Narrated by Susan Denaker
The publisher’s blurb: A girl from the wrong side of the tracks, Tara Jean Sweet knows that opportunity will never knock; she’ll have to seize it. Elderly Texas rancher Lyle Baker has a dying request: He will give Tara Jean a stake in his leather business in exchange for a little family subterfuge. All Tara Jean has to do is play the part of a gold-digging fiancée to lure Lyle’s estranged children home. The mission is soon accomplished.
Now Lyle’s gone—and his ridiculously handsome son, Luc, an ice hockey superstar sidelined by injuries, is the new owner of Crooked Creek ranch. He’s also Tara Jean’s boss. But being so close to sinfully sweet Tara Jean does crazy things to Luc’s priorities, like make him want to pry her deepest secrets from those irresistible lips. But when Tara Jean’s past demands a dirty showdown, will Luc stay and fight?
My take on the story: I read this book last summer and had a vague memory of liking it and thinking it was romantic comedy. The cover indicates something a little flirty, not dark, and on Amazon.com she’s linked with Susan Andersen in an interview. There are some comic situations, starting with Tara Jean posing for photos with her elderly fake fiancé. Tara Jean carries a little devil in her head, the Demon, which I found humorous when I read in print.
But I guess it was actually more of a drama than a comedy. Tara Jean has a really dark, scary past, and Luc is not just sidelined by his injuries – he has rather serious brain problems, potentially fatal. The story follows their journey from adversaries to friends to lovers, with each not trusting the other, mainly due to Tara Jean not being exactly what she seemed. Her trust issues are easy enough to understand, but Luc’s are founded in truth: she was a con artist, after all! The characters were a little hard to like, but sometimes that makes the story even better.
My take on the narration: I wondered throughout the listen whether it might have been possible to narrate this a little lighter, maybe with more emphasis on the humor. At the end, I decided that Susan Denaker, an experienced and very good narrator, had made an acting/directing choice to treat the whole story more seriously, more dramatically. Frankly, I let that bother me through most of the book. Her voice made every line grave, all situations somber. It was still a good narration – her characters were well defined by pitch, by accent, by voice placement. But I struggled with the grimness of her delivery, even after I accepted that the story wasn’t always light and funny.
Because narration affects the story, in the end I am going with a C for storyline – it didn’t tug at my heartstrings, but it was ok. For audio, I just can’t truly love a narration that was so much at odds with my own feelings about the book (dark vs. light), even though there’s an argument to be made that maybe she made the right choice. For left-brain, checklist oriented narrating, it’s an A; because I just can’t go that high for a narration I questioned most of the 12-hour listen, it’s a B – so I’ll compromise with B+.
Melinda
Narration: B+
Book Content: C
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: minimal, some domestic violence in the past
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Random House Audio
Can’t Buy Me Love was provided by Random House to AudioGals for review.
I had the same problem with this book that you did. I kept thinking it was supposed to be funny and then, it wasn’t. About a third of the way in, I read a lengthy review by a trusted source and found it was just a serious book with two unlikeable characters – or at least unlikable for most of the book. I quit listening around the five hour mark.
BUT what a discovery in Susan Denaker! She is fantastic!!