Narrated by Robin Eller
In Vivid, author Beverly Jenkins introduces readers to Dr. Viveca Lancaster, an extraordinary woman of color who has made medicine her life’s work. We are also introduced to Nate Grayson, a man who never recovered from his experiences in the Civil War, and who is deeply opposed to the very idea of a female physician. Can these two stubborn, independent people overcome their differences in order to gain the HEA they deserve?
Viveca is no stranger to adversity. She’s one of very few black women physicians in 1876 and wants to have a clinic of her own. When she hears that the small Michigan town of Grayson’s Grove is looking for a physician to provide medical care to its black residents, Viveca jumps at the chance. She leaves her home in California and travels by train across the country, determined to make Grayson’s Grove her new home.
Nate Grayson is the town’s mayor. He knows how important good medical care is, but he never expected to see a woman get off the train and introduce herself as Dr. Lancaster. In Nate’s opinion, doctoring is not a profession for women. He orders Viveca back on the train, deciding he’ll find a man to take the position.
For obvious reasons, Viveca doesn’t return home quietly. She knows how to get what she wants, and, right now, that’s a chance to prove herself. She convinces Nate to allow her to take the position on a trial basis. He agrees, sure she’ll be gone before the first snowfall. After all, his former wife was from the city, and she hated the isolation she found in the grove. Why would any woman be different?
I had a hard time warming up to Nate. I understand his views about women were pretty common for the time in which the book was set, but the way he treated Viveca really bothered me. He mocked her, demeaned her, and then fell in love with her. She, once so determined to avoid marriage, finds him too hard to resist, and allows him to teach her about passion. Even as their attraction blooms into something stronger, Nate is unable to put aside his mistrust of women.
Before Vivid, I’d never listened to a Robin Eller narration. While her performance wasn’t bad, I didn’t find it particularly good either. Ms. Eller has a somewhat stilted manner of reading. She also has trouble with pausing in strange places. I would expect her to pause because she’d reached the end of a sentence, only to have the same sentence resume after a slight pause, causing certain passages not to make sense. I had to back up on several occasions to fully understand the text.
I was also a bit disappointed that Ms. Eller did not vocally differentiate the black and white characters. Everyone sounds the same. I only knew someone’s race through the author’s words. Otherwise, I hadn’t a clue. Most of the characters are African-American, but there are a few white characters as well. In an audiobook that stresses the inequality between races, Ms. Eller had the opportunity to help me better understand certain characters’ motivations but missed it by failing to perform in a manner that would cue their race. Sure, the text eventually gave me that information, but the listening experience would have been of a higher quality if I could have figured it out via the narration.
I thought Ms. Eller’s depiction of Viveca, called Vivid by family and friends, was quite well done. I had a good sense of her determination, intelligence, and passionate nature. At first, that passion is only for her work, but later, it comes to include sexual feelings for Nate.
Nate was also portrayed in a way that I found quite believable. Ms. Eller used a lower pitch, and added a bit of huskiness when speaking for him making him easily distinguished from Vivica. In fact, the only person who sounded anything like him was his cousin Ely. If those two shared a scene, I needed to rely on context and dialogue tags. Otherwise, the narration was sufficient.
I wanted to love Vivid. I’m a fan of historical fiction, especially when it features strong, independent and unconventional characters. However, Ms. Jenkins tried to cram too many plot elements into one story, and things ended up coming across as very rushed, especially as the book neared its end. I wanted to know more about Viveca’s work, her relationship with her patients, family, and friends. I felt like more attention needed to be given to Nate, and what causes him to change his mind about Viveca’s role in his life. Instead, I was confronted with a bit of danger, a secondary love story, family disagreements, and a host of other things that detracted from what I thought of as the main story.
Still, I can’t say that Vivid isn’t worth listening to. Ms. Jenkins is quite gifted in her character development. I enjoyed the parts of the story that focused on her role as town doctor and her integration into Nate’s family. I just could have done without some of the extras.
Shannon
Narration: C
Book Content: B-
Steam Factor: For your burning ears only
Violence: Fighting
Genre: Historical Romance
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Vivid was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for review.
