I’m over at AudioGals today with a review of Burned by Karen Marie Moning, narrated by Natalie Ross and Phil Gigante. The naration made the experience very enjoyable but I was really wanting more romance, especially for Mac and Barrons.
Category: audiobooks (Page 71 of 93)
I’m over at AudioGals today with a review of Gone Too Far by Suzanne Brockmann, narrated by Patrick Lawlor and Melanie Ewbank. Sam and Alyssa were always my favourite Troubleshooters couple so it was a lot of fun to revisit their story.
Why I read it: I bought this one because I need to catch up on the Kowalskis and my audiobook TBL is smaller. And, I was in the mood for a Shannon Stacey small town contemporary.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Josh Kowalski is tired of holding down the fort – better known as the Northern Star Lodge – while his siblings are off living their dreams. Now that his oldest brother has returned to Whitford, Maine, for good, Josh is free to chase some dreams of his own.
As the daughter of the lodge’s longtime housekeeper, Katie Davis grew up alongside the Kowalski kids. Though she’s always been “one of the guys”, her feelings for Josh are anything but sisterly. And after a hot late-night encounter in the kitchen, it’s clear Josh finally sees her as the woman she is.
Katie’s been waiting years for Josh to notice her, but now that he has, she’s afraid it’s too late. Giving her heart to a man who can’t wait to leave town is one sure way to have it broken. But Josh keeps coming up with excuses not to leave – could it be that everything he’s ever wanted is closer than he could have imagined?
What worked for me (and what didn’t): Josh Kowalski has been stuck running the Northern Star Lodge since his father died. It wasn’t what he wanted or what he chose – it was more that he was the one left standing when the music stopped. When this branch of the Kowalskis series began, Josh broke his leg and the various other family members came home to help him out. It then became clear just how unhappy and trapped Josh felt. Continue reading
Why I read it: I was provided with a review copy by Audible Studios.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) He’s lost his edge….
Photojournalist Cache Calder lives to chase a great story. He’s just returned from the Middle East after surviving a suicide bombing that left him injured and grief-stricken. The last thing he wants is to travel to the wilds of Alaska on a “Where Is She Now” Assignment. But when his editor informs him that his subject is former kidnapping victim, Amelia Bennett who jump-started his career 20 years earlier, he packs his bags.
She lives on the Edge….
Mel Bennett’s carefully maintained control unravels the moment she meets Cache Calder. Attraction flares for the man who seems to really “know” her. No one at the Edge of Reason Lodge is aware she was the young teenager who’d survived one of the most publicized kidnappings in recent history, and she wants it to stay that way. But she starts to question her heart and her sanity when unexplained incidents begin to happen and a deadly threat returns to finish what he’d started so long ago.
Trigger Warning: Rape (of a child, off page. NOT detailed, but mentioned in the story).
What worked for me (and what didn’t): First, let me say that I’m really glad I listened to this one because, at least in Australia, we pronounce “Cache” with a long “a” (ie Cay-sh) and I just don’t think I could have coped with a hero named after a place you hide things. Thankfully the narrator pronounced the name in the American way so I heard “Cash” which is just fine as a hero name! (*laughs at self*)
I’ve been a fan of romantic suspense for a long time. Perhaps because I love it so much, I have become very picky about it. I don’t mind a heightened reality but I want the world building to be consistent. I prefer more romance than suspense, or at least an even balance, rather than the other way around and I’m becoming averse to “torture porn”. I had high hopes for this book from a new-to-me author (and narrator as it happens). While parts of the book didn’t work for me that well, I did enjoy it and, in terms of the mix of romance and suspense, I think the book got it about right. Continue reading
I’m over at AudioGals today with a review of Worth the Fall by Claudia Connor, narrated by Johanna Parker. A Navy SEAL meets and falls in love with a pregnant widow who has four other children – and it totally works.
Why I read it: This one is from my own audiobook library. I listened over Christmas as a special gift to myself.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) As a lovely heiress, Roderica Delamore should be a prize catch–except for her shameful secret. She has the ability to hear the thoughts of those around her. Even her family and close friends can’t hide from her strange gift. Knowing that she can never marry, for no man could bear it, Roddy still longs hopelessly for a family of her own. Until she meets the man she’s been waiting for–the Earl of Iveragh, a mysterious Irish aristocrat whose thoughts are entirely closed to her.
The impoverished Devil Earl is damned in society by dark rumor and innuendo, and, for all she knows, he could be a liar, a rogue, or much, much worse. But Roddy must dance with him at midnight on All Hallows Eve, and entrust her life–and her heart–to a riveting stranger, called by his torment into the faerie mists to discover what she most fears about herself and her own magic.
What worked for me (and what didn’t): I read this book ages ago and it was originally published in the 1980s. I had fond memories of it. Listening to it, the story didn’t feel dated – or, at least, it felt dated in the time it was set, which is late Georgian England and Ireland. It’s quite an unusual book and different to Kinsale’s other romances in that it incorporates paranormal aspects. Roddy Delamore can hear the thoughts of others and for her entire life, this has set her apart. People see her as a freak and she feels she will have no life of her own as no husband will want her. When she happens to meet Faelan Savigar, the Earl of Iveragh, he is the only person she’s ever come across who’s mind is closed to her. It is pretty much that which decides her on him for her husband. She is wealthy and he needs money to repair his broken down estate. He is 35 and she is only 19 and very pretty and he can’t quite understand his good fortune to have attracted her but he is not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.
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