Make Mine a Ranger by Kate Aster

make mine a rangerNarrated by Tanya Eby

I went into this book with no advance notice of the plot or characters. Even though Make Mine a Ranger is book 4 in the Special Ops: Homefront series, I had not heard of it or the author before seeing it listed as an October release at Audible, although Kaetrin had just reviewed Book 1, SEAL the Deal. But I like narrator Tanya Eby, and I generally like military heroes and regular-length contemporary romance, so, what could go wrong?

Bess Foster is an unwed mother of baby Abigail, a child she conceived during an abusive relationship, and whose father she ran away from without telling him of his progeny. Hero Ranger Tyler Griffon was there when she went into labor, being a friend of friends, so he took her to the hospital and got to hold baby Abby after her birth. Then he went on to live his life as an Army Ranger, moving states away for a while. But he kept in touch, and sent presents to Abby over the (3) years before reappearing in their lives with a one-year assignment in Annapolis.

I guess my first eyebrow lift came when the author wrote that it was just after Abby’s 3rd birthday, and Bess had not seen Tyler in over a year – but Abby remembered him and raced to meet him in a restaurant parking lot. Generally, the two-year-olds in my life don’t remember me that well if it’s been more than a couple of months between visits. But I only had time to think of this because my mind was wandering after the mind-numbing descriptions of daily life for a self-deprecating 24-year-old mother who is horrified when Tyler touches the parmesan cheese container at the family-friendly pizza place where they are having their reunion, after insisting that both Abby and Tyler use her hand sanitizer. Arg. And Yawn.

Tyler is looking for a one-year lease during his assignment, and coincidentally (or not) Bess needs a house-mate at the lovely bayside home she is renting from their mutual friend, a heroine from a book in the series. Tyler convinces Bess he would love to have her and the baby as roommates – mind you, he has NO attraction to her, seeing her only as a sister at this point. Bess, on the other hand, has been crushing on him since they met. [awkward] Did I mention self-deprecating? Yes, to an annoying degree – she thinks she’s too fat, too ugly, too plain, too boring (well, *ahem*, yes, there is that) and that she’ll be devastated to have to keep seeing Tyler for years to come since he will always stay in touch for Abby.

Now is a good time to cue the Evil Abusive Ex-Boyfriend to make an appearance – someone has been dogging Bess’s steps in a very spendy/trendy car, and sure enough, it’s Dan, Abby’s biological father, looking to be menacing and B-B-B-Bad to the Bone. And this triggers Tyler’s attraction to Bess. Well, it’s complicated, but yeah, this happens.

Now, all romance has the same end result in mind: it’s the story of (usually) two people on the journey to find their emotionally satisfying Happy Ever After (or at least For Now) ending. That’s a given and I am one of those who will be very unhappy if the couple isn’t together at the end. But every story is different – every journey has its own special twists and turns – and in the hands of good authors, you don’t feel like you are reading the same ol same ol every time you crack a spine, or in my case, start the recording. This one – well, it was boring. Self-deprecating, germophobe, old-beyond-her-years Bess finds so, so many ways to remind everyone there’s no way a handsome military guy will ever fall in love with her, she’s too fat, too shy, too something. Even her friends rag on her about this. I did not feel the emotional growth she needed to deserve her HEA, even though the author made an effort to get her there.

But the real kicker for me was how Tyler handled his final showdown with Evil Abusive Ex-Boyfriend. I’m not necessarily against characters finding ways to skirt the system, but I thought Tyler and his backup crew were just a little too crafty (trying to avoid spoilers here). That left a real bad taste in my mouth, and I felt my opinion of them lower.

Tanya Eby is a good, solid narrator. She has natural pacing, something I don’t find in every narrator’s performance – the kind of pacing that doesn’t sound labored, no awkward breaths, no vocal patterns, nothing to interrupt the flow of a good story. She differentiates well enough between genders – lowering her voice for men, and speaking in her range for women, and raising it for children. I had no trouble following dialogue and knowing who was speaking. She’s very pleasant to listen to, and if the material hadn’t been so annoyingly boring, I’m sure I could find more good things to say about her. But she wasn’t able to improve this book for me at all. I think, in retrospect, she did deliver Bess as I thought of her – too prim and proper and, yeah, boring.

If you enjoyed the rest of the series and feel you must get closure on Bess and Tyler, then go for it, but no recommendations here, sorry.

Melinda


Narration: B

Book Content: C-

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: Fighting

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Tantor Audio

 

 

 

Make Mine a Ranger was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for a review.

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2 thoughts on “Make Mine a Ranger by Kate Aster

  1. Oh, disappointing. I liked the first story well enough but it verged a little into women’s fiction which is not may jam. It sounds like this one didn’t do that at least!

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