Looking for something to listen to over the weekend? Maybe one of these titles will take your fancy…
Here’s what the Gals are listening to this week.
BJ
Narrated by Scarlette Hayes
Caz
Narrated by Iggy Toma
Kaetrin
Narrated by Wesley Paul
Melinda
Narrated by Samantha Summers & Tim Paige
Shannon
Narrated by Matthew Lloyd Davies
Last week I listened to “Common Goal” by Rachel Reid, narrated by Cooper North and then moved on to the next book in the series, “Role Model.” I wasn’t too sure about Cooper North at first, but he’s growing on me. And I do enjoy a good hockey m/m romance. I also did a re-listen of Jay Hogan’s “Against the Grain” in between because it’s just so good. I’ve started and stopped “Neon Gods” by Katee Roberts for almost a month now. It’s just not working for me like her other stories. Not sure if it’s the narration (the narrators really don’t fit the characters, imo) or the story itself. Oh well.
Cooper North is one of my favourites – although honestly, in that series I was just glad they ditched the previous narrator, who I thought was terrible!
I hear you on the frustrations of listening to narrators who don’t “fit” the books or characters. I wonder sometimes if the peopel who choose them have either read the book or listened to them for more than five minutes.
I listened to Kiss and Cry by Keira Andrews, narrated by Greg Boudreaux. The narration is excellent, and the book is good, but it didn’t really grab me. The pacing is a little slow. I did enjoy the info about figure skating, especially since I’ve been watching the real Olympic ice skating.
I also listened to C.S. Poe’s Color of You, also narrated by Boudreaux. Again, excellent narration. Although the story was enjoyable,it was just too “adorably” sweet for me to give it more than a B.
Right now I’m listening to Hidden in Darkness by Alice Winters, narrated by Joel Leslie. I listened to, and mostly enjoyed, Winter’s Hitman series (got very tired of the juvenile sex humor), so when I read that this one was humorous but not so cringe worthy I decided to give it a try,especially since my library had it. The humor is juvenile at times, but it isn’t centered on sex, so it’s mostly a bit of eye-rolling rather than cringing. The banter is fun and the action is exciting. The author made one dubious plot choice with a sex scene early on that had me a little worried about the rest of the book, but while I still don’t think it was a good choice, it didn’t set the tone. Joel is great, as expected.
I saw the Andrews crop up at Audible, but reactions seem to have been fairly lukewarm. Maybe I’ll pick it up at some point, but i’m not rushing to it.
I remember listening to the Poe a while back and enjoying it, but as you say, it’s a bit sweet.
I can’t do Alice Winters. I think we spoke about this elsewhere, but the one title of hers I listened to for review was so full of poor attempts at humour that I’ve sworn off her. I know she gets lots of great reviews, but honestly, that sort of really juvenile humour and what passes for “banter” doesn’t work for me at all. I’m realising that I don’t like JL’s “American” narrations as much as I do his “English” ones; maybe it’s because I’m so used to listening to the latter that his American accent sounds fake (I know it isn’t!)
I ended up feeling very so-so about the Alice Winter’s book. The narration was great and there were some flashes of humor that were excellent, but overall the story felt like it was trying too hard to be both witty and serious at the same time. In the end it just felt uneven.
I first heard Joel narrating with an English accent and didn’t know he was American for a while. :-) I’m happy he does the English accents well because I love his narrations of Lily Morton’s books.