke and Eve. Susan Ericksen’s narration embodies the In Death series for me. Even if I read a book, it’s her voice(s) I hear in my head as I do. She’s consistently reliable and has a wide range of character voices – which is necessary with such a large recurring cast.

Grade: B

To Hold and Protect by Sandra Owens, narrated by Patrick Zeller

To Hold and Protect by Sandra Owens, narrated by Patrick Zeller. Not enough of the dog!

Red Labrador in foreground, slightly behind the dog is a hot white guy with dark hair in a dark henley and jeans and slightly behind him and to the centre is a pretty white woman with red gold hair wearing jeans, a button down and an olive green jacket. Behind them a large two storey house is on fire.

 

To Hold and Protect is the third book in the K-9 Defenders series set in the fictional town of Marsville, North Carolina and which tracks the romances and HEAs of the Church brothers. Parker Church is, somewhat surprisingly, all things considered, both a highly successful artist (known as “Park C”) and the full time Fire Chief in Marsville. He’s also the single dad of a nearly-6-year-old daughter, Everly. (When does the man sleep??)

I first met Parker and Everly in the first book, In His Protection (about the oldest brother, Tristan and his HEA with Skyler) which I also reviewed here at AudioGals.

Children’s book author, Willow Landry, has inherited the house next door to Parker from an uncle with whom she had no meaningful relationship. After a breakup with a man she was living with and, as it turned out, didn’t love all that much, she decided to move to the house, renovate and sell it and with the proceeds, move to the beach* (*exact beach to be decided).

Parker tends to fall in love easily and quickly and every time it gets him into trouble. The last time, he had a disastrous relationship but he ended up with Everly so he’s calling that good. He dearly loves his daughter. All the Church brothers do. But since becoming a parent, Parker has been very careful to provide a consistent and safe home life for Everly. So, when he first encounters Willow, he’s dismayed to find himself both disturbed by and deeply attracted to her. Initially, he plans to ignore the attraction but proximity and a daughter whose fondest wish is to have a mother soon show that to be an impossible ask.

For her part, Willow couldn’t help but notice Parker is the most handsome man she’s ever met and she quickly falls in love with Everly. She’s a little slower to fall for Parker – but only a little. However, Willow is not planning on staying in Marsville. Parker doesn’t want Everly to get attached to Willow if she’s just going to leave. How can they have a HEA? (Don’t worry – they work it out in the end of course!)

Meanwhile, there’s an arsonist at work in Marsville. The arsonist is leaving messages for Parker which indicate there’s some kind of personal motivation to the fires. Over the course of the book, as Parker and Willow fall deeper and deeper in love (albeit denying it for most of the way there), the investigation into who is setting the fires continues. The fires get closer and closer to home until everything Parker loves is put at risk.

Parker’s red Labrador, Ember, assists him to investigate as she is trained to sniff out accelerant. Sadly there wasn’t enough Ember in the story for me. (I’m a firm believer that a series called “K-9 Defenders” should have much more dog.)

I have previously enjoyed Patrick Zeller’s narration and there was a lot to like here too. I like the way he uses the character voice which applies to whoever’s POV he’s in. Any narration that’s not dialogue as well as the dialogue from the POV character is in that same voice. It’s a clear signal to the listener of a change and it helped me orient myself in the story. He’s also good with emotion – although… ultimately here I thought it was just a bit too much. For me it needed to be pulled back a little. It seemed overacted and at times, overwrought.

When a character is excited – anxious or scared for example, Mr. Zeller speeds his voice up quite a bit. Now, this is a true reflection of how things work in real life but in this listen, it was just a little too fast, a little too much.

If he’d pulled it back about 20% the narration would have been in the A range for me.

I wasn’t surprised by the reveal of the arsonist (I picked who it was very early on) and there were aspects of the story which were a little overwrought too, but overall the listen was enjoyable and entertaining.

Grade: B

Legacy by Nora Roberts, narrated by January LaVoy

Legacy by Nora Roberts, narrated by January LaVoy. Great narration but fairly light on the romance. Watch out for some fatphobia too.

Autumn scene of trees and a river with a covered bridge

 

Legacy is Nora Roberts’ 2021 release which has been languishing on my TBR until now. While I think it is not close to her best work, it certainly held my interest. The romance side of things is very slow to start and not at all the main focus of the book.

Adrian Rizzo was 7 years old when her father tried to kill her. She had been raised by a single mother; her biological father was a college professor who couldn’t keep it in his pants, had a problem with alcohol and was violent when he didn’t get his way. Somehow a reporter found out about Adrian’s existence which led to the professor’s downfall and definitely makes him (and his wife!) unhappy. So, dear old dad pays Adrian’s mother a visit and does violence to all in the house. As much damage as he causes, he does not survive the experience.

Adrian’s mother started “Yoga Baby”, fitness and workout classes, videos and merchandise. By age 16, Adrian wants to start her own version of the business and over the next few years, becomes very successful. Around the time she first found success with “Next Generation” she started getting poems containing death threats – one a year at first.

Adrian ends up moving to a small town where her grandparents are and settling in. She’s not like her mother who enjoys constant travel. Adrian wants to put down roots. She prefers to have a streaming type service for her workouts but does videos with her mother regularly too.

There’s a lot of family stuff. Roberts writes engaging characters so it was entertaining enough, particularly with excellent narration from January LaVoy.

Adrian’s eventual love interest is Raylan Wells. But Raylan has a tragedy of his own to live through first. (I’d heard about this from a friend when the book first came out and it was a reason I delayed starting Legacy.)

The threats to Adrian are escalating and eventually Adrian’s mother puts a private investigator on the case. She has more time than the police or FBI and she starts to make headway. She also finds out that “the poet” has killed multiple women in the years since he or she first started sending verses to Adrian. The threat to Adrian is very real.

The fitness and wellness aspects of the book were the least interesting for me. A little too much information and I felt uncomfortable with some of the messaging around the topic which I felt was fatphobic.

There were multiple instances where a character I came to care about died and I cried when I got to those bits.

The romance between Adrian and Raylan doesn’t even get started until 2/3 into the book and it’s fairly thinly developed. I prefer Roberts’ standalones which have more developed romance.

There were some other parts of the book which were a bit light on – for instance, Adrian is described as having a lifelong friendship with a character by the name of Lorilee but there’s almost nothing more about it in the book.

However, January LaVoy is always a pleasure to listen to and she elevated the story with her performance. As the title suggests, the characters in Legacy are multigenerational – Ms. LaVoy had the opportunity to showcase her wide variety of voices – multiple children, teens, adults and the elderly – all genders and all different. Just fantastic.

Of course, her tone and emotion was also wonderful, as I’ve come to expect.

While Legacy wasn’t my favourite, the narration alone made it worthwhile.

Grade: B

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