A Love for the Pages by Joy Penny

A Love for the PagesNarrated by Dawn Huestis

I’m a HUGE fan of classic retellings, especially those involving Jane Austen or Pride & Prejudice. So when A Love for the Pages came up for review, I decided to give it a try, knowing anything Austen is never a waste of time. Finding out my other favorite classic Jane Eyre was also included was icing on the cake!

June Eyermann (get it?) is home for the summer after her first year of college. Her mother and overly controlling stepfather want her to get an appropriate job. Now that she’s an adult, they tell her it’s time to get serious and think about her future.  All June wants to do is spend the summer reading about her favorite guys: Rochester, Darcy, and Heathcliff.

Resigned to spending her time cooped up in an office, she’s relieved when one of her friends offers her a position at the library. Unfortunately, this too, doesn’t allow her to spend her time with her books. However, she does meet the son of the owner of the library, Everett Rockford, who seems to be all of her heroes wrapped together. June begins to wonder if the romance found in her stories can translate into real life.

This was a delightful book and made for a very pleasant evening. However, there really wasn’t anything particularly memorable about the book itself. After I finished it, all I remembered was the thrill I got when Rockford came onto the scene. Two of the three books A Love for the Pages took its inspiration from are some of my favorites. Darcy and Rochester are my two favorite heroes from classic literature and anytime I can see them is a good day. It was interesting seeing how the author wove key scenes and characters from these popular classics and created something original that worked well together. I would have liked to seen more interaction between June and Rockford so I could believe in his declarations of love. I did remember that with Jane Eyre, there wasn’t as much interaction between her and Rochester so I went with it.

There were a few quality issues with the narration. First the production sounded fuzzy, like when you have to turn the sound up really loud because the speakers aren’t working. I wondered at first if it was my iPhone but this static was present on all my devices. It wasn’t too noticeable but it was white noise in the background. The other issues were with the narrator herself. In addition to the the audible breaths with each new sentence, there were a few words she mispronounced, words she should have caught. One example – she said “in-steed” for “instead”. Another was her use of “hero-een” instead of “heroin” for the word heroine. This didn’t happen too often but frequently enough that I recall those instances without having to consult my notes.

My other issue with the narration was that it was told rather than performed. Ms. Huestis didn’t use different inflections or pitch for any of the characters. June was voiced appropriately; she sounded young and snarky as expected, but then she sounded that way for all the characters. This is not a bad thing as I’ve listened to productions like that before but it was my impression – from the beginning – that this was not the intention.

Huestis wasn’t a terrible narrator. I’ve heard much worse but she wasn’t that spectacular either. Like the book, her performance made for a pleasant if unremarkable listen. I believe with more training and practice, Huestis could develop some mad skills in the narration department. She definitely needs to decide if she intends to perform a book or just read it.

Editor’s note: We’re grading A Love for the Pages for production as well as content and narration. It’s rare that we do so but such poor quality calls out for attention.

Diana


Narration:  C-

Book Content:  C

Production:  D (background noise and obvious intakes a breath)

Steam Factor:  You can play it out loud

Violence:  None

Genre:  Contemporary Romance

Publisher:  Joy Penny

 

A Love for the Pages was provided to AudioGals for review by the narrator.