Narrated by Elizabeth Louise and Deacon Lee
I highly enjoyed Five Ways to Fall
Although this is the fourth book in the Ten Tiny Breaths series, it is not necessary to read the prior books to enjoy this one, as the leads’ romance is fully contained in this book. All that said, the hero was introduced in a prior book, so if you plan to read the entire series, there is some benefit to reading the books in order from a character development perspective.
One of Reese MacKay’s first memories is of her biker father leaving her at a diner and never returning. Her social-climbing mother has remarried multiple times since then, but is more concerned about her public image than her mothering skills. Left to her own devices, Reese has spent most of her life in and out of trouble. Most recently, she got arrested for trashing her ex-husband’s apartment after she found him cheating on her with his ex-girlfriend.
Having nowhere to turn, she calls her mother’s second ex-husband who is a lawyer. He bails her out and talks her into coming to live with him and his son, Mason, provided she for once agrees to truly cleanup her life, including finishing school.
To celebrate her graduation from paralegal school, Reese and her friends visit Cancun. That’s where she first meets Ben, who is celebrating his own graduation from law school.
Too much alcohol, however, leads to a botched, embarrassing attempt at a one-night stand which comes back to haunt Reese when she discovers that Ben is Mason’s best friend, who her stepfather has just hired as his new associate at his law firm. Once the shock wears off, the sparks begin to fly, even as the odds are stacked against them: Reese is still fixated on her ex, Ben is anti-commitment, and Reese’s stepfather has a strict no-dating in the workplace policy.
I was pleasantly surprised with the dual narration. Elizabeth Louise performs all of the chapters told from Reese’s point of view and Deacon Lee, the chapters from Ben’s. Generally, I prefer dual narrations to be broken down by gender, but this approach works, for the most part, for this audiobook.
I especially liked Elizabeth Louise’s narration. Ms. Louise did a fantastic job of creating differentiated, gender appropriate voices for the large list of characters in this novel, including those of the same gender and of similar age, which is not always an easy feat. In particular, I felt she excelled at depicting the hero and heroine’s main attributes, including adding just the right amount of rebellious, playfulness to Reese’s lines and a certain air of cocky confidence and sexy, playboy smoothness to Ben’s.
Deacon Lee also generally did a good job of conveying Reese’s and Ben’s emotions. Where I had more difficulty with his narration was in distinguishing between same gendered characters, particularly the females. Additionally, as is frequently the case with male narrators who have deep, sexy baritone voices, his female depictions did not sound genuine. All that said, I highly enjoyed his portrayal of Ben. When he recited Ben’s words, I felt like I could completely picture him, and it helped distinguish his thoughts from Reese’s.
Bearing the hallmarks of humor, a bit of suspense, interesting secondary characters highlighting complex inter-family relationships, and a well-developed romance, and performed by talented narrators, Elizabeth Louise and Deacon Lee, I found Five Ways to Fall to be a great listen on all fronts.
BJ
Narration: Elizabeth Louise: A- Deacon Lee: B-
Book Content: A
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Minimal (although there is a rather creative use of a paintball gun and the description of a suicide)
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Five Ways to Fall was provided to AudioGals for review by Simon & Schuster.
