Loved by You by Kate Perry

Narrated by Xe Sands

Always enthused to hear another romance title narrated by Xe Sands, I started listening to Loved by You expecting an intelligently written contemporary romance, on par with Rachel Gibson and Kristan Higgins. After all, the publisher’s blurb compares Kate Perry’s writing to these contemporary romance giants. Two of my favorite authors, Gibson and Higgins know how to develop characters and focus the action on the protagonists; they take real life situations, and create conflict and resolutions that ring true and, in the process, make you laugh or make you cry. Kate Perry, however, clearly does not. I wasn’t an hour in before I started feeling like I’d been exposed to a bit of false advertising.

Straight contemporary romance is my favorite romance sub-genre but it can be one of the most challenging to pen, I suspect, as it is only about relationships with no other plot points such as evil villains, history, mystery, and the like. Any suspense centers on the leads’ interactions with one another and/or the effect of outside forces on the primary relationship.

Loved by You falls solidly in the straight contemporary romance category and therefore I was hoping for a complex relationship between a credible hero and heroine. But instead of complexity, I found underdeveloped characters with farfetched backgrounds and current circumstances. It felt like the author, in an attempt to create a fresh romance, pulled together a bunch of unlikely scenarios, threw them all in a pot, and tried to make something taste good that simply wasn’t meant to be mixed together in the first place.

Karma (KT) Taylor is the daughter of famous parents – their fame as musicians is compared to that of the Beatles. The setup sounded like it held great promise as the parents are secondary characters.

Like her famous parents, KT is also a thoroughly talented musician. Living in a guest cottage behind her parents’ home, she vehemently hides her talent –from anyone and everyone one – family included. At the age of 30, she composes music but never performs and it all stems from an unkind remark at her first performance at the age of four. In the intervening 26 years, she has lived in fear of experiencing rejected again. Okay, I won’t go into my myriad of thoughts on just how an experience at such a very early age could so severely affect the life of a mature woman but I digress … you’ll understand my thoughts if you choose to listen.

KT is, in a word, cranky. It felt as though she was always looking for a reason to disagree, to run away, and even to deceive if it served her purposes. I really, really tried to care for her – to enjoy her cantankerous nature – to resist the urge to label this as one of those “hateful heroine” books on my personal shelf (I really do have such a shelf). But, I just plain didn’t like her even as the audio drew to an end.

Chance Nolan, on the other hand, is quite an affable guy. He has made his living by successfully working the odds playing poker. His parents and brother died in a car accident when he was a teenager and he’s been alone since, living in a boat (that he won in a game) sailing the world. Now he’s decided to settle down with a regular job and is looking into working with an insurance company who is sure to appreciate his skill with numbers and risk taking. His job search is more wallpaper than anything else as it rarely adds to the story. He’s not employed for the majority of the book which conveniently provides him with plenty of time to see KT. He has a pet pig that lives indoors (even though he is a guest of the famous musicians’ neighbor) and everyone not only adores the pig but welcomes his presence when Chance takes him along for visits.

KT and Chance meet for the first time when KT climbs over a fence to escape her mother. After talking for a very few minutes, they decide to fake an engagement as Chance has a pesky woman wanting him and KT needs to get her mom off her back. Her parents have decided it’s time for her to perform, giving her an ultimatum – either perform at an upcoming event or her musically talented (and very eager to participate) sister will not be allowed to perform.

KT and Chance’s relationship develops sexually but little beyond. She rejects him at every turn and isn’t too nice about it. Why he wants to be around her is a mystery but I guess it’s the too familiar “guys like bitchy women” scenario.

Xe Sands continues as a favorite narrator as she takes this material and runs with it, clearly differentiating characters and making the printed page unnecessary. Her range is deep and she is especially fine in performing the males. Her voice sometimes takes on a gravelly sound that I don’t particularly care for in her female characters but works well with her males. Her depiction of KT’s father was especially well rendered – so true to his laid back nature.

Despite her lower range, Xe performs her females beautifully. Each and every conversation between female characters flows easily and I didn’t need a single dialog tag once each was introduced.

As Xe has shared with us here at AudioGals, she records in her own home studio. The quality is high and rarely can you sense when there is an edit or a break between scenes. When I listen to a Xe Sands narration, I know it will be a narration I enjoy. However, even Xe’s talents couldn’t pull off Loved by You. For those romance listeners new to Xe, I suggest you give Kristan Higgins’ Catch of the Day or Anne Stuart’s Fire and Ice a try. All three of the Gals want to see her narrating more romance.

A strong secondary romance and KT’s parents saved the this one from being a complete failure. But Xe still shines and I’m not going to knock her performance for the book’s content.

Lea Hensley

Narration:  A-

Book Content:  D+

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence:  None

Genre:  Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Phoenix Rising Enterprises, Inc.