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Review at Dear Author

October 19, 2023 / Kaetrin

I’m over at Dear Author with a review of Dragged to the Wedding by Andrew Grey. Disappointing.

Fly Bye by CW Farnsworth, narrated by Courtney Patterson & Neill Thorne

October 17, 2023 / Kaetrin

Fly Bye by CW Farnsworth, narrated by Courtney Patterson & Neill Thorne. The narration was stronger than the story.

(received review copy from Podium Audio.)

Everly (Evie) Collins has just finished medical school in Boston. She’s returned home to Charleston to do her residency. She’s super smart so was able to graduate early. When she was five years old, Grayson Phillips and his parents moved into the house next door. Gray and Evie’s brother, Noah, became best friends. Evie never got over her crush. Fly Bye is their journey to a HEA.

Gray is a pilot in the Air Force and even though he is not based in Charleston, nonetheless has an apartment he shares with another friend. I don’t know why. There are quite a few things Gray does or says which didn’t make sense to me or strike me as plausible. For instance, one of Gray’s favourite things is “surfing a flat sea” (I believe that’s called “paddling”). I don’t think a fighter pilot is allowed to bring his girlfriend onto base and take her up for a joy ride in a jet. I don’t think fighter pilots on deployment get come home for 24 hours as “co-pilot” for a fellow pilot who has a family emergency. (It wasn’t stated explicitly but it was strongly implied that they flew a fighter jet 5000 miles for this.) So, yeah, there were things which were all for plot and not because they made actual sense.

Anywho, Gray is in town and Evie and he decide to have a fling. She’s a virgin because of course she is. He balks at first but then changes his mind and they bang a lot for about a month but from the beginning, Gray makes it clear he’s not a long term option. However, Gray’s words and actions don’t always line up and Evie becomes, understandably, confused. After Gray is deployed he calls her and tells her she is on his list of people to contact if something happens to him. That’s not what you’d expect from a fling.

Evie graduated early but she’s not Doogie Howser. Much of the time she came across to me as emotionally immature and this didn’t really gel with the rest of her character and the mettle it takes to succeed in medical school.

There was a little too much of nothing happening – a whole bit about Evie having lunch at work one day for example where nothing happened except she didn’t enjoy the anchovies repeating on her afterwards and bought an iced tea afterwards – that made my eyes glaze over.

I struggled with this listen. I was tempted to DNF it at times. However, I did listen until the end and there were some entertaining and engaging things in the book. Gray and Evie did have good chemistry and the section when they were in Beaufort (I’m guessing at the spelling here but it was pronounced Byew-fort in the book if that helps) was my favourite. Gray could be a real jerk at times but he could also be sweet and he did give good grovel.

The narration, by Courtney Patterson (except for the epilogue which was read by Neill Thorne), was very good even though at times I thought the material she had to work with was not. Her character voices were well differentiated and she had good tone, pacing and emotion. I’d happily listen to her again.

Neill Thorne’s narration was so brief it was difficult to really have an opinion on it. Good, I guess? The grade here is for Ms. Patterson though as she did the bulk of the book.

Fly Bye didn’t turn out to be my cup of tea but it has a 4.17 rating on Goodreads to I seem to be in the minority.

Grade: C

Knockout by Sarah MacLean, narrated by Mary Jane Wells

October 12, 2023 / Kaetrin

Knockout by Sarah MacLean, narrated by Mary Jane Wells. Fantastic. Loved it.

I enjoyed last year’s Heartbreaker so much that I was eager to listen to Knockout, the third book in the Hell’s Belles series (and I have Bombshell, book one on my TBL). That they are all narrated by Mary Jane Wells, a favourite narrator of historical romance, only made me more keen.

Knockout was even better than Heartbreaker and I loved every minute of it. Detective Inspector Thomas (Tommy) Peck and Lady Imogen Loveless have been circling around one another for 14 months. Imogen is the daughter and sister of an Earl, so is far above Tommy’s touch. But Imogen is attracted to Tommy’s wonderful muscles and his dark beard. It’s fairly obvious that Tommy has been gone for Imogen for ages. Their flirtation is sizzling and very amusing. Imogen is smart and funny, always ready with a quip. I laughed out loud many times during the listen.

A series of fires in the East End have both the Belles and Scotland Yard (most particularly Tommy) investigating. But the likely culprits are too close to home and the Belles aren’t sure whether they should trust Tommy with the information they have put together.

In the meantime, Imogen has acted outrageously one too many times for her brother, Charles, and he has decreed that she should marry. Imogen, not interested at all in an aristocratic marriage, decamps. Tommy is asked, by the Home Secretary at the request of the earl, to locate Imogen. Imogen is not hard to find if one knows her at all and Tommy does – so that’s pretty easy. But an attempt on her life convinces Tommy that Imogen needs protecting and he offers to do just that for the earl until the lady is safely married. Imogen, for her part, agrees to participate in the marriage mart in order to flush out some of the lords the Belles believe are involved in the fires and this puts the lovelorn pair in close proximity.

There is risk and adventure and tension as the lovers are in danger from the shadowy and powerful men who wish to shut down all investigation into the fires. Tommy has a chance to rescue Imogen and, in true Pretty Woman style, Imogen has a chance to rescue him right back. Anyone who knows me, knows I love a good rescue!

Mary Jane Wells has the chance to show off her accent work in Knockout – with a large cast from various classes, counties and countries. I particularly enjoyed how well and how consistently Ms. Wells differentiated between the Belles – Sesily, Adelaide, Duchess and Imogen. They each have a distinct sound and can easily be identified by ear alone.

Imogen has a pert and razor sharp wit and Ms. Wells’ comedic timing assisted the text to deliver it to my ears. Tommy is a delightful mix of pushover (so gone is he for Imogen) and tough guy and Ms. Wells added to that characterisation with her performance.

I hadn’t expected Knockout to be so funny. I’m not sure exactly why. But, apart from the swoony romance between Imogen and Tommy, the humour was my favourite part.

There is also a wonderful teaser at the end of the next book (Duchess’s book) which also promises to be a cracker.

Knockout is great. Recommend.

Grade: A