Looking for Trouble by Victoria Dahl

Narrated by Celeste Ciulla

Looking for Trouble is the first book in Victoria Dahl’s Girl’s Night Out series; a spin-off from the Jackson books and set in the same town of Jackson, Wyoming.

Sophie Heyer is the daughter of the woman who ran off, 25 years earlier, with Alex Bishop’s dad. The adulterous pair disappeared and both Sophie’s and Alex’s lives changed forever.

Sophie was only five years old at the time and endured teasing at school and the sneers of the townsfolk. Even though it takes two to tango, it was Sophie’s mother who was considered the slut and to make matters worse, the now grown-up Sophie looks just like her mum.

Alex and his elder brother Shane (from Too Hot To Handle) had to cope with an increasingly erratic mother. After her husband disappeared, Rose Bishop lost the plot and went on a never-ending quest to find him. She never moved on and made it very hard for her sons to do so. When Alex was 18, he left and planned never to return.

The remains of Sophie’s mother and Alex’s dad were found the year before and Alex is in town, somewhat reluctantly, to attend a memorial for his father.

Sophie is a librarian and dresses modestly. She has a reputation for innocence and, given her mother’s scandalous behaviour, she wants to keep it that way. But she is not a “good girl” and when she sees Alex, with his tattoos and shaved head and his motorcycle she starts thinking extra wicked thoughts.

Alex, for his part, recognises the naughty girl under the facade – one of the only people to ever have done this. Alex is only in town for a few days and any relationship between them would be all kinds of wrong given what happened with their parents. But their chemistry is so strong they can’t stay away from each other. They start a no-strings affair and have hot and dirty sex whenever and wherever they can.

Alex’s mother finds out (because of course) and exposes the relationship in the most humiliating way. For Sophie, who thought the whole saga was finally coming to an end, it is traumatic.

Alex is a nomad. He has tried to stay in one place before, without success. He has no plans to stay in Jackson and has few good memories of it. While in town, he deals with his complicated feelings for his mother and deceased father and renews his bond with his brother.

Sophie wants to travel and have adventures but she will not leave Jackson because her stepdad and younger brother (but mainly her stepdad) “need” her. I found the reasons for this compelling and Sophie’s character resonated with me. I understood her need to be indispensable to her loved ones and her ambiguous feelings about Jackson.

There was a point in the story where Alex is arguing with Sophie and I found myself thinking that they were both right. The only problem was, their positions were diametrically opposed and I seriously wondered how the author was going to pull off a HEA. I’m pleased to say she did, and in such a way that the characters remained true to one another. I’d call it a slightly-more-than-HFN but not-quite-HEA ending – the couple are heading to a bright future I believe, but not everything has been mapped out yet and we don’t yet know exactly that HEA will look like for them. I think it worked and anything different would have been a disservice to the story.

Rose Bishop (Alex’s mother) has been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, and an additional medical condition is later discovered which is the cause of her recent psychological deterioration. It made sense that when treated, she would improve quickly. She was seeing a psychiatrist and it wasn’t only the medical condition which made her the way she was. She’s never going to be easy to deal with and even at the end of the book she’s not a fan of Sophie. It isn’t exactly a sympathetic portrayal of mental illness and for some, just that Rose is the “villain” will be enough to make this a story that won’t work for them. I was okay with it but I want to point out that I don’t think this will hold true for everyone.

I liked very much how Celeste Ciulla differentiated the female character voices. Her depiction of the male characters wasn’t quite authentic but it was different enough to make them recognisable and I was able to suspend disbelief and go with the fantasy without too much trouble. She also delivered the emotion and tone of the story, as well as the snappy humour and banter between the main characters, with skill. The sex is scorching, super hot and creative, and Ms. Ciulla does a great job with these scenes as well.

I’d certainly be happy to listen to her narrate again – but for one thing: There were odd pauses in the performance. What would be appropriate for a chapter break was sometimes inserted into conversation – when the same character was speaking even! For audiobook listeners who do not have the visual cues, the pauses the narrator makes are all important. A very small pause for a sentence ending. A slightly longer one to signal the end of a paragraph or section and one a little longer again for a chapter break. There were times (MANY times) during the listen when I had to check whether my iPod was still on.

I wondered if it was a technical thing; maybe there was a problem with pickups? But the voices and background noise (ie none) were the same each time. There was no discernable break in the recording. Just long pauses. For no reason. My sense was Ms. Ciulla kind of got lost, or just zoned out. It wasn’t merely once or twice, this occurred numerous times throughout the listen. It was off-putting and jarring and it annoyed me no end. It was a disservice to the story and it made me crabby.

Without that issue, I’d have given the narration a B. But it was so frustrating to be constantly interrupted I have to go with a C- for that grade. I sincerely hope that whatever it was gets fixed up because otherwise, she’s a good narrator.

Looking for Trouble is a solid romance but the narration let it down.

Kaetrin

Narration: C-

Book Content: B

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: Minimal

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Recorded Books

Looking for Trouble was provided to AudioGals by Recorded Books for review.