The Proposition by Katie Ashley

The Proposition 2Narrated by Justine O. Keef

I hadn’t heard of this self-published series before it came up on the list of possible review titles. I gather it has been very popular and is one of those books, which rode the Fifty Shades of Grey wave. Consequently, I knew almost nothing about The Proposition going in.

Emma Harrison is 30, single, with a biological clock, which is ticking out of control.  She has a plan to have a child on her own via donor insemination and when the book begins, she is angry with her friend, Connor, for pulling out of their agreement to have a child together. Aidan Fitzgerald is the company horn dog – good looking and smooth, with a reputation for loving and leaving.

Aidan wants to get into Emma’s pants. Emma wants a baby. He makes a proposition – he’ll father her child if they can conceive it the “old fashioned way”. Of course, she accepts (that’s the whole premise) and in the process of procreating, they develop feelings for each other. But Aidan is super commitment shy and rather than admit his deep feelings for Emma, he sabotages the relationship.

The Proposition is Book 1 and ends on a clilffhanger with no HEA – you have to listen to the Book 2, The Proposal
to get that.

I had done enough research to know that The Proposition ends with matters unresolved so I signed up to review both books. I approached them as one book, split into two parts. In my opinion, they could have been one book with no parts. There is much extraneous matter, particularly in the second book (more on that later), which a good editor would have lovingly excised.

For all the professional production values of the audiobook, it is obvious that the original book was lacking in the editing department. There are odd word choices and words misused all over the place – the narrator can do no more than read the words on the page – even if they occasionally don’t make sense. For example:  “His lips formed against her ear.”  Or “His neck hung forward at a precarious angle”. In addition to that, there were continuity/story issues that had me confused.  For instance, the main driver behind Emma’s desire to have a baby is that her parents are both dead and her fiancé died five years ago – she is alone and wants to make her own family. Except, she isn’t alone at all. She has loving grandparents with whom she is very close and a large extended family – more than 50 at a family gathering later in the book – and they clearly all adore her.

Aidan is mostly (well, up until the end when he’s a douche-canoe) a nice and fun guy – a bit of a bad boy but kind and generous. He signs up for sex, agrees to try a relationship and, very quickly, he’s pressured into marriage and the whole nine yards. I often felt Emma’s expectations and demands were unfair and unrealistic. I don’t think I was supposed to.

In terms of the narration, Justine O. Keef was probably what enabled me to keep going with the story. Her voice was (mostly) pleasant on the ear and the characterization of Aidan and Emma felt true to the narrative. A good friend of Emma’s is Kasey. In the audiobook at least, Kasey tends to squeal and be the “annoying pixie cheerleader” type character and her voice got on my last nerve. And there were times when Emma joined in and the squee-fest was just too much.

I couldn’t help but wonder if Ms. O. Keef would have liked to have taken a red pen to the text to fix some of the more obvious errors but I’m sure she’s too professional to ever say!

Overall, I liked the narration but I think I would have liked it more with better material.

Kaetrin


Narration:  C+

Book Content:  C-

Steam Factor:  For your burning ears only

Violence:  None

Genre:  Contemporary Romance

Publisher:  Tantor Audio

 

The Proposition was provided to AudioGals for review by Tantor Audio.

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