Narrated by Emma Taylor
The Gamble
Max is a classic KA hero: he’s alpha, bossy, intimidating and gruff, and Nina decides to leave. One complication sets the chain of events into action – she’s got the flu, and Max cares for her in the cabin until she recovers. Nina isn’t one of KA’s young ditzy heroines – she’s a lawyer in England and she has enough moxy to stand up to Max and any number of characters in the small Colorado town of Gnaw Bone, including Max’s bitchy sister, overbearing mother and a number of his life-long buddies and neighbors. She decides to take a gamble, stay in the cabin and complete her “timeout” even when her fiancé (with whom she’s broken it off, by email, as soon as she recovers from the flu, since he never even called to see how she was doing) and evil father show up to convince her to get back with him.
This is a long, complicated plot with a dash of suspense thrown in when a hated member of the community is murdered and Max becomes a potential suspect for about 24 hours. Narrator Emma Taylor does a wonderful job narrating it, as all KA books are told, from the heroine’s POV in first person. Taylor switches from the British accents to the American and back, each of the dozens of characters getting his or her own special treatment with local accents, pitch and other vocal techniques. Her Max voice is wonderful, gravelly and deep in a way I kept expecting to make her voice hoarse, which never happens. She kept the story moving forward and interesting, which is saying something for a 25+ hour audiobook that should have had about 5 hours cut in editing – and I mean in the writing before it was read out loud! This was one book where the narration exacerbated KA’s rambling, stream of consciousness style of writing – even though Ms Taylor was doing a bangup job of reading it, I found myself rolling my eyes at the sheer mind-numbing repetition of concepts. Maybe this style worked better in the Dream Man series because the heroines were ditzy or because the books were much, much shorter. I must have checked the recording time 100 times a day – was the book never going to end? This wasn’t so much a function of the plot or narration as it was of KA’s way of having the heroine think something, then say the exact thing she thought out loud, and then somehow manage to repeat the concept at least one more time, like this (not a book quote but my own example – I’m too overwhelmed to go back through the book and find a real quote!!):
“I looked at him and thought how good he looked in his suit and tie, so I said,’I was just looking at you and thinking how good you look in your suit and tie,’ which was a dumb thing to say since he wasn’t even wearing a suit and tie but he had been wearing a suit and tie the day before…” Etc etc. (admit it, amiright?)
Seriously, this is irritating in an already long audiobook, especially when it happens every few minutes. I think I must have skimmed this book a lot in print. Although I rated the ebook 4 stars, now that I’ve heard it read out loud, I just cannot give it anything higher than C, mostly for the annoyance factor. Forget my usual KA squee fangrrrrl reaction. I notice even my own sentences in this review are over-long and rambling, reflecting the storyline and her writing style – it’s as if I can’t even condense it to normal size. (smh)
And for her talented and interesting narration, Ms Taylor gets a big ol’ A!
Melinda
Narration: A
Book Content: C
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Fighting, kidnapping, death by gunshot
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Hachette Audio
The Gamble was provided to AudioGals for review by Hachette Audio.
Thanks for the great review Melinda! I must admit that I was somewhat discouraged away from this title when I saw how long it was. I figured I would wait for the review to see if it was worth listening to. You’ve convinced me not to bother. The next in the series, Sweet Dreams, is also 25 hours, but the description sounds so much better (more like the Dream Man series) that I am tempted to get that one as soon as it releases. Hopefully that one is not written in the same repetitive style.
Yep, as much as I have enjoyed KA’s books in print, I think she is definitely an author who does not translate well into audiobook. Thanks for a great review.
This book is on my wishlist, but that quote makes me think this might be more of a rent than a buy.
To be clear, the “quoted” part does not actually occur in the book – it was my way of explaining what I mean about her repetitive writing. While it seems to happen over and over in all the KA I’ve read, it doesn’t always happen in the same sentence, so I just made that up as an example. This can be skimmed over in print; in audio, it seemed exaggerated! But the narrator is really, really good, so I recommend it if you are a big KA fan.
I loved this listen from start to finish and I agree Emma Taylor rocked it – she was perfect ( I wondered during the first 20 minutes where there was a rocky start to Max’s voice but once she found her groove with him it only got better).
Two caveats from me – my listen to The Gamble took a full month ( too much work and limited listening time) so not enough time in one go for any repetitiveness to become obvious. And I’m still new to KA’s writing – her stye doesn’t bug me – especially with a great narrator at the wheel. :)
I just finished The Gamble yesterday and although it did not take me a month to listen, it did take a long time. I think in KA’s earlier books, she tended to be very wordy and repeat segments throughout the book…ie, relive previous moments of the book. I know the reviewer gave the narrator an A, but I have to say that to me the Narrator was the ENTIRE reason to keep listening to this book. She was fantastic. She gave Nina a slight British accent, but had Max sound just like a Mountain Man. I really enjoyed the book as much for her narration as for the story, which I had read before, anyway. One thing to think about if you need to listen to something….this book is very long, but then it made it worthwhile to use a credit for it. Sure didn’t feel gypped like I do on some books.
Great review and I especially appreciate your distinction between the eBook and audio experience with the WRITING (not the narration). Very helpful.
Thanks for all the great feedback and kudos – really, if you are a big KA fan and you have already read The Gamble and loved-loved-loved it, yeah, it’s worth a credit. The narrator is truly wonderful, even if she couldn’t keep me from looking at the time left in the recording.
Thanks for the detailed review. I was checking mostly to see what the narrator is like since I’ve never heard her before. I’m actually reading the ebook now and not noticing a lot of repetition so I was surprised to see the 25 hour length at Audible. I’ll probably get the audio and save it for a multitasking project when I need something to listen to but can’t listen as closely as normal.