Narrated by Kate Rudd and Luke Daniels
Originally published 29 Jan 2014
I have a confession to make. I started One Week Girlfriend
Fable Maguire is a 20-year-old waitress with a bad reputation, living in a college town. While her reputation is worse than the reality, she’s also not a closet virgin either and I liked the way her (actual) sexual experience was neither lauded nor demonised. Drew Callahan is the quarterback for the college football team, 21, and terrified of going home to Carmel for Thanksgiving. He offers Fable $3,000 to go home with him and pretend to be his girlfriend for one week. No sex required; he’s not buying a prostitute – he’s paying her for her time only. But they will have to make it look good for his dad and stepmother, so Fable needs to be prepared for hand-holding, hugs, and maybe some kissing. Drew is gorgeous (of course) so that’s not a hardship for Fable.
Drew, for his part, discovers a heretofore unappreciated attraction to Fable. The more he knows, the more he likes.
Drew is rich – his folks living near Pebble Beach golf course in Carmel – and Fable is poor. Her mother is an alcoholic who struggles to hold down a job but manages to always have a boyfriend. Fable’s younger brother, Owen, is 13 and starting to get into trouble at school. Fable’s sense of responsibility for her brother, in particular, is one of the reasons she accepts Drew’s offer – $3,000 could see them through for nearly three months.
It is clear from the start that Drew has a very big reason for not wanting to go home and for wanting the protection of Fable’s presence and it is also clear that it centres around Adele, his beautiful-on-the-outside-but-not-so-beautiful-on-the-inside stepmother. The reason is gradually revealed over the course of the story but the hints early on will lead the reader to a pretty good guess.
Drew and Fable become close over the course of their week in Carmel. Perhaps the intense situation led to intense emotions. Or perhaps one has to be willing to suspend disbelief a little because by week’s end they are in love.
One Week Girlfriend is the first in the One Week Girlfriend Quartet. It is not the complete Drew and Fable story – that happens in Second Chance Boyfriend
Kate Rudd narrates the portions from Fable’s first person POV (present tense, as is common with New Adult romance) and Luke Daniels narrates the portions from Drew’s POV, also first person. The book gives the name of the character at the top of each section so it is clear when there is a POV change. Both narrators read these labels, but it was unnecessary and kind of annoying to hear it. It was, after all, obvious whose POV I was listening to. I realise the narrator has to read the whole text but I wonder if special dispensation might be permitted in this kind of situation?
Both narrators did an excellent job. I enjoyed Kate Rudd’s narration in Chelsea Cameron’s My Favorite Mistake but I don’t think I have listened to Luke Daniels before. They are both narrators I would happily listen to again (which is just as well because I’m planning on listening to Second Chance Boyfriend soon).
Effectively hearing two versions of each character does take a bit of getting used to – Luke Daniels’ version of Fable and Kate Rudd’s version of Drew, in particular. Ms. Rudd did a better job overall of voicing the male characters than Mr. Daniels did of depicting the female characters. But in other aspects of the listen, Mr. Daniels edged out his competition so I think it ended up being even. There were times when Mr. Daniels’ vocalisation of the female characters sounded authentically female – he does have a really good voice for this but it was most apparent when that character was speaking very loudly or even shrieking. Sometimes at normal speaking volume – it wasn’t as convincing.
One thing Luke Daniels did – which was just a little thing but very effective (I never would have read it that way in print), was to use a “robot” voice when Drew was describing himself as being unemotional and robotic. It fit the character and age of the character so well. That’s just a small example of something that can happen when listening, an appreciation not possible in print.
Both narrators were convincing as the younger (I feel so old!) main characters and the emotion of the story wasn’t overplayed. There was enough of that in the text that hyperbole in the narration would have been too much. The love scenes, which over the course of the book appeared from both POVs, were so very good. Both excellently portrayed the emotion and tension at each turn.
It may have been that I just wasn’t in the right mood when I tried One Week Girlfriend in print, but I think I was better off experiencing it on audio. It’s a good book (subject to what happens in Second Chance Boyfriend!) and the narrators are great.
[section label=’Audiobook Information’ anchor=’Audiobook Information’]
Kaetrin
AUDIOBOOK INFORMATION
TITLE: One Week Girlfriend
AUTHOR: Monica Murphy
NARRATED BY: Kate Rudd and Luke Daniels
GENRE: Contemporary Romance - New Adult
STEAM FACTOR: Glad I had my earbuds in
REVIEWER: Kaetrin [button type=’link’ link=’http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EF5FD5I/?tag=audiogalsnet-20′ size=’btn-lg’ variation=’btn-default’ target=’blank’]Buy One Week Girlfriend by Monica Murphy on Amazon[/button]
Great review. I have this unread audio book in my library. I’ll move it up to the top of the list now.
Please come back and let me know what you think after you listen :)
As I listened to this book I’d forgotten your comment about the Drew narrator’s use of the ‘robotic voice’ to describe his shut down emotional state. It was very effective and exactly the type of ironic verbal affect that a young man might use. As you noted, very convincing young people. And that is unusual, as so many ‘new adult’ characters don’t feel truly youthful.
Yes – some clever narration choices in here.
I know this is months old, but I had to comment because my reaction was pretty much the opposite of yours, at least in one respect. I totally thought Luke Daniels over-emoted. I did pick up on the “robot voice” thing, which was cute, but the rest of the time, I wanted to tell Drew some version of, “Buck up, little camper!” Of course, I wasn’t very invested in the book, and I think that style of narration can be lovely if you are feeling it, since it lets you immerse yourself more fully. But if you’re not, as I wasn’t, it gets to be too much.
I guess it’s just a case of “different strokes for different folks” Shannon :) I liked his performance and it helped me get into the story. Both narrators did this for me actually – I couldn’t manage it in print but I ended up liking it on audio. Given my aborted attempt of the book, I was kind of surprised – but good surprises are always welcome. :)