Narrated by Xe Sands
In Sweetest Mistake, Abigail has returned to Sweet, Texas, determined to recover from a devastating divorce from her elitist, controlling ex-husband and start her life again. In a constructive forward direction, she is focused on restoring her childhood home, enabling her snowbird parents to sell the house. The last thing she bargained for was an immediate encounter with her old best friend and (unbeknownst to him) the love of her life, fire-fighter Jackson Wilder.
Jackson Wilder is working on his relationship with his precocious toddler, trying for a promotion in his firehouse and recovering from his own painful but amicable divorce. The last thing he expected was ripping the bandage off the old wound of the desertion of his best friend Abby, who left him without explanation right before his older brother died in combat, followed closely by the death of his father.
Pushed by their friends, the Wilder brothers, Jackson’s daughter, his mother and even his ex-wife, the couple begins a faltering and reluctant dance where each partner takes turns pulling back or leading, stepping on toes or urging forward, looking backwards or hesitantly facing forward. While Jackson felt Abby had abandoned him, from Abby’s point of view she gave her virginity to a boy who was unable to commit, and now she is desperately determined to hide her increasingly passionate (and seemingly hopeless) feelings.
Although the trope of young lovers with misunderstandings is not among my favorite story lines, I am a sucker for firefighters, large families of brothers, cuddly pets, naughty-and-affectionately-pushy moms, and tiny cute children. This author did an excellent job with those (in fact, I need to find out what happens to the sexy veterinarian brother). And as I currently live in Texas, I like to listen to stories based my state. (I also found it interesting that the ex-husband, Mark Rich, bore some similarities to another famous wealthy Mark in Texas that owns a sports team…nah. I am sure that is just a coincidence). One of the unexpectedly wonderful parts of this book was how the author kept Jackson’s first wife and the mother of his child in the picture and in the family. In fact, his mother and brothers all included her, and she and Jackson remained friends; I loved that.
Xe Sands leads us beautifully through the story. Unlike the hapless couple, her pace never falters and her characters are distinct and nicely pitched. She plays an understated amount of emotion (which I appreciate) and she creates her sexy males by pitching them slightly lower with a husky tone – a more natural sound. Her depictions of Jana (Jackson’s Texan mom) and Izzy (his tiny daughter) were a little less convincing in accent and tone, but her characterizations, and the emotions, of both were right on. The scene where Jackson is patiently letting Izzy put makeup on his face is a heart-warming tribute to both the author and the narrator.
I actually think that Sands’ performance and characterizations kept me from getting impatient, sooner. By the end of the book, I was convinced both that these characters had major insecurity issues and that they heartily deserved each other. I lost count of the number of times that they jumped back and forth from “yes, finally, I can tell you I love you” to “oh no, I can’t be with you”. Just when one would “commit”, the other would change their mind – I wanted to knock their heads together at the end; it was one too many times for me. I was about to edge toward the fast forward button and Jackson (and Xe Sands’ husky voice) would pull me back when he, or his family, did something sweet (ohhh…maybe that was the way Abby felt. Hmmm). I would have rated this book much higher if the author had removed some of those back-and-forth missteps.
If you like the “we were first-love best-friend soul-mates and we screwed it up” trope, then the combination of the hot fire fighter with the huge and loving family, combined with Xe Sands’ narration, is a sweet read.
Victoria
Narration: B+
Book Content: B-
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Minimal
Genre: Contemporary Romance (small town)
Publisher: Harper Audio
My Sweetest Mistake was provided to AudioGals for review by Harper Audio.
What a thorough and thoughtful review! Thanks so much, Victoria. I, too, had a weakness for Jackson. He was such a clueless but good-hearted boy. I’m glad he got his HEA in the end. If you continue on with the series, I’ll be curious what you think. I will say that there is far less “come here come here come here…get away get away get away” in SOMETHING SWEETER, so perhaps that will sit better :)