Still the One by Jill Shalvis

still the oneNarrated by Karen White

Still the One is Book 6 in Jill Shalvis’ Animal Magnetism series, set in small town Idaho. The first few in the series featured the young single adults running the veterinary clinic and kennel in town – now that they’re all paired up, Shalvis is introducing their friends and siblings – Veterinarian Wyatt’s younger sister, Darcy, and his best buddy AJ

Darcy was in a serious car accident several months before, and everyone thought she might never walk again. This is like a bird having its wings clipped, as Darcy is a travel writer who has been flitting the globe, never lighting in one spot. Now she’s facing a huge shift in her universe, because the globe-hopping has helped hide the fact that Darcy not only can’t stay in one place, she can’t open herself up to anyone either – not even her sister and brother. Her passion now is rescuing last chance therapy dogs who for one reason or another are retiring. AJ is the local physical therapist, a man who dedicates himself to helping others, even when their health insurance runs out before they are healed. He took on Darcy after the accident, and with his help, she is now walking – well, limping, painfully, but no longer wheelchair bound.

AJ is another who has trouble opening himself up to others, though, after his fiancee rejected him. But he’s long since gotten past the fiancee and has harbored a crush on Darcy for years. Being a patient man, he just lets Darcy have her way, which is to be sarcastic and bury her feelings and push everyone away as soon as they see a tiny crack in her hard, I-can-take-care-of-myself shell. It doesn’t help that Darcy did try, once many months ago, to put the moves on him while in therapy and he refused her. But AJ and Darcy manage to get themselves in a situation where they need to pretend to be in love, and one thing leads to another… Well, what happens in Boise sometimes doesn’t stay in Boise.

Jill Shalvis isn’t breaking new ground here – like Darcy’s mac and cheese, this is another comfort food, small town romance, with just enough tension to create a mild conflict but nothing overwhelmingly angsty or emotional. It has some common rivalry – there’s another man also waiting patiently for Darcy (well, not so patiently) and a woman in AJ’s life, a former-almost-girlfriend also waiting for AJ to change his mind. There are some laugh out loud moments, and plenty to make you smile. And there are some cute animal interactions, with Peanut the Parrot making a couple of cameo appearances. Fans of Shalvis and of small town romance in general will find it enjoyable. My one issue is that Darcy’s behavior was often a little more immature than I like in my heroines, and I found myself a few times thinking maybe AJ would be better off with the yoga teacher. Having been a third-culture-kid myself, I also really had a hard time buying the premise that her parents were bad because they lived all over the world with their kids and also sent them to private foreign boarding schools. But that may strike a chord with other readers, so maybe it’s just me. I had to convince myself there were other factors at play in Darcy’s relationship with her parents, because she was convinced they could not love her, and therefore she felt unlovable through and through.

Karen White brought her usual smart and sassy narration to this book – she has wonderful comic timing as well as all the emotions necessary for voicing the wisecracks and witty banter that Shalvis gives her characters. Although she doesn’t have an extremely low register, she conveys male-ness well in dialogue with more than just pitch, and all her characters are easily differentiated by attitude, timbre, register, accent and other vocal attributes. That of course includes Peanut the Parrot, who livens up the scenes with salty and inappropriate phrases, as well as the occasional dog and cat contribution to the dialogue. I paid special attention to the way she reads intimate scenes this time, after a recent listen to a different narrator where I felt the narrator took it a little farther than my comfort zone. White passed the test of conveying the emotions without making me feel like a voyeur.

Fans will be thrilled to know that Darcy’s sister Zoe will get her own book in October, 2015, and from the cover, it looks like another big ol’ dog will be involved too! Can’t wait!

Melinda


Narration: A

Book Content: B

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: None (ok, I’m discounting 1 punch)

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Tantor Audio

 

 

 

Still the One was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for  review.

AudioGals earns commissions on purchases made through links to Amazon.com in this post.

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