Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles

Narrated by Amy Rubinate and Kirby Heybourne

Derek Fitzpatrick is the seventeen-year-old hero of Wild Cards. As the story starts, he is expelled from his expensive prep school for a (relatively harmless but quite disruptive) prank he takes full responsibility for to save his friends from getting into trouble. His father is in the Navy, deployed for the next six months on a submarine and can’t be contacted. His new stepmother, Brandi, is only eight years his senior and he’s had very little to do with her before this incident. But he has to go and live with Brandi and her five-year-old son (from a prior relationship), Julian, and he has no choice about moving from San Diego to Chicago to live with Brandi’s father and sister.

Brandi’s sister is Ashtyn Parker, our heroine, also seventeen. Her mother left when she was about ten and Brandi left shortly after, leaving her alone with her depressed and increasingly disinterested and remote father, Gus. In an attempt to gain/regain her father’s attention, Ashton joined the high school football team where she’s the kicker and she’s just been voted captain by her peers for her senior year – something which disappoints her boyfriend, team quarterback, Landon.

Derek and Ashtyn are thrown together and instant sparks fly. Derek doesn’t want a serious relationship – since his mother died of cancer in his sophomore year, he doesn’t take much seriously at all. Ashtyn sees Derek as a player and besides how annoying he is, she’s already got a boyfriend.

The narration was so good that it wasn’t until I was thinking about the book in preparation for writing the review that I realised that there were plot threads which didn’t go anywhere and some limitations in the story generally. I can see from Goodreads that this is the first in a series. The next book is as yet untitled and there is no blurb so I can’t tell if it will also be about Ashtyn and Derek or it will feature other members of the Freemont High football team. My feeling is that it is likely to be the latter – and this may explain the parts of Wild Cards about Ashtyn’s best friend, Monica (who is dating Trey, a player on the football team), and upon whom another team member (Vic) has a massive crush. It was kind of just there in the book and didn’t go anywhere, and I also felt Ashtyn and Derek had their HEA (or, HFN, because they are only seventeen) in this story.

The most notable thing about Wild Cards was the absence of Derek’s dad. Even when Derek was thinking back to the time when his mother was sick, having chemotherapy, and later, dying, Derek’s dad was noticeably not mentioned. Was he deployed then too? Could he not have come home to be with his dying wife? These were questions which bothered me quite a bit actually.

The other main character in the story doesn’t appear until later on. She is Derek’s grandmother, Elizabeth Worthington. Initially, she is a bit of a snobby old witch but I warmed to her quite a bit by the end of the story.

The story is told from the alternating first person POV (present tense); Ashtyn’s perspective is narrated by Amy Rubinate, with Derek’s by Kirby Heybourne.

Amy Rubinate’s narration was very, very good. Her deeper huskier tones for Derek were believable and I thought the characterisations commendable. Both narrators did a very good job actually – I’d be caught up in one narrator’s performance and be kind of bummed that it was swapping over and then I’d be caught up in the other’s.

Kirby Heybourne’s mispronunciation of the heroine’s name irritated me for almost the whole book. Almost always, he pronounced it “Asht-yin” instead of “Ash-tin”. His female voices were among the best I’ve ever heard from a male narrator but that mispronunciation was driving me wild (and not in a good way) so his narration rated a lower grade than Amy Rubinate’s – as she got the characters’ names right 100% of the time.

That said, Mr. Heybourne’s female voices were stellar. They weren’t drag-y and they were really quite believably female. And like his co-narrator, his characterisations were very good too.

Julian didn’t talk much but I preferred Ms. Rubinate’s vocalisation of him to that of Mr. Heybourne’s. Because of the characterisations, I preferred Ms. Rubinate’s performance of Ashtyn and Mr. Heybourne’s depiction of Derek but I also think that was helped along by the text, which gave me their deep perspective when so voiced. Nevertheless, each narrator performed all characters with skill and insight.

I’d happily listen to the next book in the series if this narrator team returns. I enjoyed the narration of Wild Cards so much and I’m curious as to what will happen between Monica, Trey, and Vic.

I’d recommend this one for the narration alone but the story, while not perfect, was engaging and I enjoyed the parts about football and especially that Ashtyn was playing (and was team captain!). Derek’s remembrances of his mother were particularly touching as well and some might need tissues for that bit.

Kaetrin

Narration:  Amy Rubinate: B+    Kirby Heybourne: B

Book Content:  B-

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence:  Fighting (minimal)

Genre:  Young Adult/Contemporary Romance

Publisher:  Dreamscape Media

Wild Cards was provided to AudioGals for review by Dreamscape Media.