Narrated by Andi Arndt and Scott Eastwood
P.S. It’s Always Been You Part 1 is the first book in a serial, second chance romance – I think this is my first serial – where it’s one story over several releases, so this audiobook is only 2+ hours long. Right now, there are 3 books in the series, with installment 2 being released one week later and the last one the following week. Good thing it’s Audible Escape, because I would not want to spend 3 credits for what is essentially one book. In fact, if I didn’t have a bone to pick about the production, I would wait and review them all as one book after part 3 releases (Note: I did after all). But… Wait for it…
The first installment starts with a prologue from each protagonist, 10 years before the main story. Hunter and Presley have met and had a whirlwind romance with a deal – 6 months only, finishing with an idyllic vacation on the beach. No strings. No future. Only Happy For Now, not Happy Ever After. But… well, it all seems so perfect, even though Hunter is a wandering man, headed off to lead extreme adventure tourism in Alaska – mountain climbing, rock climbing, out where there’s no wifi, no cell service, no connections to the rest of the world. The relationship is so wonderful, they agree to somehow keep their connection going. That is, until Hunter gets a phone call, offering him an adventure he can’t refuse, but also one that he can’t tell anyone about. So, with some twinge of regret, he just drops Presley with a phone call – sorry, babe, something else came up, I’m outta here and you won’t ever hear from me again. Yeah. Just like that.
Presley takes on an adventure of her own – learning archery (insert slightly bemused emoji here) to get completely over him and goes on with her life. Years pass, but Hunter just won’t stay out of her mind, especially when his secret adventure is splashed all over the news as he rescues a billionaire in Antarctica, then goes on to write bestselling books, produce a TV show and otherwise just be rich, famous and in the news constantly.
Then fate brings them together again, 10 years after Hunter left, neither one in a committed relationship so anything can happen. They have to work together on a project. And it’s romance, so there’s a good chance they’ll make it work out – by installment 3, that is!
It goes without saying that Andi Arndt’s narration of this little blurblet of a book is spot on. She has totally nailed the 30-something contemporary romance heroine (also 20-something, but not this book, right?). Her pacing is completely natural, and her character differentiation is always just right. She’s very easy to listen to, truly bringing her characters and the entire story to life, seemingly effortlessly. Scott Eastwood, on the other hand, was new to me. He’s featured in a video on Audible for this audiobook, so I assumed he must be “somebody” – a quick google search and, duh, he’s Clint Eastwood’s son and also an actor in his own right. So, how can I say this? He’s a complete narrator newbie. I wonder if anyone mentioned to him that his pacing is, well, pretty mediocre? His voice is very easy on the ears and his acting, that is, speaking the characters’ lines, is mostly very good. But voice acting is not the same as other acting, (he even mentions this in the Audible video) and narration requires a completely different skillset from TV, movies, plays. The narrator is the entire book – and, as he points out in the video, you can’t memorize it – you have to follow the book. So, he pauses in the wrong places. Constantly. And – this is almost as annoying – he does not make any attempt at all, whatsoever, not even a little bit, to differentiate between characters. He reads in his own voice the entire time – for Hunter (ok, that works), for Hunter’s BFF (well, ok), for Presley (wtaf?). Not a change in timbre, a slightly raised pitch, a little breathier, nothing, nada, rien. We, the dedicated romance audiobook listeners, are being subjected to a complete virgin narrator when we’ve been spoiled by some of the very best. Sebastian York, Jason Clarke, Teddy Hamilton, and all the other male narrators that I’m used to hearing read contemporary romance, and Lauren Blakely’s works in particular, could and do run complete marathon circles around Scott Eastwood’s narration in this serial. But. It’s Lauren Blakely, it’s Andi Arndt, it’s Audible Escape, so I will go on and listen to parts 2 and 3, and hope that he improves (a lot) between releases.
P.S. The 3 parts are more than just a Hunter and Presley’s story, with a tiny twist of suspense over a century-old romance, which was fun.
P.P.S. It’s always something. I finished all three before publishing, so I now know that he didn’t improve in either pacing or character differentiation. Saskia Maarleveld and Zachary Webber step in to give depth to the story as the voices of the letter-writers from the 1920s. They were both great in these cameos. If you’re an Audible Escape subscriber, it’s worth your time. But not three full credits.
Melinda
Buy P.S. It's Always Been You Part 1 by Lauren Blakely on Amazon Buy P.S. It's Always Been You Part 2 by Lauren Blakely on Amazon Buy P.S. It's Always Been You Part 3 by Lauren Blakely on Amazon
I had exactly the same reaction to Eastwood’s narration and AE package or not, I decided not to finish the series. He may be a good actor, but he’s a really bad voice actor and I couldn’t take any more. I’ve become less and less enamored of Blakely’s books over the last year or so anyway, so it wasn’t that much of a sacrifice. But Arndt deserves a much better co-narrator. It was a waste of time for me, and I’ll be much more careful about both any of his future narrations and Blakely’s books; both just tell flat for me.
I haven’t listened to this and don’t intend to, but I do wonder how much longer LB/Audible can keep releasing (what seems like) an audiobook every week. I get that she has a huge fanbase, and in the audio world, I suspect a lot of that is due to the fact that her books get the real powerhouse narrators – I don’t recall seeing much buzz about her books before Sebastian York started narrating them, for instance. But surely, we’re reaching saturation point?
LOL no, come on, have you reached the saturation point for every prolific author? Kristen Ashley? Nora Roberts? <- you probably don't read them anyway, but please let Lauren Blakely keep releasing audiobooks and I'll line up for them. My beef was coupling an experienced narrator with one who might be good after a lot more experience. Maybe their producer could have mentioned the whole pacing thing during recording. (maybe the producer did, and they fixed a lot of it?? insert wide eyes emoji here)