Category: B reviews (Page 5 of 74)

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

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

When Blood Lies by CS Harris, narrated by Jenny Sterlin

May 24, 2022 / Kaetrin

When Blood Lies by CS Harris, narrated by Jenny Sterlin. Great story but I did not like the narrator’s Sebastian voice.

The annual Sebastian St. Cyr mystery is always a cause for celebration but my anticipation this year for When Blood Lies was tempered a little by the news that Davina Porter, the narrator of all prior 16 books had retired and a new performer, Jenny Sterlin, was taking over.

Let’s face it, Davina Porter is a hard act to follow. And for listeners like me who have consumed the entire series to date via audiobook, her depiction of the characters is the benchmark by which any other will be measured.

The good news is that Jenny Sterlin sounds in many ways very like Davina Porter. In fact, there were times during the listen when I could believe they were one and the same (they’re not). However there was one important – and for me, crucial – difference and it made me wonder whether I will continue on audio for the next book or take up the series in print instead. That difference was Sebastian’s voice. For 16 books and something like 190ish hours I have heard Sebastian’s deep tones and it was with shock and dismay that I heard Ms. Sterlin’s version of him. He did not sound at all like Sebastian. He did not often sound much like a he to be frank. Ms. Sterlin is clearly capable of deepening her voice for male characters – there were plenty of secondary and side characters in the book for whom she did just that – but not for Sebastian. Almost every time he spoke I was disappointed because his voice was… well it was almost high (Some men have higher-pitched voices and for some characters that would be entirely appropriate but it did not work for me here at all). Even had I not previously heard Davina Porter’s version of Sebastian I would not have liked it but contrasted with what I have been gifted with previously it was that much more disappointing.

Sebastian is the backbone of the series. Had it been, for example, Jarvis’ voice or even Hendon’s, I’d have been able to move past it far more easily. As it was, I struggled with the listen. Frustratingly, there were times when Sebastian’s voice did sound deeper, most often when he was angry or frustrated, but when he was speaking normally, the pitch was too high and too soft and not at all Sebastian-like for me. It’s not that I needed him to sound the same as with Davina Porter’s depiction – of course he would not. Every narrator will bring something different to a performance. I was prepared for that. But Hero’s voice was deeper than his most of the time.

Usually in our reviews we talk about the story first and the narration last but in this case, I decided to switch it up because I had far more to say about the latter than the former.

As to the story, well, as usual it’s fairly hard to go into any detail without giving away spoilers. Sebastian, Hero and their family are in Paris looking for Sebastian’s mother. He does find her but she has been stabbed and thrown off a bridge and dies shortly after he discovers (in Chapter 1) her broken at the foot of the Pont Neuf. He is of course distraught and determined to find out who killed her and why.

As Sebastian and Hero investigate, Napoleon prepares to and then actually does escape from Elba and the St. Cyrs wonder how much, if anything, Sophie Hendon had to do with it. The whereabouts of a mysterious talisman becomes key to solving the mystery and their various enquiries lead the pair to encounter Marie-Therese of Angouleme, Hortense Bonaparte and the notorious police minister Joseph Fouche – to name only a few of the real-life historical characters in the book.

Unlike in previous books, Hero is not writing an article about the poor of London (or, in this case, Paris) but she is active in the investigation and a stalwart pillar for Sebastian as he grieves the loss of his mother and what could have been. There are also tantalising hints about the possible identity of Sebastian’s father so I expect more to come on that topic in the future.

At the end of the previous novel, Sebastian and Hero took in Jamie Knox’s son, Patrick. Predictably, Hero is not at all phased by raising him as her own and clearly both Sebastian and Hero love him but it was never explained in the book how others saw him. Patrick looks enough like Sebastian to be his biological son. Is this a scandal? What does Hendon or Jarvis have to say? There was a curious absence of conversation or explanation about this which felt strange in the circumstances. What story did Sebastian and Hero put out to explain Patrick’s presence in their lives?

As usual the history is meticulous and fascinating. I fell down a bit of a Wikipedia rabbit hole looking up information about the Reign of Terror and the return of the Bourbons and what happened after Napoleon’s escape from Elba. I enjoyed the different setting and “exploring” Paris in 1815. The detail about torture and executions was compelling if a little gruesome at times. Sebastian and Hero are still happy, in love and devoted to one another and their sons. It’s a recipe for a great book.

I struggled with the grade for the narration. There were a few stumbles which weren’t fixed in editing where the words were all correct but Ms. Sterlin tripped over them a little but no major errors. The characterisation was good and consistent with prior books. Had Sebastian’s voice been (consistently) deeper I would have rated it as a B+ at least. The narration wasn’t bad so I could not rate poorly. But Ms. Sterlin’s Sebastian voice did not impress me. However, with really only a small tweak it could be fantastic – maybe next time?

Grade: B/B-

The Wedding Crasher by Mia Sosa, narrated by Rebecca Mozo & Alastair Haynesbridge

May 19, 2022 / Kaetrin

The Wedding Crasher by Mia Sosa, narrated by Rebecca Mozo & Alastair Haynesbridge. A lot of fun and great narration.

The follow up to 2020’s The Worst Best Man, The Wedding Crasher features Lina’s cousin, Solange Pereira, and Max’s best friend, Dean Chapman.

The story is bookended by weddings – but I’m not going to say whose is at the end – you’ll have to listen to know. The wedding at the beginning is Dean’s – to Ella. Solange, roped in to helping out her makeup artist cousin, Natalia, at the wedding, overhears the bride-to-be professing her love to someone other than the groom. She’s not to know that Dean and Ella’s marriage was supposed to be a modern marriage of convenience. Still, exactly why Solange thinks it’s her place to stop the wedding remained a little unclear to me.

Because the marriage was based on friendship and mutual ambition, not ending up married didn’t crush Dean into dust – which does help him (and me, in the sense of believing him) when he falls into love with Solange only a few weeks later.

Dean is a lawyer for a big corporate firm on the partner track. He’s been working hard toward this goal for 8 years and it is within reach at last. A potential new hire (Kimberley) at the firm could bring with her a lucrative client (her father’s media business) and she has asked to spend time with some of the associates of the firms she’s interviewing with to get a feel for not just New York but the places where she might be working.

While the non-wedding didn’t damage Dean emotionally, it didn’t do him any favours professionally. An assumption is made that he’s crushed and therefore not the best person to show Kimberley and her partner around. If he can help lure Kimberley to the firm he’s a shoo-in for partner. His biggest rival (a jerk by the name of Peter) has also volunteered for the task. Peter is married so he’s likely to get the gig – until Dean concocts a story on the spot of he and Solange being old friends who realised they were far more to one another after the wedding-that-wasn’t. Now he just has to get Solange on board, keep up the lie to a suspicious Peter (they both get the chaperoning gig), lure the lawyer and win the partnership. Piece of cake.

Solange has a need for a fake relationship of her own as it happens. Her aunt and cousins from Brazil are coming into town soon and, following some peer pressure and family competitiveness, Solange’s mother has told them that Solange is at last in a happily committed relationship. No bother; Solange’s best friend is Brandon, her roommate. They can pretend to date while the cousins are in town. All good.

Okay, so the premise is pretty thin. But, if you can get past that (and I did) the rest of the story is fun, sexy and engaging. Dean has sworn off love for family reasons. Solange has vowed to never settle for anything less than true love for family reasons. Their chemistry is off the charts. Bingo bango bongo.

Peter tries hard to trip them up and set them up – which leads to some surprising engagements and steamy scenes which I won’t go into here. Again, fairly improbable but I liked it anyway.

The narration was great. Alastair Haynesbridge is a performer I’ve listened to before in a Cindy Gerard book and I was impressed by him then. Nothing in this listen changed that view. He has a touch of the Teddy Hamilton’s about him – he doesn’t have the same accent but there’s a similarity nonetheless.

Both narrators are called upon to say some Portuguese in the book. I’m no expert but the accent seemed pretty good to me from Mr. Haynesbridge. Ms. Mozo’s was better – likely from personal experience – but both were authentic.

The character voices of the various cast members were all very good, with the exception of one of Solange’s aunts who sounded (from Ms. Mozo) more like one of Marge Simpson’s sisters than I’d have liked. Otherwise, both performers gave a convincing depiction of the emotion on the page and brought their A-game when it came to Dean and Solange’s chemistry. There were perhaps a few too many improbabilities in the book but the strength of the narration easily overcame those issues.

Grade: B