So here we are – another Friday and the end of a very stressful week. Even those of us NOT in the US are holding our breath and sitting on the edge of our seats… So what have you been doing to get away from it all for a while? Books – in any format – are and always have been my refuge; I’m fortunate in that I’m able to get stuck into a book when I’m down or stressed, and it’s a wonderful distraction, even if only for a while. But I know that doesn’t work for everyone, so come in and share your switch-offs and forget-about-it-for-a-whiles – books or otherwise.
BJ
Narrated by Glennon Doyle
Caz
Narrated by Braeden Sinclair
Em
Narrated by Nicole Poole
Kaetrin
Narrated by Charlotte North
Melinda
Narrated by Soneela Nankani
Shannon
Narrated by Suzanne Toren
I gave upon Proud Mary last week because there was so much going on in the book and it was distracting. You were very right about it. The book is free on Kindle Unlimited so I’ll read it eventually just to get closure.
I listened to Band Sinister by KJ Charles and loved it. The narration by Cornell Collins was perfect.
Next was Bountiful by Sarina Bowen. I liked it. The story was a little slow at first but got better. Seraphine Valentine was the female narrator and she was good, but her voice was a little flat and her delivery was slow. Teddy Hamilton was quite good.
Then I listed to The Billionaire’s Wake-up-call Girl by Annika Martin. If you can suspend disbelief, this is a great little book. Neva Navarre is a really good voice actress, but she slips into a gravely throat voice instead of staying in her head voice, which distracted me. Jason Clarke was really good. I confess I wish most audiobooks were narrated at a little faster clip, and I appreciate that most apps let you speed it up. I listen to book on the Chirp app, LIbby, and Hoopla this week and one of them, I think Libby,doesn’t let you adjust the speed, which is unfortunate for my ADHD brain!
Right now I am listening to A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare. It’s cute, and the narration by Carolyn Morris is wonderful.
I reviewed the Martin here – Jason Clarke is my current voice crush. Well, him and Teddy H! It defninitely does require some suspension of disbelief, but it’s fun. (“Wake up, motherfucker!”) I wasn’t wild abotu Seraphina Valentine the one time I listened to her; she had a really annoying habit of making practically every sentence into a question.
I don’t think Dare has topped AWBTW – Colin is such a wonderful hero. Her more recent books with Mary Jane Wells are really well narrated but nowhere near as good in terms of the stories. And Band Sinister is brilliant – a clever homage to Heyer while being something all its own. KJ Charles is a bloody genius!
Because I get a lot of review copies as mp3s, speeding up or slowing down isn’t really an option for me, so it’s not something I’ve ever done. It’s rare that I want to do either of those things, although I will admit that there were times I wished I could have speeded up my current listen just a bit!
The rest of the series that Bountiful is a part of has Valentine as the narrator and that makes me less likely to listen. The book was good but didn’t wow me, and there are so many other good choices. I loved Teddy Hamilton in the Him series, so he’s a favorite already.
The Billionaire’s WUCG was laugh out loud at times. I wish Sasha had been a little better developed (look at me! wanting more angst!) but overall it was very entertaining. Have you read any other books by Martin?
And yes, Band Sinister is brilliant! Another 5 star listen from Charles.
Courtney Milan’s latest “The Duke Who Didn’t” drooped on audible in nov 3 and it was exactly what I needed to get through that night as well as the rest of the week. Stellar narration (as usual) by Mary Jane Wells. The story and narration felt like a cozy blanket that surrounded me in care and warmth. Listening again just because I needed that.
I love Mary Jane Wells – she’s a wonderful performer. I’ve been in two minds about whether I want to read the Milan – I was a massive fan of hers – I think her Brothers Sinister series is one of the best historical romance series EVER – but I was so, SO disappointed by her last three or four books that I decided to stop putting myself in that position of high hopes dashed. If I do pick this one up, it’ll be because of MJW.