Category: audiobooks (Page 8 of 94)

Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan, narrated by Hillary Huber

August 9, 2022 / Kaetrin

Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan, narrated by Hillary Huber. I was worried about a bait-and-switch there for a while but everything turned out okay in the end!

Nora Goes Off Script is fairly simple in its premise. A woman who writes a screenplay and the production uses part of her house for some of the filming. The lead actor asks to stay on for reasons and offers to pay an exorbitant rate per day for the privilege. She could use the money so says yes and while he’s staying in her “tea house”, they fall in love. (The road to true love never runs smooth of course, so there’s a bit more to it than that.)

Nora usually writes scripts for The Romance Channel and she uses a fairly similar formula so there’s something a bit meta about it all – something which the author and Nora lean into over the course of the book. I didn’t take it as a dunk on romance; the formula works for a reason. But with all that foreshadowing about how romances usually work, it stands to reason that there’d be a plot twist here.

In fact, for quite a while I wondered how it was going to work out. For a reasonable amount of time in the latter half/third of the book I didn’t think much of Leo Vance and did not see how a HEA could happen that I could accept – at least, not with him. But then I’d look at how much I had left of the listen and started to stress about whether there’d be time for a believable romance for Nora with someone else. I wondered if this was a “women’s fiction” book mislabelled as a romance; I wondered if it was a romance at all (yes, I went to some dark places!). I wondered if there’d be a bait and switch and a new love interest would turn up in the last chapter. I wondered whether I’d need to throw my iPod across the room.

I’m here to tell you that the book is not mislabelled. The romance is ultimately very satisfying and I did not see what I’ll call the plot twist coming. (I’m calling it that because I don’t want to give spoilers away not because that’s necessarily the best term for it.) I ended up enjoying the book more because I didn’t know how it was going to end so I don’t want to ruin it for others.

Nora Hamilton is a divorced mother of two. She’s been pretty much the sole parent even before her husband, Ben, left her. He was a jerk who wanted everyone to do everything for him and who thought the world revolved around him. To process her feelings, she writes a script, based on the breakdown of her marriage. It’s most definitely not a romance and her agent shops it to a major studio which snaps it up. Big Hollywood actors are cast and they want to use the tea house on her rural property to film some pivotal scenes. Leo Vance plays the “Ben” character – although in the movie The Tea House, his name is Trevor. Leo is clearly struggling with something while he’s there filming but seems to find a measure of peace in the sunrise. In the words of Nora’s 8-year-old daughter, Bernadette, the sun “comes up here”. Of course it comes up everywhere every day but there is something special about Laurel Ridge, New York, and their house in particular. Leo clearly sees it so he makes Nora an offer she can’t refuse; he will pay her a thousand dollars a day to stay for a week.

Arthur, Nora’s 10-year-old son, has been cast as Fagin in the school musical Oliver! and as Leo begins to learn the rhythms of Laurel Ridge and Nora’s regular routine, he finds himself helping Arthur run lines and then agreeing to stay until opening night three weeks away.

Nora, Arthur and Bernadette all fall in love with Leo. He’s gorgeous and funny and he’s self-deprecating in a way that’s unexpected for a such a big star. I did have a little trouble believing he didn’t really know how to go grocery shopping (surely there was a time before fame for him?) but it was amusing anyway.

It’s hard to imagine Leo actually staying in Laurel Ridge though. Nora has a very strict routine, built to keep her life running in all the ways and its equally hard to imagine Nora changing her life to be with Leo.

There’s far more about Nora than anyone else in the story which is to be expected given that it’s told in her first person (present tense) perspective.

When things inevitably fall apart (because of course) there’s a large portion of the book and quite a bit of time (months and months of time) where it’s just Nora and the kids. The longer this section went on the more worried I got. And this was also where I didn’t like Leo much. I had reasons.

The narration by Hillary Huber is very good. She gives Nora a cynical, somewhat jaded edge which was in keeping with the text but turned up a few notches. The cadence of the performance is a little different; sometimes it felt more like Ms. Huber was reading a list but this worked as well. Nora is kind of like that.

I liked Ms. Huber’s male character voices (although they mostly sounded the same, with Martin, the director of The Tea House, being the notable exception) and her kid voices were solid as well.

There were some moments I laughed out loud, mostly because of Nora’s dry wit and, rendered in Ms. Huber’s tone, I think it worked even better for me than it would have on the page.

Ordinarily in a romance I prefer to spend more time with the love interests together and, as a hero-centric listener, I prefer a lot more of the hero. Here, it was sometimes difficult for me to tell who that actually was or even if there was one. But the structure of the story required it and in the end it paid off for me.

Grade: B

July Round Up

August 4, 2022 / Kaetrin

Monthly Mini Review

The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris, narrated by Sam Woolf – A I listen to the Noble Blood podcast (recommend!) and recently, host Dana Schwarz interviewed Lindsey Fitzharris about her new book, The Facemaker (also on my TBL). She mentioned her debut (The Butchering Art) and I decided to start there as I’ve long had an interest in non-fiction about the history of science, disease and medicine. The Butchering Art tells the story of Joseph Lister, the Victorian surgeon who introduced antiseptic techniques to surgery and saved countless lives by doing so. At seven and a half hours, it is not an exhaustive biography, nor is it intended to be. Rather, as the author said in her recent interview, she distills the information so the finished product reads like narrative fiction. This book was infinitely interesting to me. I was hooked from the start and stayed that way; I was not bored for a single second. In fact, if anything, I was left wanting more.

The narration is excellent. Mr. Woolf gives character voices to speakers just like in narrative fiction and delivers the story with similar tone and expression. The combination of story and narration was a perfect pairing. It’s all true and it’s all fascinating. Continue reading

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center, narrated by Patty Murin

July 27, 2022 / Kaetrin

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center, narrated by Patty Murin. Fantastic narration and a funny contemporary romance – but note some heavier topics in there including parental death, death of a sibling and cancer. But if those things aren’t dealbreakers, this one comes with a big recommend from me.

I suppose The Bodyguard would be categorised by many as a “romcom” but, funny as it is (and it really is) I shy away from the term. For starters, it suggests light and fluffy and the very first thing that happens in this book is the female lead’s mother’s death. While that part isn’t on page; the story begins the evening of the funeral.

The male lead character’s own mother is dealing with breast cancer (although she has an excellent result). There’s also reference, in the past, to domestic abuse (the heroine’s mother), alcoholism and death of a sibling (the hero’s brother). Those are all heavy things. While I wouldn’t describe this book as depressing, the topics covered are far too serious for the term “romcom” to sit well with me.

Instead, it’s a very funny contemporary romance, with low heat (that’s fine – it really didn’t need it) with the main characters facing some big issues over the course of the book.

Hannah Brooks is an Executive Protection Agent (aka bodyguard). She travels the world from her Houston base, providing protection services to the wealthy and sometimes famous. Up until the day after her mother’s funeral, she was dating a co-worker, Robbie. But he dumps her (he’s a real piece of work) and within the space of a month, Hannah has lost her mother, her boyfriend and her best friend (Robbie dates her next).

Hannah is not generally a warm and fuzzy type. She’s focused, mainly on work. She describes herself as a “shark” who needs to keep moving. When she’s still there are too many hard things to think about and she’d really rather not.

The agency Hannah works for has picked up a new celebrity client; Jack Stapleton. Jack is a famous Hollywood actor who has been reclusive for the past few years since the death of his younger brother, Drew, in a car accident. There are rumours, unsubstantiated and well quashed by Jack’s publicist, that he was driving drunk and that is what caused the accident. He’s been living quietly in North Dakota but comes home to be with his mother after she gets a breast cancer diagnosis. His mother wanted Jack to be with her as she faces surgery and whatever treatment is needed afterwards.

Jack is estranged from his older brother, Hank, and this causes extra problems because Hank is the ranch manager at the family farm.

Hannah is assigned as the primary agent for Jack’s protection while he is in Houston. It’s her opportunity to land the plum assignment of opening the London branch. She’s competing with Robbie and only one of them can succeed. She’s determined it will be her.

There are some suspenseful moments in the book but this is not a romantic suspense. In fact, my main criticism of the story is that Hannah doesn’t get enough opportunity to show her professional competence and skill. Instead, Hannah ends up pretending to be Jack’s girlfriend in order not to alarm Jack’s family and in particular his mother, who does not need any extra stress. Because reasons, Jack and Hannah end up staying at the family farm for a few weeks so the pretence becomes 24/7 and ongoing rather than only for occasional visits.

Hannah, who has been so alone (she and her alcoholic mother were not close) falls for Jack’s parents who have the kind of marriage she thought only appeared on TV. They are loving and lovely and she is made welcome.

But it is the relationship between Hannah and Jack that is the big draw for this book. Given the nature of Hannah’s role, they are forced to spend lots of time together and their connection is delightful.

There were many times I laughed out loud while listening; especially the “mad cat face” scene.

Jack, who has not laughed very much in the past few years, finds himself laughing at least once every day because Hannah delights him. Hannah is not a Hollywood starlet. She’s “ordinary looking”, some might even say “plain”. To Jack, Hannah is “real”.

Their banter sizzles but they do more than trade bon mots. They help each other deal with their respective griefs. They take care of one another in various ways. They become close and, inevitably, Hannah falls for him. Apart from being gorgeous, Jack is, it turns out, a really nice guy.

The story is told from Hannah’s first person (past tense) point of view and her obvious concern is that Jack is an actor and it can be difficult to know what’s real and what’s pretend. Hannah finds it hard to imagine Jack would want to date her in reality. So do many others in Hannah’s sphere.

We listeners know better of course.

The narration is superb. It’s my first experience with Patty Murin but it won’t be my last. She has fantastic comedic timing, great pacing and tone and also delivers the pathos of the story with skill.

At one stage I thought that Ms. Murin might be a pseudonym for Cristina Panfilio (another favourite of mine) because they sound so similar. (They’re not the same person; a simple Google search shows me that – which is the only reason it gets mentioned at all here. It’s not cool to out people – don’t do it.) So, they’re not the same person but they could be narration twins. There is a very similar style of delivery and the same things I love about Ms. Panfilio’s narration are what shone out to me in Ms. Murin’s performance. In other words, they’re both excellent voice actors.

I’m convinced Ms. Murin’s narration was at least 50% of the reason I laughed as much as I did and she was also probably responsible for at least half of the other emotions I felt throughout the novel. Hannah is a great character, vulnerable, fierce, competent in some things (her job – though this was more told than shown unfortunately) and woefully unskilled in others – navigating personal relationships for example. And Jack is wonderful too. He’s far more than just a pretty face but of course he is completely gorgeous. He sees through Hannah’s guard to the woman beneath and recognises her for the gem she is.

The narration is just excellent and the story is a lot of fun – just watch out for the potential landmines of those heavier topics – but otherwise this book is a big recommend from me.

Grade: A

Tough Luck by Annabeth Albert, narrated by Kirt Graves

July 21, 2022 / Kaetrin

Tough Luck by Annabeth Albert, narrated by Kirt Graves. Even though this is a bodyguard romance, it’s light on suspense and fits firmly into the contemporary romance category.

Tough Luck is book one of Annabeth Albert’s latest series, A-List Security, loosely based on characters in and around a security firm of the same name, located in Los Angeles.

Ex-SEAL Cash Erwin is staying with his friend, Duncan, his former lieutenant and current proprietor of A-List Security. Duncan has made Cash a standing job offer but Cash is not looking to provide security services to the rich and famous. At 38 and after 20 years in the military, he’s at a loose end and is not sure what’s next for him.

Danny Love is Duncan’s younger brother (technically, they’re half-brothers). Danny was a child/teen star on a show which I imagine to be something like Glee. He’s retired from acting (he’s 25) and has battled substance addiction in the past but he’s clean now and trying to live his best life while also not really knowing what’s next for him. As well as all that, Danny has a stalker.

Duncan asks Cash to help look after Danny as Duncan has to go out of town on an important assignment but doesn’t want to leave Danny unprotected. Cash agrees but only as a favour – not as a paid employee. This does make it a bit easier to accept the relationship which develops between Cash and Danny as no money is changing hands. (That’s not necessarily a deal-breaker for me but it has to be dealt with in the story if there’s that kind of relationship. It wasn’t necessary here though.)

Danny, while young, has a lot of life experience and the age gap between the two didn’t seem all that big given their personalities. Both men are also deeply lonely. Danny, because he’s lost many of his friends and associates since he retired from acting and got clean. Cash, because he’s left the only life he’s known for 20 years.

Cash was the “tank” in his squad. The go-to guy who got things done. He compartmentalised his emotional life and his sexual and romantic desires while in the military and has had very little sexual experience. He’s not really considered his sexuality before but now he finally can. And Danny Love awakens feelings in Cash he’s never taken out of their box and peered at before.

I wasn’t really sure exactly what Cash’s sexuality turned out to be; it wasn’t labelled in the book exactly but the suggestion is that he’s somewhere on the ace/demi scale in addition to being gay (or possibly bisexual).

Given his lack of experience, it was somewhat surprising then how quickly he got into sex with Danny once they “broke the seal”. He had no hesitation to try anything and he took to it like a duck to water.

The age gap didn’t bother me – to me the difference didn’t seem marked, as I said above, but another way that the power differential was managed here was that Danny was the sexually experienced one of the pair and so Cash was his (very willing) “pupil” during the early part of their relationship.

Not much was made of the financial differences between them, other than that Cash wanted a job and refused to be a sponge and live off Danny’s substantial wealth. That could have been explored more. Cash’s eventual job felt more like an afterthought to wrap things up rather than something which had a meaningful arc in the book.

Even though there’s “security” in the series name, there’s not a lot of suspense in this book and I’d classify it as squarely contemporary romance. There is some threat from the stalker but mostly the police do the actual investigating. Cash is simply there to make sure Danny is safe. They take precautions, sure. In fact, much of their early relationship takes place at a remote cabin where they’re alone together (convenient! 😊) while the cops investigate. But there are only a few scenes where there is any real risk. Mostly the stalker is the reason the pair are in proximity and that closeness brings about the relationship. It’s more of a fluffy book than a suspenseful book overall.

The narration by Kirt Graves is excellent. I’m not sure I’ve listened to him before but I know now why Caz speaks so well of his talent. I was particularly impressed by the very different voices he gave to the main characters. All of the characters have a different tone to their voices but much of the dialogue was Cash and Danny (they spend a lot of time alone together after all). Cash has a deep, gruff, kind of rumbly voice and Danny’s is lighter in tone and younger-sounding. There was seamless switching between the two in conversation.

After this listen I know I’ll be seeking out more work from Mr. Graves because apart from his great delivery, emotion and pacing, he seems to have a very broad range of character voices – so many very excellent narrators seem to have only one or two “hero voices” and it feels pretty special to find someone who (at least from what I can tell so far) has even more to offer.

Grade: B

Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews, narrated by a full cast, Graphic Audio production

July 7, 2022 / Kaetrin

Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews, narrated by a full cast, Graphic Audio production. Another great installment in the Innkeeper Chronicles.

Sweep in Peace is the second book in the Innkeeper Chronicles which tell the story of the adventures of Dina Demille, an “innkeeper” in a universe where inns are kind-of magic B&Bs which host all manner of creatures and beings from across the universe. While I think it’s possible that someone could start the series here, I think the book works much better with the background of the previous book, Clean Sweep. There’s a lot of worldbuilding in book 1 which is only briefly recapped in Sweep in Peace.

In book 1 we got the beginnings of a romance between Dina and Sean Evans, a wolf shifter and former military man, who work together to stop an assassin. Sean, while present in critical ways in this story, is not strongly featured and for the most part, the romance doesn’t really advance here. The Innkeeper Chronicles are fantasy books though, not romance, so I didn’t expect that the relationship would be a major focus. (I gather that there is romantic progress in future books but it would be a stretch to think of the series as romance.)

Sweep in Peace introduces some new characters, most notably George Camarine, an arbitrator whose job is to settle intergalactic disputes. He asks Dina to host peace talks at Gertrude Hunt (her inn) to try and end a war which has raged for 10 years on the planet Nexus. The combatants are the Holy Cosmic Anocracy (vampires), the Merchants of Nexus (led by Nuan Cee (a bipedal fox-like creature) and the Otrakars (aka the Hope-Crushing Horde) – the “scourge of the galaxy” who are genetically engineered humans. It’s extremely dangerous for Dina to host the arbitration but it’s also very lucrative – both financially and magically. Gertrude Hunt renews itself and grows by utilising some of the magic of its guests. Too few guests and the inn dies. With the money a successful arbitration could bring, Dina will be able to survive for months and do some remodelling as well. In the end, she really has no choice; there are not enough (or any, really) guests banging on her door.

Most of the action is confined to the inn’s grounds as the arbitration progresses, with key insights offered by Caldenia (she’s so interesting!). The plot takes that sense of closeness and uses it to ramp up the tension.

There’s some light relief with the addition of Orro, a temperamental Quillonian chef with (Quillonian because of his porcupine-like quills) as well.

Even though Dina is not responsible for wrangling the parties to a peace agreement, she’s in the thick of things and her magic is pivotal to the eventual outcome.

There were some surprises I didn’t see coming but which made the story that much more enjoyable.

I admit I got just a teensy bit lost toward the end but generally I was engrossed and entertained all the way through.

The narration, again, is fantastic. Like with Clean Sweep, I occasionally found some of the music a bit intrusive but the cast performances were all extremely good. The full cast production by Graphic Audio is high quality and it’s clear that everyone involved paid attention – both to characterisation and pronunciation and to the story itself.

I like all kinds of audiobooks but there is something really special about this format – it’s like a radio play with sound effects and a different actor for each role.

Nora Achrati does most of the heavy lifting here given she’s the point-of-view character, but notable mentions must also go to Jon Vertullo as George and Scott McCormick as Orro. I don’t know exactly who voiced the Khanum (leader of the Otrakar delegation) but I was very impressed by her as well. There was not one performer who phoned it in though – all of them were excellent.

Having started the series by listening to the Graphic Audio versions, I can’t see myself choosing any other format for the rest of it.

Full Cast: Nora Achrati as Dina Demille, Jonathan Lee Taylor as Klaus Demille, Jon Vertullo as George Camarine, Christopher Walker as Nuan Cee, and Scott McCormick as Orro. With Karen Novack, Alex Hill-Knight, Jenna Sharpe, Stewart Crank, Lily Beacon, Kay Eluvian, James Lewis, Gabriel Michael, Shanta Parasuraman, John Kielty, Ken Jackson, Alejandro Ruiz, Ryan H. Reid, Lucy Symons, Torian Brackett, Shravan Amin, Wyn Delano, Elias Khalil, Steven Carpenter, Terence Aselford, Katie Leigh, Rose Elizabeth Supan, Mort Shelby, Carolyn Kashner, and Bradley Foster Smith

Grade: B+

The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain, narrated by Simon Vance

June 22, 2022 / Kaetrin

The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain, narrated by Simon Vance. Quiet and gentle second chance romance for gentlemen “of a certain age”.

The first thing you need to know about The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle is that it is a quiet book. Quiet and gentle. It’s the difference between a cosy mystery set in rural England and Law & Order: SVU. Don’t expect fast-paced revelations. This book is slower and mellower than many contemporary romances around the place. I had to deliberately switch gears to get into it.

Albert Entwistle is nearly 65. He’s a postman for the Royal Mail in the small town of Toddington in England’s north. He’s been a postie since he was 18 and left high school. He has a solitary life and very routine – he eats the same meals every week, he has a Crunchie bar (it’s a kind of candy/chocolate bar – honeycomb covered in chocolate = very nice) with his lunch every day. He keeps himself to himself. He has no friends, doesn’t engage with his co-workers and has only his elderly cat, Gracie for company. For many years he looked after his sick mother but she died 7 years earlier and he has been alone ever since. Even when it was him and his “mam” it’s not like they were close. She would berate and belittle him at every turn.

But Albert loves to dance and sing along to show tunes in the night time behind closed curtains where no-one can see. And he remembers his long lost love, George.

The book begins with Albert getting a letter from HQ which tells him his compulsory retirement is nearly upon him and then Gracie gets sick. Yes, there is pet death on page so beware (I cried). These events shake up Albert’s world and he vows to make some changes. He decides to find George.

It’s been nearly 50 years since their year together, hiding from public view and falling in love during their final year of high school. Back then being gay was only legal if you were over 21. At 17/18 it was a different story. And, even so, being gay in public was not okay and bars and clubs were regularly raided. In small town England the homophobia was even worse. (Be warned, there is quite a bit of homophobia in this book).

Interspersed among the story is a bit of the gay history of England since the 1970s – interesting, sad and enraging at turns. The main story is set in about 2019 I think, doing the maths.

In the course of Albert’s search he makes friends with a young Black single mother, Nicole, aged 19, who has a 3-year-old daughter Irene (“Reenie”). Nicole has a romance of her own (as well as POV sections) and I was very invested! In fact most of the romance within the book itself was for Nicole and Jamie.

Albert and George’s romance is told in flashbacks and what future they may have is still to be told when the book ends.

Albert also makes many other friends, including with a gay couple Daniel and Danny, who move into the neighborhood and many of his co-workers. He opens up, shows interests in others, releases the kindness he has been hiding and, he comes out. It’s a slow process but almost universally, the people he comes out to are very kind. It’s perhaps a picture of an ideal world but it felt a bit too “It’s a Wonderful Life” by the end.

The cast is large, with many of the other characters who go through their own life events during the course of the book. (Listeners should note that one of those life events is the death of a child – a relative of a secondary character – from cancer.) Albert is there to offer sage advice. He’s perhaps a little too perfect considering how very insular he’s been. It was just a little too saccharine.

Albert’s history of what is essentially abuse by his parents (of the emotional kind and a little bit of the physical from his dad, especially when his dad found out Albert was gay) is very sad and difficult to hear. What’s even sadder is that there are many teenagers who experience this kind of thing even now. There’s also some explicit depictions of casual homophobia, racism and gay bashing so for all the gentle tone of the story there are serious topics being covered.

I did find it a little hard to get a handle on Albert. There was very little by way of physical description. I didn’t have a clear view of him really. I know he’s got gray hair and he’s 64 and I gather he’s fairly fit because he walks a lot but as for physicality, he was a bit of a cipher. It seems he’s a young 64, initially hiding in an older 64-year-old’s body.

The narration is very good, with all the various regional accents being delivered skilfully by Simon Vance. Mr. Vance’s female character voices were very good too. Given the wide-ranging cast, Mr. Vance had plenty of opportunity to demonstrate the range of ages he can depict as well, from toddler Reenie, to Albert himself and many, many characters in between. There were also a range of characters of colour, including some from Pakistan and the accent there was well done and also respectful.

There were a few (perhaps more than a few) instances where there was a pause in a sentence where it didn’t belong, causing a bit of a stutter in the throughline. Sometimes I had to mentally replay the sentence to get the understanding. But there were no other issues of any significance and overall I enjoyed his performance quite a bit.

The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle was a change of pace to my usual listen – it was also sweet (if a little too much so at times) and gentle and kind and who doesn’t need a bit of that in their lives?

Grade: B