Narrated by Emma Taylor
Kristen Ashley is one of my comfort mechanisms; when I have had a tough day and need that kind of re-read that reassures me that the world still has heart-of-gold alpha males and kick-ass but sweet, strong females – I pull out Kristen Ashley. Jagged is a guilty pleasure that returns us to the aptly-name town of Gnaw Bone, Colorado. Gnaw Bone. Right next to Carnal. I love her rock-chick sense of humor.
If you haven’t ever read (or listened to) Kristen Ashley before, you need to be ready for the ride. Her books are like a motorcycle ride through the slightly disreputable worlds of “Profane-call-it-like-it-is” and “If-you-can’t-take-it-leave”. But her worlds are always filled with a reverence to honor, honesty, family, and ultimately love. If tattoos, shaggy men, curvy women and frequent f-word profanity are not your thing, don’t go there. But you will be missing a fun and vivid ride.
For years, Zara Cinders has lived (and quietly loved) within the parameters set by rugged and sexy Graham Reece (“Ham” to Zara and “Reece” to everyone else). If you want to hang with Ham, you live by his rules: no commitment, no settling in one place, no marriage, no expectations (but a lot of fun, food, sex, motorcycle rides, and beer, as he blew through town for a visit). Zara lived within the rules, knowing that if she didn’t, she would lose him. Finally, she met someone who would give her what she needed; Greg was steady without drama, and wanted marriage and children. She needed that normalcy after her childhood was stolen by the hands of an abusive father. Reluctantly, and giving him every chance to stop her, she ended things with Ham. He let her go, but asked her to never lose his number, in case she needed him.
Three years later, Zara is alone. She has lost her marriage, her business and her house, but she is determined to plug away, working at the local home goods store for minimum wage, in a dump of an apartment, until she can regain her dreams. When the nightly news runs a story about the death of a serial killer, she is stunned to see that one of the survivors of his rampage was none other than Graham Reece. Frantically, she reaches out to Ham…and the fireworks begin.
As usual with Ashley’s books, you are never sure who is saving whom and who will end up on top (of course, one of the other great things about her books is that you will eventually experience both parties enthusiastically on top in whatever horizontal surface suits the mood).
Emma Taylor catches the dialogue and the combination of sweetness and temper, which are personality traits of Zara. I love the job she does with the voice of Zara’s nephew, Zander, and the cast of supportive female characters – even the British accent of Nina, their lawyer and good friend. But she was so far away from my vision of one of Ashley’s rugged heroes, that it took me a while to warm up to Ham. In an effort to get the deeper pitch required, she lost some of the emotional inflection. The title of the book, Jagged, refers to the way Ham’s voice roughens when he is feeling the deepest emotion, and I didn’t hear her voice change enough in those instances – and that was a key point. In fact, I wish that Ashley (or the producer) would try a man as the narrator, if for no other reason than the male voices are so richly described. I want to shiver when I listen to these books, as much as I do when I read them.
As I said earlier, Ashley’s books are on my comfort shelf; I even have an order that I re-read them (depending on the last one I read, and the amount or type of comfort I need). Jagged is somewhere in the lower third, just because it takes too long for these two to be honest with each other; this never made sense to me, when both characters are so well known for transparency and blurting out what needs to be said. Her books inspire strong feelings (one way or another) and the style may be something you love (or not); if you run into her fans (known as “Rock Chicks”), they will all have their favorites. If you are reading or listening to one her books for the first time, I would start with Knight (a good “anti-hero”), Sweet Dreams (has a serial killer of a mystery in it), Motorcycle Man (humor, suspense, and another bad boy) or The Will (so sweet and all the best aspects of family and loyalty).
Victoria
Narration: B-
Book Content: B
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Fighting and Domestic Violence
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Jagged was provided to AudioGals by Hachette Audio for review.
There are some books, particularly KA’s, that just don’t lend themselves to being narrated. Although the Rock Chick series was well done, I have been less enthused about some of her others in audiobook form. I am not going to buy any others- I like reading her books and “hearing/visualizing” the characters myself :-)
I know what you mean, Lee. Her heroes never sound as alpha on the audio as they do in my mind, off the printed page (at least that is how I felt about Motorcycle Man).
I agree with you, they are just too soft spoken to be alpha……….