Love at First Flight by Marie Force

Narrated by Tanya Eby

Tanya Eby is a narrator that puzzles me. Her narration of The Search by Nora Roberts is excellent. It is so right, in fact, that I bumped my rating of the book up for the audio version because Eby’s narration makes the characters come alive. Heart of Fire by Linda Howard is another success for Eby. In the Howard book she does a particularly good job with the accents. So I’m puzzled by how little I enjoyed Eby’s narration of Love at First Flight.

I recently listened to another book narrated by Eby that didn’t work for me, and the reasons are similar with both books. She isn’t interpreting the emotions of the characters the same way I am. Since her reading of the characters doesn’t always mesh with mine, her character’s sound “off” to me at times, especially during dialogue. My only other complaint about the narration for Love at First Flight is that it’s too slow. The slow reading speed ends up making the characters sound like they’re whining much of the time.

Since I don’t care for the plot of Love at First Flight, my criticisms of the book may be leaking over into my impressions of the narration. It’s true that the other book I mentioned above where Eby’s narration didn’t work for me is also a book I don’t care for in general. It might be fair to say Tanya Eby is a strong narrator when she has good material, but not quite strong enough to overcome a mediocre book.

Juliana meets Michael on a plane bound for Florida where each is going to see their long-distance love. Michael is engaged to Paige, and Juliana has been dating Jeremy for ten years. With long-distance romances in common, they enjoy a companionable conversation during the trip. Over the weekend, however, things change for both of them. Michael breaks his engagement to Paige after learning she and her father expect him to follow their career choices. And when Juliana finds out Jeremy wishes he could “play the field” before settling down, she decides a three month cooling off period is in order. Michael and Juliana reconnect on the flight home and their relationship starts. The rest of the book centers on the murder trial where Michael is the prosecuting attorney, and the growing attraction between Michael and Juliana.

I have several problems with this book, although when I read it in print last year the plot didn’t impact me quite as much as it did in audio. First, the reader gets a detailed look at the development of both characters’ previous relationships. This includes a sex scene for each of the soon to be ex-couples, which I found gratuitous in light of what happens afterwards. I couldn’t help feeling at least somewhat sympathetic to both exes and it made the rest of the story feel like a rebound relationship for both. But the worst part is that Juliana is telling Michael she loves him and is sleeping with him, but she hasn’t completely broken things off with Jeremy. This is one of the major storylines and a source of tension throughout the book. It only succeeds in lowering my opinion of Juliana. The author does redeem her at the end to some degree when Juliana makes what I consider a very responsible decision.

Fans of Marie Force will likely enjoy this book, as will readers who enjoy light contemporary romance with a touch of suspense.

Carrie

Narration:  C+

Book Content:  C+

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence:  Fighting

Genre:   Contemporary Romance

Publisher:  Tantor Audio

Love at First Flight was provided to AudioGals for review by Tantor Audio.