Falling for Jillian by Kristen Proby

Falling for JillianNarrated by Deacon Lee and Elizabeth Louise

Jillian Sullivan has returned home to Montana after losing her husband and dreams of a family in Los Angeles. She hasn’t been back long but things are starting to look up. Her career as a realtor is taking off and her brother is engaged to a wonderful woman.

After a rough day and the weather turning from light snow to a blizzard, all Jillian wants is a nice glass of wine and a hot bath. She arrives home only to notice the house is just as cold as the outdoors. She calls her best friend hoping her husband can come and take a look at things.

Of course, it’s not her best friend’s husband who shows up but his twin brother Zach. Zach King is the last person she wants to see, not after waking up alone after the night they spent together several weeks ago. And he hasn’t spoken to her since. Jillian’s already had one heart broken, and she’s not looking for someone else to do it again. But with the heat not fixable, and weather getting below zero, Jillian has no choice but to go back with Zach and his family. It’s on the way back to the ranch that Jillian realizes that Zach didn’t come just to fix Jillian’s heat. He wants another chance.

I wasn’t really impressed with Falling for Jillian. There wasn’t anything particularly notable about the plot and the characters were nice but not ones I felt overly connected too. I really felt meh the entire time I was listening to it – interested while it played but not really captivated. Previous books showed the progression of Jillian and Zach’s relationship and nothing new was explored in this one. They picked up where they left off. In fact, if you haven’t read previous stories, you might find the development of the relationship between Zach and Jillian lacking. The plot reflected this absence of development, feeling forced at times.

Despite the unimpressive plot, I was impressed with how Jillian and Zach handled their problems with one another. They talked their issues out, explaining their feelings and listening to the other’s opinions. However, this joy disappeared when, in the last hour of the book, both Jillian and Zach seemed to forget themselves and go off into miscommunication land. What had been a plausible conflict was reduced to the “he said – she said” angst-ridden method of moving the plot along.

Both of these narrators were new to me but I’d had a recommendation for Deacon Lee from another blog, comparing him favorably with Sebastian York (whom I adore!). However, while I felt he was a decent narrator, I didn’t come away from his performance all that impressed. He is a natural baritone that was pleasant to hear but his staccato way of speaking made me uncomfortable during the intimate portions. They always came across as a joke when he read them. And his choice for Zach sounded stilted and abrupt. The weird part? This only happened with Zach’s character. When enacting other characters, Lee’s voice smoothed out and he sounded less like Christian Bale as Batman and more natural.

Elizabeth Louise’s narration was, like Lee’s, good but not all that memorable. Her performance of Zach was better than Lee’s and her tones for the other characters were okay. There were several times of noticeable inhalations and not the kind that added to the overall effect. At one point,there was such a loud breath, I thought my iPhone had skipped. When I rewound it, the noise was still there and closer inspection made it out to be her deeply inhaling.

Regardless, I wasn’t so upset at Deacon Lee’s and Elizabeth Louise’s overall performances in Falling for Jillian that I wouldn’t try either of them again. Maybe it was the lackluster story that made them seem unimpressive. I would like to listen to them separately, maybe not in a dual performance but a single performance. Possibly if I have time to settle into a performance, instead of being reminded of each narrator’s quirks with each new chapter, I can better appreciate their individual talents.

Diana


Narration:  Deacon Lee – C and Elizabeth Louise – C+

Book Content:  C+

Steam Factor:  For your burning ears only

Violence:  None

Genre:  Contemporary Romance

Publisher:  Simon and Schuster

 

Falling for Julian was provided to AudioGals by Simon and Schuster for review.

 

 

 

Story: C+

Narration:

Violence: None

Steam factor:

4 thoughts on “Falling for Jillian by Kristen Proby

  1. Elizabeth Louise does a wonderful job with K.A. Tucker’s Burying Water. It’s a great book, and Josh Goodman, the co-narrator, is equally good. Just a recommendation for other Louise titles.

    1. Thanks Shannon! I’ll check it out.

      I’m trying not to be too picky when it comes to narration but it’s hard once you’ve experienced a delightfully engaging production.

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