Carolina Blues by Virginia Kantra

carolina bluesNarrated by Sophie Eastlake

I was introduced to Virgina Kantra’s writing when my Romance Lovers Book Club read Sea Witch, the first book of Kantra’s Children of the Sea series. I am fortunate to live in an area where there are several well-known romance authors, including Ms. Kantra, as well as a former RWA Librarian of the Year, Jennifer Lohmann. Ms. Lohmann, now a published author in her own right, leads our book club and organizes wonderful conferences. I was able to meet Virginia Kantra at one of these conferences and pick up the first book of her new Dare Island series, Carolina Home. I was hooked.

The Dare Island series has all the good qualities of small town romances without the saccharine quality I often find distasteful. Carolina Blues, the fourth book in the series departs from the Fletcher family, Ms. Kantra having been successful in pairing them up in previous books, and focuses on a former big city detective turned small town police chief. Jack Rossi has moved to Dare Island to recover from a bad marriage and the resulting fallout that pretty much tanked his career. He’s done with high-profile women and now wants to meet and marry a low maintenance, small-town girl.

Lauren is not that girl. Lauren is in Dare Island struggling to get her life back, survive PTSD, and rid herself of writer’s block. Several years previously, as a hostage during a dangerous bank-robbery-gone-wrong, Lauren was deemed a hero for talking the perpetrators into cooperating. She wrote a book about the experience called Hostage Girl which became a best seller, but Lauren still feels guilty and unable to get her life back in order, partly because the hostage situation wasn’t resolved without one of the perpetrators dying. She’s dyed her hair, gotten piercings, and made other changes that feel like an attempt to distance herself from her Hostage Girl persona.

Jack and Lauren are instantly drawn to each other sexually, and while both agree to a short-term fling, neither wants a commitment. Lauren is not the relaxed, low profile woman Jack’s looking for, and Lauren has plans. She’s trying to write a follow-up book, go on a book tour, and finish her graduate studies in psychology.

There was nothing truly exceptional or different in this story. The pair seems mismatched, and although I really liked Jack, Lauren’s continued refusal to come to terms with what she’s feeling becomes a little monotonous. At one point she seems to expect Jack to live to a different standard than she expects from herself. She has always been planning to leave the island, but she’s upset when she thinks Jack might be rekindling his relationship with his former wife. One other plot point I couldn’t resolve was why Lauren was writing a follow-up book if she wanted to avoid fame and put the hostage situation behind her.

While there is little that felt new or different in Carolina Blues, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a well-written, enjoyable story. I’m very happy to spend time on such a story and came away from this book feeling satisfied.

Like the book itself, Sophie Eastlake’s narration worked, but not perfectly. Her voice has a little gravel to it, especially at the end of her phrases, and her characters were not always distinct. But her narration is still pleasant and easy to listen to so those aren’t deal breakers for me. The one thing that was difficult for me was her speed of reading. It was too slow for my restless brain. The only way I could finish the book was by putting it on 2X speed. That was a tad too fast, but it suited me better than the normal speed. If my device had the ability to do 1.5X, it would have been perfect. Please note that this criticism is a one of personal preference, and not about the technical skill of the narrator.

I’ll definitely continue to read the Dare Island series and other Virginia Kantra books. But if Sophie Eastlake narrates them, I may choose to read the print version instead of listening.

Carrie


Narration:  B-

Book Content:  B-

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence:  Minimal; some threats of domestic violence

Genre:  Contemporary Romance

Publisher:  Audible Inc.

 

Carolina Blues was provided to AudioGals by Audible, Inc. for review.