Narrated by Sandra Burr
La Nora has perfected the art of trilogies – in the Dream trilogy, 3 young girls raised together as practically sisters each get a story and a HEA, with a shared story between them as well. This is book 3 of the trilogy. Laura Templeton had the perfect upbringing, in a wealthy hotelier family, and chose the perfect man for her husband at the tender age of 18. But only a few years later, her perfect husband cleaned out her trust fund and moved in with another woman, leaving Laura with her dreams broken.
Family friend and former bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks Michael Fury is finally making something of his life when his livelihood is crushed, literally, by a mudslide. He needs a place to stay and stable his horses, so Laura’s older brother offers him the use of the family estate where Laura is staying with her children. The two find common ground, and Laura convinces Michael she’s not a fragile china doll but a full-grown woman with womanly desires. It’s pure Nora Roberts – just 2 slightly broken people finding love in this crazy, crazy world.
The book was originally published in 1997 and interestingly enough, the audiobook was also produced in the same year. Sandra Burr is a good, competent narrator who has all the right attributes – she has a wide range of character voices, and she keeps the story moving forward. I enjoyed one secondary female character’s Irish brogue, and I thought she did a fine job with the male voices too. One thing that really bothered me was the fact that there were literally no pauses at all in the reading. It wasn’t (overly) rushed, but it was almost as if someone sat down and removed the spaces. I looked twice to see if I had accidentally pushed a button to make it read at 1.5 speed! Now that I know it was recorded 15 years ago, I wonder if it was recently remastered – maybe she didn’t really read it straight through without taking a breath! That oddity did detract from the experience. Ms Burr also loses points for Laura’s voice sounding so child-like, even though the text describes her voice as “cool, cultured, quietly sexy.” She never sounded cool and definitely not quietly sexy – she sounded like a slightly whiny child who never took breaths!
There’s a thread that runs through the trilogy, a story of a young woman with a large dowry who buried her treasure before jumping off the cliff near the Templeton estate over 100 years before. The girls loved to hunt for the treasure, and each finds a piece at a critical point in her own story. There are no deep secrets, no villains or real suspense, nothing to move you to tears or laughter – just a good contemporary yarn ending with a proposal, read by a good narrator.
Melinda
Narration: B-
Book Content: B-
Steam Factor: Glad I had my ear buds in (but minimally – it wasn’t very steamy at all)
Violence: None
Genre: Contemporary romance
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Finding the Dream was provided to AudioGals by Brilliance Audio for review.
I guess it’s different tastes for different folks. I have never liked Sandra Burr as a narrator. To me she always sounds monotone.
I love Nora Roberts’s books and I especially loved this trilogy, but due to the fact that Ms, Burr narrated it I have not listened to it.