Narrated by Amy Rubinate and Will Damron
It’s New Years’ Eve 2005, and Levi Hardy is working his last night at a swanky resort in Florida. It’s taken him years of careful planning – and distance from his con man father – to raise enough money for a stake for Las Vegas. He has a plan and nothing is going to get in his way. Lindsey is vacationing with her family when she first lays eyes on Levi. Levi is in no mood to humor an underage coed out for a little fun. Levi is in no mood to play, so he gives her a piece of his mind and tells her to shove off.
Nine years later, Lindsey has just arrived in Malibu, running across the country from the devastation of a cheating fiancée. She is hoping that the time away from well-meaning family will provide her with the opportunity to decide whether she wants to forgive Rob and continue with a life that is no longer satisfying. When she meets her next door neighbor and remembers him as the jerk from the beach all those years ago, she’s surprised.
Levi has done well at the gambling tables and now spends his days managing his portfolio and sitting on the beach. At first, he doesn’t recognize Lindsey as that girl all those years ago. Lindsey has decided to forgive and forget, assuming that the coincidence of them both being in Malibu is a sign. Levi doesn’t see it that way and wonders what trick Lindsey is trying to pull and how much it’s going to cost him. But with Lindsey, he starts to see a different side of having a relationship with a woman.
In the Cards was an extremely disappointing read. The reviews I looked at before requesting it described this book as emotionally driven but a nice romance. Bull-hockey! It was indeed a deeply emotional read…because the characters spent more time inner monologue-ing than they did talking to other people! In the Cards was eight hours plus of a therapy session! Honestly, I was tired of all the “woe is me, my mommy abandoned me, nobody takes me serious” whiny bits of most of the book. Admittedly, you get a lot of inner reflection with first person but I’ve read other books where there was a nice balance of introspection and outer dialogue and setting. And this book desperately needed some outside interaction to break up the introspection. If I hadn’t agreed to finish this book for review, I would have stopped after the third chapter – it was depressing and I was most definitely not a fan.
As for the narration, In the Cards would have been a more enjoyable listen if Damron had narrated the entire piece, instead of taking turns with Rubinate. His performance was the better of the two in terms of accents and tone by far. Even his female characters were better than Rubinate’s – all of hers sounded exactly the same. I could tell she used pitch to differentiate between women but not enough for me to know who was speaking. Her voice for Lindsey was worse though – she sounded very nasally. Not in a Fran Drescher a la The Nanny way but in a snooty, Valley girl way. I kept waiting Lindsey to end her sentences with “as if!” This was very annoying trait to hear and one I never got used to it. I’m still not sure if it was intentional to demonstrate Lindsey’s upper class background or happenstance.
Diana
Narration: Amy Rubinate C- and Will Damron C+
Book Content: D
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Minimal
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
In the Cards was provided to AudioGals by Brilliance Audio for review.
