Narrated by Lesa Lockford
The word that kept coming to mind as I listened to Montana Man was throwback: “having the characteristics of a former time”. Maybe 1989 is really a lot farther back in time than I realized. In computer technology, it’s a couple of centuries; in Romance, apparently it’s about the same. Because I have liked some of Barbara Delinsky’s romances and women’s lit, I gave this one a shot – that is, I took the bullet.
Lily Danziger is on the run with her infant daughter, in the winter, in a snowstorm, on a deserted road in northern Maine. (I’m gonna wait while you think about that scenario.) She is flagged down by a rugged cowboy in a Stetson so, yes, she pulls over and lets him in, like you do. Quist is on his way from New York City to Quebec, on the trail of a half-sister he’s never met, when he falls asleep driving in a snowstorm, runs into a tree and has to flag down a passing car for a ride. He promptly falls back asleep while Lily gets them completely lost in the backroads of Nowhere, Maine.
It’s a road trip and a cabin romance rolled into one when Lily’s car runs out of gas and they are forced to walk for hours in the snowstorm to a hunting cabin. The premise seemed to have some promise – but 1989, people. It called and wanted its sexist, overbearing heroes and TSTL heroines back. When Quist awakens and realizes they are irretrievably lost, he spends a lot of time berating poor Lily for being Too Stupid To Live. While I agreed with him, I kept thinking Hello, Pot, Meet Kettle – you’re the asshat that FELL ASLEEP DRIVING AND CRASHED YOUR CAR which is why you needed the ride.
It’s a shock to Quist when the infant starts crying – I’m thinking, uh, you got into a sedan, put your bag in the back seat (1) didn’t notice the car seat and (2) the five week old baby never cried for several hours?? Being the insensitive boor that he is, he berates Lily all over again for getting them lost WITH AN INFANT IN THE CAR. Yeah, that’s helpful.
Truly, Lily is a major throwback. When she waxes eloquent about her dream in life – to be a housewife and run the household for a man – Quist and I both had the same thought (“You’re a throwback,” he says). Mind you, I’m not saying being a housewife isn’t fulfilling, but… well, when that is your biggest goal in life and you don’t even have a specific man in mind, I dunno – seems a little short-sighted. What if that is also the dream of the man you meet? Who’s gonna bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan?
Delinsky’s story telling improves in her more recent books, and it’s not completely awful in this one – it’s just soooo dated. The only reason I finished it for the review was to rant about what a waste of time and Audible credits it is to mine an author’s backlist for mediocre content, when there are so many better books we would love to see recorded! Where are audiobooks of Marsha Canham? More of Loretta Chase and Jo Goodman? LaVyrle Spencer, some of which are recorded but out of print? (And why are there “out of print” audiobooks anyway? How does removing a relatively small file from available titles save a publisher/online retailer any money?) Who are the people that make these decisions and WTF are they thinking? Sigh. /End rant.
Lesa Lockford is a low-B-list narrator in my book. She does a credible job of differentiating between Lily and Quist, who (obviously, in a cabin romance) make up most of the spoken dialogue. Her narrative skills are passable; they don’t enhance or worsen the content in any way. Another book in her repertoire is Linda Howard’s The Cutting Edge (1985) so maybe she’s been typecast for older, stale material (Brenda gave her narration an A). I think the experience of listening to this book has really got me in a mood – hopefully her skills are better displayed in more interesting material. Pacing, tone, all those things pass muster but really, who cares? Don’t do it – step away from the computer if you find yourself considering older, dated books being given a new lease on life as an audiobook.
Melinda
Narration: C
Book Content: D
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: None (hints of off-stage violence)
Genre: Contemporary (Vintage) Romance – more than 20 years old
Publisher: Dreamscape Media LLC
Montana Man was provided to AudioGals by Dreamscape Media for review.
Melinda, your review had be laughing out loud! Just when I thought I had finished my laughing spell, I’d read the next paragraph and start all over again.:D
I listened to Montana Man all the way through. It was more of a “I’ve got to see where this 80s cliche goes!” rather than interest. Someone, somewhere in the audio publishing business needs to check these stories out before choosing to publish. But I imagine it is more of a choice to make a buck with a famous name off the unaware consumer.
I too love it when older quality books are released in audio format. But I guess there isn’t the manpower to actually read these books ahead of time or even understand if they are completely out of date if one doesn’t understand the nature of romance. And then I circle back around to making that buck and think it’s a losing battle.
Quality is the key word here. I mention LaVyrle Spencer – while some of her books are true classics, a couple of them have the deadly 80s stamp and don’t need to be reintroduced as anything but campy examples of how we lived back then… (pay no attention to the dreadful poodle-perms)