One Wish by Robyn Carr

Narrated by Therese Plummer

I used to love Robyn Carr books. I have the first 12 Virgin River books in print and the first three on audio. I got side-tracked by other reading and when I saw One Wish come up for review, I decided to dive in to the Thunder Point series and see if the magic held. Unfortunately, I think it’s time for Robyn Carr and me to break up. It’s me, not you, Robyn.

I’m a died-in-the-wool romance reader. I’ve never been a big fan of women’s fiction (and boy howdy do I detest that term!). I like to read about a central couple spending a lot of time together and getting their HEA. Other storylines which get in the way of that tend to cause frustration., Yes there are the rare exceptions
when I read a sci-fi or fantasy book where there is little or no romance but in those cases, I know what I’m getting into up front and it suits my reading/listening mood at the time. If I start what I think is a contemporary romance and nearly half the book is about people other than the central couple? Less enjoyment. (Maybe it’s my mistake though – the print version is published by MIRA – a definite clue.)

If I’d read the earlier books in the series and I knew the other characters, perhaps I’d feel differently about One Wish. There are plenty of people who like just what Ms. Carr is offering and that’s totally fine.

Grace Dillon is a former champion figure skater who retired from competition and adopted a new name to be anonymous. She runs the florist in Thunder Point and lives in a small one room apartment above the shop. Her best friend, Iris, has just gotten married. A former flame of Iris’s is Troy Headly, a high school teacher and part time bartender at Cooper’s. Troy is somewhere on the spectrum from mildly bummed to heartbroken at Iris’s marriage to Seth. I say there’s a spectrum because I didn’t find him all that consistently drawn.

He starts hanging out with Grace, appointing himself her “fun coach” and discovers that she has all the attributes he wants in a girlfriend and they start dating.

I have to admit that dating your best friend’s sorta-kinda ex is not my favourite trope. It’s not in the blurb so it was a bit of a surprise and not in the good way. For me, Troy was often a jerk and the things which bothered me about him were never really addressed. Sometimes he was nice but I wasn’t entirely convinced by him.

There are also side plots about Grace’s mother, Winnie, also Ray Anne, Ray Anne’s second cousin, Ginger AND Peyton and Iris. And there are lots of babies. Lots and lots of babies. Like Virgin River, Thunder Point has a high level of fecundity.

Ginger’s child died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome at age four months and she’s still grieving the loss. The babies, the stillbirths, the SIDS deaths, they are all difficult for me to read/hear about especially in such large number and I generally avoid books which contain these storylines when I can. This is probably the main reason why I have to break up with Robyn Carr. Sorry Robyn, I just can’t do all the baby related things anymore.

If I cared about Peyton’s wedding, I probably would have enjoyed One Wish a little more. But I didn’t care about it. I wanted Troy to stop being a jerk and I wanted more time with Grace and Troy so I could be confident in their HEA. As it was, I felt the central romance was rushed and incomplete. (By the end however, Grace had been a bit of a jerk too so maybe they deserved each other.)

I’m afraid the narration didn’t help my enjoyment of the story. There were all these weird pauses which went on for far too long and which were present for no apparent reason. I don’t mind a pause at the end of a paragraph or a section/chapter. In fact, I want it there so I have an audible cue that there is a change in the narrative. But in One Wish, Ms. Plummer paused between thoughts and in the middle of conversations. I can’t even suggest a reason why they were present and they bugged the heck out of me. There were times I wondered whether my iPod switched itself off unexpectedly.

I remember enjoying Ms. Plummer’s narrations of the first three Virgin River books. I didn’t love them to pieces but I liked them. Maybe the story was impacting my opinion of the narration here because the best I can say is that her performance was… okay.

There were some highlights however. The sections where Grace has an emotional confrontation with her mother and where Grace has (another) emotional confrontation with Troy are well done (from a narration perspective at least).

I found the character voices used for the older cast members were crisp and clear and believable.

The younger residents of Thunder Point however sounded very similar to one another – particularly the guys. There wasn’t a lot of mano-a-mano conversation so I always knew who was talking, but I’d have liked more differentiation.

There is a thing Ms. Plummer does, which I have noted before and which is particularly apparent in the narrative sections and the vocalisation of the younger cast members and which I don’t like. She has a cadence which slides away in pitch and drags at the end of sentences. Combined with the text, I felt it sounded patronising. Imagine someone talking soothingly to calm you down when you do not want to be calm. Kind of like that. I realise this is a personal gripe and many other listeners would either not care or not notice. Because it’s something innate to her I haven’t taken it into account in my grade – this is one of those things which I think could well be all about me.

For listeners who have followed along with the series and who like having a large POV cast and a women’s fiction vibe (and lots of babies), this book is very likely to work exceedingly well. Alas, I’m not that kind of listener, at least not anymore.

K

[section label=’Audiobook Information’ anchor=’Audiobook Information’]

Kaetrin

AUDIOBOOK INFORMATION

TITLE: One Wish

AUTHOR: Robyn Carr

NARRATED BY: Therese Plummer

GENRE: Contemporary Romance

STEAM FACTOR: Glad I had my earbuds in, but at the tame end

REVIEWER: Kaetrin [button type=’link’ link=’http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TY7O0H4/?tag=audiogalsnet-20′ size=’btn-lg’ variation=’btn-default’ target=’blank’]Buy One Wish by Robyn Carr on Amazon[/button]