The Trouble With Valentine’s Day by Rachel Gibson

Narrated by Kathleen Early

The Trouble With Valentine’s Day is one of my favourite Rachel Gibson books. It’s been years since I read it though and I was curious to see how well the story would hold up. Lea told me Kathleen Early is great so I felt comfortable taking a punt on a new-to-me narrator.

This book is part of the Seattle Chinooks hockey series but it really has only a peripheral relationship to the sport. The hero, Rob Sutter, used to play for the Chinooks. That’s about it.

Kate Hamilton is in a resort in Sun Valley on Valentine’s Day, feeling lonely and sad as single people who don’t want to be single often do on that day. She is on her way to Gospel, Idaho, where her widowed grandfather lives. He hasn’t been doing so well since his wife died and Kate needs a place to redefine her life after a career disaster which had unintended and awful consequences. After a few buttered rums, she decides that picking a man up in a bar and turning him into a “sexual pretzel” is just what she needs. When Rob bellies up to the bar next to her, they start to chat and she screws up her courage and propositions him. He refuses in a very blunt way and she is humiliated. At least she’ll never have to see him again, right?

Wrong! In the tradition of all good romantic comedies, of course, “Rob” turns out to be Rob Sutter, the owner of Sutter Sports, the shop across the street from Kate’s grandfather’s grocery store. When Rob comes back to town after an extended skiing vacation with his buddies, Kate is horrified to realise who he is.

Rob’s career ended abruptly when he was shot by a woman he’d picked up in a bar and who then went all Fatal Attraction on him. Rob was married, but separated, at the time. Even so, he hadn’t been a choir boy and fidelity wasn’t exactly in his skillset back then. Since recovering from the shooting which cost him his career and which also sounded the final death knell on his marriage, Rob has been living quietly celibate – you never know who might turn out to be a bunny boiler, after all. This of course, explains why Rob turned Kate down in Sun Valley. It certainly wasn’t because he wasn’t attracted to her.

Their close proximity and some determined matchmaking from Stanley, Kate’s grandfather, turn the heat up and Rob and Kate get down and dirty in some interesting places – including the condom aisle in the grocery store (after hours!).

Rob’s experience of marriage wasn’t great and he has no intention of doing it again. Kate, however, wasted years on a boyfriend who wouldn’t commit. She is in her mid-thirties and doesn’t want to waste more time on a relationship which is going nowhere.

There are some flaws in the story: Rob has a two year old daughter and even by the end of the book, Kate has had only a passing interaction with her. I’d have thought that she’d at least want to meet her stepdaughter. Rob had been unfaithful in the past. I think the reader is supposed to think the difference is that he loves Kate and didn’t love his ex-wife, but he actually says he did love her once so I’d have liked to have had a little more comfort about his continued fidelity.

Kate had been a private investigator and the circumstances which led to her leaving the role were traumatic. Should she get some counselling maybe?

All that said however, I still enjoyed the book very much. The banter between Kate and Rob sparks off the page; they have such excellent chemistry. I thought the secondary romance involving Stanley and a certain older lady was cute too. There were also quite a few funny moments, mostly involving the stereotypical gossiping busybodies who live in Gospel.

I enjoyed the narration. At first, I was a little worried that Rob’s voice wasn’t “masculine” enough for me – his first appearance in the story didn’t impress me much. However, by the time the story had moved to Gospel, his voice was much better. I think it was just a glitch (he doesn’t speak much in Sun Valley). Rob isn’t given a super deep voice, but it is a little gravelly and is certainly different to Kate’s so I was happy enough.

I thought Ms. Early nailed the tone of the story and she excelled when it came to the fun banter between the loved-up pair and Rob’s penchant for a little dirty talk.

Ms. Early delivered the pacing of the story well and seemed to understand the rhythm of small town contemporary romance; so even though it was my first experience of her narration, it sounded familiar and easy.

There are some older books which don’t hold up well but The Trouble With Valentine’s Day isn’t one of them. A solid performance by Kathleen Early made this a win for me.

Kaetrin

Narration: B

Book Content: B

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: Minimal

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Blackstone Audio

The Trouble With Valentine’s Day was provided to AudioGals by Blackstone Audio for a review.