Narration by Tanya Eby
If you love your romances short, cute, sweet, and full of laughs, then The Bet may be a good bet for your next listen. Having previously listened to several books in Ms. Van Dyken’s Eagle Elite series (mafia New Adult), I have to admit that I was expecting something a little different (deeper and more emotionally angst ridden). Nonetheless, in the right frame of mind, The Bet comes off as the classic tale of what happens when two brothers fall in love with the girl next door, except here, it’s riddled with tons of jokes, puns, and crazy laugh-out-loud, off the wall scenarios. As for the narration, with the caveat that it was somewhat difficult to distinguish the two brothers who are the main characters in this story, Tanya Eby otherwise delivers a decent performance.
Kacey grew up with the Titus brothers. Adored by one – Jake, and tormented by the other – Travis, most of Kacey’s childhood memories are wrapped up around one or the other brother and their loving, albeit somewhat meddlesome, family. Chief among the Titus crew is the brothers’ grandmother, who provides some monumental laughs and always seems to know what is really going on, even before the persons actually involved do.
It has now been years since they have all been together, in no small part due to the failed, secret coupling attempt between Kacey and Jake one disastrous evening. That night she not only lost her best friend, but also her parents in a horrible car accident. Kacey then quickly and quietly moved away to Seattle to forget her world of pain. That is, until Jake confronts her with a request she can’t refuse, especially when the goal is to help the now ailing grandmother. So Kacey agrees to come home and pretend that she is engaged to Jake in exchange for his paying off her crippling student loans.
As soon as Kacey arrives, however, she realizes that she never bargained to deal with Travis too. As Jake’s older brother, Travis was so infamous for teasing her that she even named him “Satan”. Many years later, it seems the one constant that hasn’t changed is Travis’ taunting ways. Jake, in turn, no longer seems to be exactly the person he used to present himself to be either. Moreover, now older and wiser, Kacey also realizes that there is another, even more startling and tantalizing undercurrent to Travis’ constant attention on her, and she can’t help but be drawn to it. Having always thought Jake was the “one”, Kacey is now left with one whopper of a quandary- which brother will she choose or should she just run away from the Titus family altogether?!
Having previously listened to Tanya Eby, I had a general idea of what to expect, and, for the most part, I enjoyed her rendition. For example, her attention to timing and delivery greatly helped maximize the comical nature of the plentiful funny lines. Additionally, Ms. Eby does a good job of communicating the other emotions and moods conveyed in the book.
Ms. Eby also performs believable gender appropriate voices making it easy to distinguish the males from the females. She also makes the older adults sound their age. In that regard, I think Ms. Eby perfectly portrayed the grandmother, who sounds every one of her eighty-five years.
As for the characters of a similar age and gender, I had much more trouble following who was speaking. Given that both Jake and Travis play such a large role in this book, and frequently were in the same scenes together, this led to a bit of confusion on my part which required me to rewind the audio at a number of crucial points. This is not a completely insurmountable issue, as I was, for the most part, able to sit back and enjoy the narration; but I did feel it was worth pointing out for those who expect completely distinguishable characters.
All in all, The Bet is an all-around decent listen if you are in the mood for a fun, quick, and easy romance listen.
BJ
Narration: B-
Book Content: B-
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Minimal
Genre: New Adult
Publisher: Hachette Audio
The Bet was provided to AudioGals by Hachette Audio for review.
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