It Seemed like a Good Idea at the Time by Kylie Scott

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time by Kylie ScottNarrated by Andi Arndt

It Seemed like a Good Idea at the Time is a stand-alone contemporary romance set mainly on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. Adele Reid is 25 years old and returning for the first time in seven years, to attend her father’s wedding.

Adele’s parents split up when she was young and she lived with her mother in Sydney for most of the year, visiting her dad in Queensland for six weeks in the summer holidays. Adele’s father, Andrew, is a busy business owner (he’s a builder) and when she was visiting, he didn’t always have time to spend with her. From the age of 16, she spent a lot of time with Peter Gallagher, an employee of her dad’s.

Adele and Pete hung out together, went to the movies, to the beach and talked about everything under the sun. She thought of him as her best friend. It’s not surprising, given his good looks and charming disposition that she fell for him. By the time Adele was 18, she had determined to make her move and, during her birthday party, a little the worse for wear from alcohol, she propositioned him, blurted out her love for him and bared her breasts all in an attempt to get his attention.

Pete, for his part, was horrified. However, Adele’s dad, seeing the scene, thought his employee was messing with his teenage daughter and punched Pete in the face, breaking his nose. Adele left in disgrace and she and Pete haven’t spoken since. Peter and Andrew quickly sorted things out between them and now, Pete is a partner in the building company.

The story is mostly set in the “now” but there are regular flashbacks to “then” giving the highlights of Adele and Pete’s relationship from when she first met him at age 16 to the disastrous events of her 18th birthday party.

Pete is 15 years older than Adele and had not considered Adele in any kind of romantic or sexual sense in the “then” years. However, when Adele stays with Pete (he lives across the road from Andrew and his fiancée Shanti) because her old bedroom is full of bonbonniere and other wedding regalia, Pete takes a different view. Adele has never found anyone to measure up to Pete. She’s had sex (some of it even good, she says) and a few short-term relationships but it’s always been Pete for her. She’s a little shameless about getting in his face about her attraction in the lead up to her father’s wedding actually. There are a couple of scenes when she and Pete are in his backyard pool where I thought she crossed a bit of a line actually.

For all that I was prepared to accept Pete didn’t see Adele as a sex partner when she was 16, 17 or 18, I did wonder exactly why he was so happy to spend so much time with her back then. It felt a little odd to me. I had to believe he didn’t have any inappropriate feelings back then though because if I didn’t the whole book would have been too squicky. I think I had to do a little magical handwaving about it actually. I could definitely understand Adele’s feelings and actions but Pete’s presented a little more of a complication for me to be honest.

Pete has always been a love-em-and-leave-em kind of guy, having short-term flings with beautiful women but not getting intimate with them except in the strictly physical sense. Adele got under his emotional radar as a teen and she quickly worms her way back on her return as a fully grown woman. He’s attracted and he likes her and they know each other well and that terrifies him.

Adele’s feelings are never in doubt. The question is, will Pete step up?

I didn’t have a problem with the age difference at 25 and 40. It’s relatively significant but I never thought Adele wasn’t fully independent in her decision-making. She wasn’t being manipulated by him in the “now” and she wasn’t being groomed by him in the “then” notwithstanding some vague discomfort on my part about their early relationship.

The latter part of the story is weaker than the beginning and middle with some matters resolved a little too quickly but there’s no denying the chemistry between Adele and Pete.

Andi Arndt is a favourite narrator here at AudioGals and she does a great job as usual with this book. Her character voices are varied enough to make it easy to distinguish the cast members and her tone and pacing are very good. There were however about four or five times during the listen where the wrong character voice was used for a line or two – Adele’s instead of Pete’s or vice versa for example. It was unfortunate this wasn’t picked up in edits.

Perhaps the most surprising thing to me about the choice of narrator is that Ms. Arndt is American. The book is set in Australia and all the characters in it are Australian. Ms. Arndt does not attempt an Australian accent (I’m probably very thankful about that) but I can’t help but wonder – why not choose an Australian narrator for this one?

Ms. Arndt was faced with numerous place names which I expect caused her at least a little angst – I wonder what Americans think of “Mooloolaba” – but for the most part, she did exceptionally well with them. There were only a few Australian places or animals that weren’t quite correct and she did get bonus points for saying “Aussie” correctly (for those who are unaware, it is pronounced “Ozzy”).  Even with all that, I felt the choice of an American narrator, even one as good as Andi Arndt, was odd to say the least.

It Seemed like a Good Idea at the Time was an entertaining listen nevertheless and I very much enjoyed revisiting the Sunshine Coast; a favourite holiday spot for my family (it’s where we plan to retire when we win the lotto – just gorgeous). I did have a few qualms about the “then” stages of Adele and Pete’s relationship and the ending was a bit rushed, but I had no doubt of the genuineness of their HEA.

Kaetrin


 

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