We look forward to our weekly behind-the-scenes chats about what’s making our ears happy – or not – and hearing from you about your current/recent listens. Drop by and tell us what you’re loving – or loathing – in audio right now!
Here’s what the Gals have been listening to this week
BJ
Narrated by Alexandra Harris
Caz
Narrated by Greg Tremblay and Zachary Johnson
Em
Narrated by Sienna Frances
Kaetrin
Narrated by Tim Paige
Melinda
Narrated by Jason Clarke and Emma Wilder
Shannon
Narrated by Fiona Hardingham
This week, I’ve listened to just under half of Gregory Ashe’s ‘Yet A Stranger’. I chose it, ahead of the other two Ashe’s I have waiting to be heard, because of J.F. Harding’s superb narration of the previous book in the series.
So far, I’m finding this one equally good. I’m really looking forward to hearing the narration of a number of gut-wrenching episodes that come later in the book……..
I think that one of the main reasons that the narration is so good is because of how Auggie is portrayed. He is so young and, because of reasons, acts so bratty at times , it would be very easy for his portrayal to be wrong. J.F. Harding ‘gets him’ absolutely spot-on and makes a difficult book an absolute joy to listen to.
I hope Shannon enjoys the narration of ‘Rosaline Palmer takes the Cake’ more than I did! Reading the book was fine but I found the narrator very irritating.
I haven’t quite worked up the courage for YAS yet! I completely agree about JFH’s interpretation of Auggie though – it’s superb. (And I am totally claiming credit for having introduced Greg to JFH’s work!)
I don’t know what it is, but I find fewer and fewer female narrators work for me. In fact, since my earliest days of listening to audiobooks (Audible tells me I’ve been a member since 2008!) I’ve preferred male narrators. I suspect it’s to do with pitch and timbre; I prefer the cello to the violin and the french horn to the flute etc. etc. and I find so many female narrators’ voices are just too high-pitched for my personal taste. Other than books narrated by Rosalyn Landor and Kate Reading, hardly any of the nearly 500 titles in my Audible library are narrated solely by women; I may pick up the odd review copy of something with a female narrator (I’m listening to one now in fact) but I rarely buy them. I liked RPTtC, but didn’t even consider it in audio.
Btw – and speaking of Kate Reading, in case you haven’t seen them yet, the two most recent Loretta Chase audios (Duke in Shining Armour and Ten Things I Hate…) are now available at Audible UK.
I’m extremely sensitive to high pitched voices – I think it comes from years of working with squeaky-voiced Infants! – so I also find KR and RL about the only female narrators that I enjoy listening to. It’s not really the narrator’s pitch on Rosaline though, it’s the style of delivery. It’s very jerky and relentlessly perky IMO.
Thanks for the tip on the Loretta Chase audios – I’d checked just the other day. Love that they’ve gone with the English spelling of ‘Armour’ on the audiobook! Still no sign of Dukes Prefer Blondes though………..
I listened to Cask Strength by Layla Reyne on audio and enjoyed it. Then I finished the series in print. Such a great series!
Blindsided by Eden Finley, narrated by Iggy Toma and Alexander Cendese. It was fun and the narration was great.
Rough Terrain by Annabeth Albert, narrated by Greg Boudreaux. Good story, if not my favorite of the series. Narration was fantastic.
Fire and Ice by Julie Garwood, narrated by Rebecca Lowman. I tried this because it’s been on my TBR list for 5 or 6 years, and my library had it on Libby (Overdrive). But this series obviously no longer works for me. Weak suspense plot, unanswered questions, lackluster romantic development, etc. The narration was good, which is the only thing that kept me going.
It Takes Two to Tumble by Cat Sebastian, narrated by Joel Leslie. There were some weaknesses, but overall I enjoyed the story and I love Joel Leslie, and he does a great job here. I’ve got A Gentleman Never Keeps Score ready to go. When my 5 Hoopla borrows are done for the month, I try to mine Libby for more audio books. I don’t like the selection as well, but I’m glad they have this series.
I’m glad you liked the Reyne; I enjoyed it, too, although I think she’s become a bit too reliant on having technology solving all problems in subsequent books. The exception was in Variable Onset which I reviewed recently – I think you’d enjoy that, too.
I listened to Rough Terrain recently, as well – Canaan is such a great guy! I I’m still amazed at the number of queer romances you can get from libraries; my local one doesn’t have ONE m/m romance in audio.
I just checked and they already have All Fired up on audio! Plus I found out they have Cat Sebastian’s Turner series on audio. I really am fortunate to have a great library system. I homeschooled my kids using a literature based curriculum and used the library for the majority of our books. That saved me tons of money.
Wow, that’s fast! I think the Sebastian series is my favourite of hers; IIRC, The Soldier’s Scoundrel was one of Gary Furlong’s earliest romance narrations and I rated him fairly highly; I don’t know if you’ve listened to him before but he’s one of my faves, and he’s really developed as a performer since then.
I listened to the sample of Tim Paige narrating All Fired Up, and wasn’t real sure about it. Even in the 4 minute sample I got confused who was talking a couple of times. He doesn’t seem to change his voice much for the different characters. I was going to buy it, but now I think I’ll wait until I read a couple of reviews. Has anyone here already listened to it?
I haven’t yet – Kaetrin has it for review, so watch this space!