Always on My Mind by Jill Shalvis

Narrated by Annie Greene

Publisher’s blurb: After dropping out of pastry school and messing up her big break on a reality cooking show, Leah Sullivan needs to accomplish something in her life. But when she returns home to Lucky Harbor, she finds herself distracted by her best friend, Jack Harper. In an effort to cheer up Jack’s ailing mother, Dee, Leah tells a little fib – that she and Jack are more than just friends. Soon pretending to be hot-and-heavy with this hunky firefighter feels too real to handle . . .

No-strings attachments suit Jack just fine – perfect for keeping the risk of heartbreak away. But as Jack and Leah break every one of their “just friends” rules, he longs to turn their pretend relationship into something permanent. Do best friends know too much about each other to risk falling in love? Or will Jack and Leah discover something new about each other in a little town called Lucky Harbor?

My take on the story: While Always on My Mind isn’t one of my favorite Shalvis stories, I enjoyed it, originally in eBook format. There are some rough patches – some things I think could have been improved with another round of editing – I’m still trying to figure out what she meant by wildlife fire – were coyotes and bears on fire? Also, the original premise of pretending a relationship was a bit of a stretch. Then there’s the light suspense plot that was too predictable. But in terms of light rom-com-style reading, I was entertained.

My take on the narration: I’m not taken with this narrator. She’s fairly new on the audiobook scene (from what I can tell, she is listed at Audible under both Annie Green and Annie Greene, all recordings in 2013/14). Her delivery is, for want of a better word, immature. By that, I mean she sounds inexperienced as well as young. Her delivery and pacing do not sound natural, plus she has a slight Valley-Girl-esque quality when reading the narrative (as well as in many of the characters). She often emphasizes the wrong words and she has a tendency to draw out the second word in a phrase when there is no reason to do so. She does use pitch and timbre to differentiate men from women, and she had a few character voices in her toolkit, although I couldn’t really tell much difference between Leah, Aubrey, and Ali when the three of them were together. Her reading did not enhance the experience for me, especially when I’ve gotten used to more professional narrators. Wasn’t Karen White available?*

*This is a reference to a great review on Audible of a Linda Howard book narrated by some hapless newbie, where the reviewer asked plaintively, “Wasn’t Joyce Bean available?” LOL! Exactly!

Melinda

Narration: C-

Book Content: B

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: none

Genre: Contemporary romance with a side of suspense

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Always on My Mind was provided to AudioGals for review by Hachette Audio.

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