GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS – A Brenda and Melinda Chat
THE GOOD NEWS IS, YAY, MORE SUSAN ANDERSEN IN AUDIO! YAY! She’s a great contemporary voice with a lot of humor, as well as strong family ties, especially “made-up” families, including great neighbors and wayward nephews and such.
The bad news, all five are read by inexperienced Audible.com stable narrators, and we’re conflicted about the samples we heard of these narrators’ previous work.
Our email discussion from a couple of weeks ago.
Melinda: I’m in an audiobook rut. Yeah, I’m whining! Maybe I need to do a Chicago Stars marathon listen now. Anything on the horizon? Something I’m missing? Need some cheese with my whine.
Brenda: I know this won’t help you today but I’m excited to see five Susan Andersen books are releasing at Audible on August 1st!!
Unfortunately I haven’t heard of the narrators before so it’s going to be risky listening business with these new to audio titles from a favorite author. :(
I’m going to go listen to the narrators that have samples up at Audible with other audiobooks and hope I don’t flinch!
Melinda: Hey, a lot of Susan Andersen’s already-recorded books are not on Audible anymore. Hmmm. What is up with that?
Brenda: I know Head Over Heels with Anna Fields and Skintight with Johanna Parker are great listens so why doesn’t Audible have them now?
Brenda: I’ve finished listening to all the narrator clips from the five chosen for the Susan Andersen releases. Some have possibilities but I’m disappointed in others. The success rate with the backlist titles from one of our shared favorite authors seems iffy at this point.
Melinda: ARGG great author, inexperienced narrators – it makes me think of a comment about one of Linda Howard’s books, “Wasn’t Joyce Bean available?”
Upcoming Susan Andersen audiobook list with our comments on the chosen narrators based on samples of their previous performances:
Be My Baby
Melinda: Be My Baby is my favorite – Bostonian transplant to New Orleans and its hot. And narrator Annie Green – I didn’t get enough in the one sample to hate or like her narration. Young voice, male voice not deep; not great but it might work as an ok read for (waaah) one of my faves.
Brenda: Be My Baby is my favorite too! I love that book and its humor. I cringe to think what an inexperienced narrator is going to do to Beau…
Melinda: Re: what she’s going to do to Beau – [shudder] if she goes crazy with a Yat aka New Orleans accent, I might have to hunt her down.
Brenda: I noticed that Be My Baby‘s narrator Annie Green is the narrator of the latest Shalvis
Melinda: Ok I’ll take one for the team and listen to this one as research. [followup – DNF – I read it in print instead – see below for further comments]*
Baby Don’t Go
Melinda: Baby Don’t Go is my least favorite book of this group (the photographer/security expert one) but Sasha Dunbrooke has some promise, a sort of whisky-voice with a bit of attitude.
Brenda: Agree completely with your Baby Don’t Go narrator opinion.
Baby I’m Yours
Melinda: Baby I’m Yours is fun – a twin mistaken-identity story; this narrator Angela Starling is wooden, enunciating words as though she is inexperienced and/or didn’t read the book first. Her tone ok, pacing bad.
Brenda: The Baby I’m Yours narrator – Angela Starling – is the one they’ve tapped for Kristen Ashley’s first audiobook Own the Wind!! As I said from the first, “They choose a new narrator for Kristin Ashley?? YIKES…”
Melinda: That wooden reading for freaking Kristen Ashley? O. M. F. G. Not gonna fly. She was the worst of the five, hands down. I think she sounds stiff and monotone in the KA sample. Unfortunately, the sample is third person POV with no dialogue so we have no idea how she’ll deliver dialogue, esp from Tabby’s POV.
Brenda: With what we’ve learned during the author chats about audiobook rights, I’m guessing the authors had no input – they may not even know they are coming out in audio. Most likely SA’s & KA’s backlist audio rights were purchased and then matched up (unfortunately for their fans) with new-to-the-craft narrators. End result … a roll of the dice for both the author and the listening fans.
All Shook Up
Melinda: All Shook Up, the Star Lodge story, is a 5-star book for me; wait – Angele Masters reads with British accent? The sample sounds like a young-ish, ok read; maybe Masters doing Susan Andersen won’t sound as pedantic as this sample.
Brenda: I’m still thrown by the All Shook Up narrator – her British sounds good but how will it translate?
Some Like It Hot
Melinda: OH this is new! yay! July 30 2013. Ok, coming out in audio at the same time. Narrator sounds ok – good age, not too young. Emily C Michaels.
Brenda: Again agree on Some Like it Hot – good possibility there – and a simultaneous release Win/Win!
* Follow Up on Listening to Jill Shalvis’ It Had to Be You
Melinda: I stopped after 19 minutes into the Shalvis’ It Had to Be You narrated by Annie Greene (narrator of Be My Baby). That was counting the male intro where he says the narrator is Annie Greer, and I’m going to read it in print first. Her delivery and pacing are all off – very inexperienced, very young (not too young to read romance but childish in the delivery, if that makes sense). So far the only two male characters with dialogue haven’t been differentiated much in pitch but neither one is the hero. The thing is, it’s bad enough that she is screwing up the story for me. WASN’T KAREN WHITE AVAILABLE?
Melinda
Favorite Andersen Audio Reviews Below
Melinda reviews two of the favorite Susan Andersen older audios mentioned today in her chat with Brenda. They concentrate mostly on the book content as we already know that Anna Fields and Johanna Parker are two strong, sure-to-deliver narrators. You will find Skintight and Head Over Heels immediately below today’s chat.
