Narrated by Jennifer O’Donnell
I’ve never been certain how I feel about near-death experiences. I don’t know if there is life after death. I have no clue if we are reunited with our loved ones when we die. In The Color of Heaven, author Julianne MacLean attempts to answer these questions as she relates the story of an unforgettable heroine whose life takes an unexpected turn.
Sophie is a wife, a mother, and a rising star at a New York publishing house who lives a charmed life. She has her share of unresolved issues such as the very distant relationship she and her father can’t seem to resolve, and the fact that she seems unable to come to terms with the fact that her mother left her nearly twenty years earlier. Still, when people see Sophie, they see a woman who has it all.
Then, in what seems like an instant, Sophie’s world is turned upside down. Her daughter is diagnosed with a terminal illness and her marriage begins to crumble. Sophie does her best to remain strong through all of this, but MacLean is very good at keeping her characters human, so we are allowed to see her struggle to keep it together.
The humanity of the characters is one of the things I admired most about this book. No one is all good or all bad. We see people for who they really are. We are allowed to understand and appreciate their motives, and this brings them to life in a way very few authors can manage to do.
Jennifer O’Donnell does her best to give Sophie a voice but her narration didn’t quite work for me. She has a raspy quality to her voice that makes it seem very likely that she will burst into tears at any moment. Now, there are a lot of sad moments in this book, but we are also supposed to experience the joy Sophie feels at certain times. For example, when Sophie describes giving birth to her daughter, MacLean wants her readers to view this as a happy event, but O’Donnell can’t quite pull this off. Her performance gives everything a tinge of sadness, even if that is not the emotion the author intended to evoke.
Having said all this, there are definitely some positives to O’Donnell’s narration. I had no trouble telling the characters apart – each sounds distinct. The difference was noticeable but not over the top. I tend to have trouble with narrators who try too hard to change their voices, especially if they can’t pull it off. O’Donnell did not present me with such difficulty.
One morning, Sophie heads out to visit her sister. On her way, she is involved in a car accident. This is where the story really gets interesting. Sophie is clinically dead for forty minutes before being resuscitated by hospital staff. During that time, and over the week she lingers in a coma. Sophie’s spirit embarks on a journey that reveals the secrets of her past as well as the hopes for her future. I could say so much about what she experiences, but I don’t want to spoil it for others. All I will say is that The Color of Heaven kept me truly engrossed. I started it yesterday afternoon, and finished it just under twenty-four hours later. Maclean’s writing is deep and lyrical. Sophie’s story is full of the questions many of us ask ourselves, but, unlike us, Sophie is fortunate enough to find the answers.
Romance readers mustn’t fear. MacLean has not abandoned the genre. Sophie definitely finds love, even though it comes from a place she never expected. The book isn’t laden with romantic scenes, but there is definitely a romantic bent to this story.
Shannon
Narration: B
Book Content: A
Steam Factor: You can play it out loud
Violence: None
Genre: General Fiction with Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Julianne MacLean
The Color of Heaven was provided to AudioGals for review by the author.
What an interesting premise for a book. It sounds interesting even though I wouldn’t usually pick something like this up. Thanks for the great review.
I’m glad you liked the review. I was a little concerned about the near-death thing. There are so many accounts out there, and a lot of them are just bizarre. I like the way the author handled this one though.
Great review, Shannon! I’m so glad you got a gig reviewing over here.
I actually have this one TBR–it was a Kindle freebie when I bought it–but it seems quite different from Maclane’s usual style. I’m not entirely sold yet, but at least the book’s back on my radar.
One of the other reviewers mentioned that this author had written some historical romances. This was the first book I’ve read by her, and I liked it a lot. I’m going to have to hunt her historicals down.
I have only read MacLean’s historicals and I have greatly enjoyed a number of them especially An Affair Most Wicked and To Marry the Duke. Let’s hope we soon see her backlist in audio!