Bounty by Kristen Ashley

Narrated by Emma Taylor

I can always count on Kristen Ashley for a feel good, touch your heart, alpha protective hero romance. Like settling into a special language that only Kristen Ashley fans have the good fortune of knowing, I always end up feeling like I have come home to a comfort listen when I tune into a one of her books. Bounty delivered this effect in strides and left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling all over. Plus, the action-suspense, which is a typical secondary theme in most of Ms. Ashley’s romances, kept me on my toes. And one thing that is fantastic with her books is that you really get your money’s worth. Whereas I listen to most audiobooks in about 2-3 days, Bounty at over 21 hours (nearly 2-3 times the length of most romance audiobooks) took me almost a week to finish. Last, but definitely not least, Emma Taylor’s talented and memorable narration makes this a must listen that should definitely be experienced in audiobook format.

For those of you who are not yet caught up with this series (as Bounty is the last published book in the series), or even more unthinkable – listeners who have not yet listened to a Colorado Mountain book, no worries. Although this is the 7th book in the series, it can definitely still be read as a standalone as all of the romance and suspense arc is contained in this book. All that said, if you have already experienced the magic of the Colorado Mountain series, including the macho “mountain men” heroes and their feisty heroines featured in this series, then you will be happy to know that many of the prior couples make an appearance at various points throughout the book (and even some from other of Kristen Ashley’s series, like the Rock Chick series).

Justice “Jus” Lonesome has been especially lucky in life. As the daughter of a famous singer and a famous musical lyrics writer and singer in her own right, Justice has traveled the world and never lacked for any material needs. Moreover, she was blessed to have had a close relationship with her father who has now passed away, and certain other people in her life who have touched her life in many different special ways. However, she has never been lucky in love. In fact, she can still remember one man she met in a bar long ago (and who inspired the lyrics for her most famous song), but who ultimately stood her up the next day. All of this leaves her feeling alone, even in a life surrounded with so much bounty. Then when her father passes away, she thinks it’s finally time for a break from the constant spotlight, so she decides to settle in the small mountain town of Carnal, Colorado, where she hopes to fly under the radar for a while and just live as Jus.

All this notwithstanding, she is a woman worth many millions of dollars, and being the Boho chic woman she is, she embarks upon a massive home renovation project of the house she buys in Carnal. So, imagine her surprise when the contractor who shows up to work on her home is none other than the man (Deke Hightower) who she met in the bar all those many years ago. And as if that weren’t enough of a curveball, he doesn’t even remember her. In fact, being the simple man he is, life has not been so kind with its bounty for Deke and he seems unwilling to pay her any attention no matter how nice she tries to be. Slowly, however, they begin to get to know one another, and notwithstanding Deke’s general aversion to rich people (due to an unfortunate past and one which keeps him from staying in one place for too long, instead needing to roam the country on his bike during the summer months), he can’t help but see how Jus is different and good in a way he has never been fortunate enough to have in his life before. However, amid this reacquaintance, Jus becomes the victim of a crime. Deke being the mountain man that he is, and seeing that there is more to this generous, loyal “Gypsy” than what first meets the eye, determines to protect her at all costs. To accomplish this, Deke brings in a whole gang of mountain men, their women, and friends to help in the protection effort. Will Deke be able to keep Justice safe? Moreover, will Deke allow himself to feel something more than friendship for Jus who seems to be taking over his heart one piece at a time? Even if he weakens his defenses, can there possibly be a future for two such opposite types of people?

Emma Taylor does a fabulous job with the narration for the Bounty cast. From her voicing of Justice, who sounds exactly how you would expect this “Gypsy” folk singer to sound (a deep feminine voice with just a little bit of rasp), to her macho mountain man voices for the various men in this testosterone-filled cast, Ms. Taylor’s renditions are exactly on point with characters Ms. Ashley has penned. Perhaps of particular note, I thought her male voices were deep and masculine enough to be convincingly be male voices (a factor that I have heard some struggle with when it comes to some of the other narrators that have been used for Ms. Ashley’s books). Beyond that though, she was even able to produce older voices for some of the characters and even a British accented voice for Nina, the “Duchess” heroine of The Gamble, during her cameo appearance. I also had no trouble understanding Ms. Ashley’s distinctive “speak” from Ms. Taylor’s narration. Ms. Ashley has a unique way of writing that sometimes can be difficult to read without properly pausing at the necessary points, but I never felt confused during Ms. Taylor’s narration, and instead was able to sit back and enjoy Justice and Deke’s story without undue attention on the narration.

Perhaps the fact that I enjoyed this narration so much stems from the consistency of keeping one narrator for the entire series. By doing this, the Colorado Mountain series delivers remarkable consistency in characters voices across books, allowing the listener to instantly know the speaker when it’s a character from a prior book (without needing to rely on dialogue tags).

All in all, Bounty delivered on all the fronts that I look for in a great romance audiobook. If you are a Kristen Ashley fan and haven’t yet experienced this bountiful gem, then I highly recommend that you do. And even if you have not yet read any Kristen Ashley books or books in the Colorado Mountain series, if you enjoy listening about protective alpha heroes, and watching their love affairs flourish with real, strong, and down to earth heroines, then I also suggest you give Bounty a try.

BJ


Narration: A-

Book Content: A-

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: Fighting

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Bounty was provided to AudioGals by Brilliance Audio for a review.

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3 thoughts on “Bounty by Kristen Ashley

    1. Glad you’re loving the Colorado Mountain Series too Jonetta. Kristen Ashley has a very unique writing style and those who enjoy her prose are definitely in for a treat with Bounty. I still have a few of the earlier books in this series that I need to catch up with. Fortunately, although prior characters continue to resurface in the later books, their role is self-explanatory enough that most of these books could be read on a stand-alone basis.

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