Preston’s Honor by Mia Sheridan

Preston's Honor by Mia SherianNarrated by J.F. Harding and Mercedes Moreno

Mia Sheridan, of Archer’s Voice fame, delivers her latest Signs of Love Series book in Preston’s Honor which features the sign of Gemini. Gemini is a fitting designation for this book as the story is about twin brothers – only one of which can win the girl.

Like all her other books, Preston’s Honor has its fair share of angst. Not only do we have the love triangle (though truly only one man features prominently as a true potential HEA), but the heroine is also the daughter of a poor, illegal, Mexican immigrant, and also happens to be the product of a brutal rape. Needless to say her mother has residual issues from the rape which cause her not to give her much affection, so much so that her mother frequently refers to her as the offspring of the “diablo” (the devil). These factors culminate to deliver nearly insurmountable odds towards a HEA, but rest assured, this is ultimately a romance in the end.

For those of you who are wondering if this book can be read as a stand-alone, yes it can. In fact, I’ve only listened to one prior book (Grayson’s Vow) and had no trouble following the story.

Annalia Del Valle has grown up around Cole and Preston Sawyer, though she would never consider herself their equal. You see, she met them because her mother used to work as a migrant farmer worker for Cole and Preston’s father’s strawberry farm, and Annalia has always felt different from them (even if they don’t see her that way). So, while Annalia indulges in spending time with them when they are alone, she avoids them in school and in public, not wanting to put them in a difficult position. The fact that others of their friends have made fun of her for her background (and in one particularly humiliating incident, for being found with bed bugs on her after starting her early morning off before school by helping her mother clean a few rooms at the low income motel she works), certainly doesn’t help her self-esteem which has always been low due to her mother’s ambivalent attitude towards her.

Preston has always liked Annalia. However, their age difference (he’s three years older) and a bet that he made and lost to his brother, Cole, have kept him at a distance. But can you ever cheat true love – or does it always have a way of coming true in the end?

The dual narration by JF Harding and Mercedes Moreno is generally well done, making this a good title to experience in audio format. The style utilized is the typical one for New Adult romances, where the chapters are told from the points of view of each protagonist, and read by the appropriate narrator. This style flows well with this story and has the added benefit of easily distinguishing the viewpoint being shared.

Mercedes Moreno appears to be relatively new to the narrator scene with only 5 titles appearing on Audible. That said, I thought she played a good Annalia by giving her a very slight Hispanic accent while at the same time sounding humble as you would expect her character to sound given the character Ms. Sheridan has penned. Ms. Moreno was able to also deepen her sound sufficiently to provide a distinguishable voice for Preston in the dialogue she performed.

J.F. Harding has a deep sexy voice and I enjoyed listening to his rendition. Perhaps my only reservation with Mr. Harding’s narration, however, was that I found it difficult to differentiate Cole and Preston from the voice alone. All that said, given they are twins, I suppose it’s reasonable to assume that they should have similar sounding voices. Otherwise I really enjoyed his performance.

While I must admit that this wasn’t my favorite Mia Sheridan book, I did enjoy the story and my heart broke for the terrible plight of heroine. It did, however, take me a while to feel the romantic connection – perhaps due to the love triangle or the way the story shifted back and forth in time. Either way, in the end, I was sold, so all’s well that ends well!

BJ


 

Buy Preston's Honor by Mia Sheridan on Amazon