Narrated by MacLeod Andrews
This is the third book in the Inn BoonsBoro series featuring the yummy Montgomery brothers who, along with mom, run a B&B in Maryland. Ryder Montgomery is the surly brother determined not to follow his brothers down the aisle (Books 1 and 2), but he is both irritated by and attracted to Hope Beaumont, the innkeeper.
Hope moved to BoonsBoro from Washington DC where she was in the hotel business with a large, swanky outfit, also family-owned. She left when her boyfriend, the owner’s son, announced his unexpected engagement to a socialite. Although the relationship between Hope and Ryder starts out antagonistic, they give into their attraction for what both assume with be a fling or a friends-with-benefits arrangement, but soon discover their feelings are stronger.
I generally prefer to start a series at the beginning – in this case, there is a thread about a ghost trapped in the Inn, looking for her lost love, that runs through the trilogy. This is a common plot device for NR’s series. Although the story of Ryder and Hope is the main event, the sections dealing with the ghost and also the sections dealing with Ryder’s family would probably have been easier to follow if I had read all three. The Perfect Hope doesn’t work well as a standalone if you become interested in the backstory.
MacLeod Andrews is a prolific young narrator, with 100 books at Audible.com. He narrated the entire Inn BoonsBoro series (both unabridged and abridged), and has several other genres in his resume, including YA and Sci-Fi. He has a really nice reading voice – at first I was a little hesitant, but I soon realized I was drawn into the story and becoming mesmerized. His deep Ryder voice was gruff and, yeah, sexy, and his male characters in general were distinct and easy to differentiate. His female characterizations were also good, on the whole. His treatment of NR’s POV writing worked very well – when reading from Ryder’s POV, with a lot more swearing and sentence fragments, he uses Ryder’s voice; when in Hope’s POV, it sounds more like his regular narrative. In the end I realized it wasn’t any one characterization or one trait that made his narration shine – it was the overall effect of his reading, a straight forward way that lets you enjoy the story and the characters. He brings just the right feeling to La Nora’s writing. I liked it!
Melinda
Narration: A
Book Content: B
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Minimal – very minimal, but one incident
Genre: Contemporary Romance with a slight paranormal element (ghosts)
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
The Perfect Hope was provided to AudioGals for review by Brilliance Audio.
MacLeod Andrews is at the top of my narrators’ list of favourites. This trilogy was my first foray into ‘MacLeod magic’ and I loved it. The characterisations were perfect and it’s always apparent who is ‘talking’.
I’ve since listened to many of his narrations, sci-fi and YA as mentioned, as well as several series and stand alones and have never been disappointed.