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A Wonderful, Emotional Ride

Revisado: 05-14-18

How Still My Love by Diane Marina is exactly the type of romance I will never get tired of. It is full of emotion, passion, extreme highs and extreme lows: with a happily ever after that I can bask in for days.

Beth grudgingly goes out on a blind date arranged by her best friend Laurel. She hates being set up and she is still feeling the residual pain from her last, very toxic relationship. However, when she meets Toni she is immediately smitten and the feeling is mutual. The two date and get to know each other and fall contentedly in love. Their relationship is perfect until Toni brings up her desire to have a baby. Beth knew that Toni wanted to have children but she had never really seen that as part of their future. When Toni presses the subject, their relationship starts to unravel, leading to a very dramatic and painful breakup. Both women are left completely heartbroken and when Toni moves on, Beth begins to wonder if her life will ever feel whole again.

The book is told in the first person from Beth’s point of view. I usually don’t care for first person narration because I never feel like I get to know the other main character. This wasn’t the case here. Ms. Marina crafts two very three-dimensional characters. Their personalities just come to life so clearly and they were engaging as well as relatable. Beth and Toni are both captivating and wonderfully flawed. All the supporting characters were also very vibrant. This made the world the book is set in feel very realistic.

The narration was unbelievable. The narrator brought each character and each emotion to life. This heightened the intense joy and made the emotional lows just all the more poignant. Ms. Acitelli did an exemplary job in conveying all the emotions without turning this into high melodrama. I happen to speak fast so I always listen to books at 1.25 speed and this narration was just perfect for me.

I really liked that Ms. Marino let this story unfold over the course of several years. In most romance books, the whole story unfolds and reaches it’s happily ever after over the course of a few months. By stretching this out over several years, I could really see the growth in each character and believe in the love they share. It’s much more than love at first sight and I appreciate the work that goes into that.

I am a sucker for a romance that gets messy and takes me on an emotional ride. I found myself cheering for these women as well as talking out loud to myself while reprimanding them. By the end of the book, I was smiling from ear to ear just wishing I could give everyone involved a group hug. I really loved this book.

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Romantic Second Chance

Revisado: 04-14-18

Once again, Ms. Lydon brings us a book about two very lovely women who decide to take the leap of faith and choose love over the "what ifs". What I really enjoyed about this book is that it is a "coming of age" story and a "second chance" story all rolled into one.

Both Harriet and Sally have reasons to be wary of relationships especially as they had been each other's first loves which ended badly when Harriet went off to college and broke things off with Sally. This book finds them seventeen years later. They are smarter and wiser now and when they run into each other by chance, they realize that for them, their first loves were also their soul mates. The question is, can Sally trust Harriet with her heart for a do-over?

I liked Twice in a Lifetime when I read it, but I loved it as an audiobook. I have read all of Ms. Lydon's books and this is the only one set in The United States. Well, it wasn't until I listened to the audiobook that the characters felt 100% relatable. I had been thinking of them with British accents because, you know...Clare Lydon is British. My hat is off to Ms. Lydon because she really captured how often and easily we yanks drop the "F Bomb".

TJ Richards did an amazing job with this audiobook. She really captured the wistful quality of the flashbacks and the vulnerability of each of the main characters. Her Aunt Paula was hysterical and had me giggling while I was doing my Spring cleaning.

This is definitely worth a listen.

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Mad About This Book

Revisado: 02-27-18

When it comes to romantic comedy, Clare Lydon is at the top of the list as far as I am concerned and this is my favorite book of hers.

This is book two in Lydon's London Series, but it can certainly be listened to as a stand-alone. The story revolves around Kate and Meg who both feel like they have been single for way too long. Kate is a successful editor with drive and a quick wit (and a propensity for falling down around beautiful women). Meg is a sweet florist who radiates grace and kindness while being sexy as hell. Of course she doesn't realize she is sexy as hell which makes her character all the more endearing. Both of them have recently suffered broken hearts so they begin their courtship slowly, but drama soon invades their lives (as it happens in any good romance) and makes them question if there is going to be a happily ever after in their future.

Lydon has a very easy going writing style and her prose is smooth with a great British sense of humor. I like the way she moves from one character's point of view to the other's which for some authors seems to be illusive. I really enjoyed the two main characters and they seemed very believable. Their witty banter is delightful and their pairing seemed spot on. I had a silly grin on my face throughout the entire audiobook.

Kate and Meg fit together like peas and carrots and their chemistry is hot, hot, hot. The ancillary characters are really fleshed out as well which isn't always the case in many romance novels. I think this was due in part because I already knew a few of them from reading "London Calling"

I would recommend this audiobook not just because the characters are so engaging, but there are a couple of plot twists that I was definitely not expecting which made this narrative much more interesting than your average romance. As far as I'm concerned, there were no down sides to this audiobook.

The narrator did a good job conveying the characters' change in moods and her delivery on the funny bits was spot on.

Note: The sound quality of the actual audiobook is far superior to the sample that is offered here.

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Great Characters, Lovely Romance

Revisado: 02-26-18

Clare Lydon is one of my favorite authors because she writes great characters and her sense of humor is off the chart. Nobody writes snappy dialogue or situational comedy better than she does.
In this audiobook, the pacing of the plot and the narrator's ability to nail the comic timing makes this audiobook even better than the actual book.
Both the main characters are very relatable and Ms. Lydon provides plenty of backstory to make both women realistic and sympathetic.
Sometimes it was hard for me to distinguish which character was speaking. I didn't feel like the narrator was consistent with her voice interpretations. This could be because I am American so my ear may miss some of the nuances of the regional British language. That being said, I thought the narrator's voice was pleasant and the production quality was very good.

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Wonderfully Witty and Romantic

Revisado: 02-23-18

Clare Lydon is one of my favorite authors in the lesfic genre. Her books always bring a smile to my face and leave me feeling wistful and satisfied. This tale of Jess's return to London after a sordid heartbreak is the first in Lydon's London Series. We get to watch Jess stumble through getting back to a life in London as a single thirty-something looking for love. Jess meets up with Angela, Karen and Lucy and it is a fun read to discover where her happily ever after will take her.

I had already read London Calling so I was a little hesitant to listen to the audiobook because when I do that, the narrator's performance never lives up to what I have already imagined in my head. This was not the case here. If anything, the narration just brought more life to the incredibly witty dialogue that I have come to expect from Ms. Lydon. The production quality was good and Emily Bennet did a good job of creating a robust cast.

Note to buyers: The performance and sound quality of the sample that is provided here is mediocre at best. The actual audiobook sounds much better.

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Fantastic

Revisado: 12-28-17

I loved reading Embracing The Dawn and I am usually disappointed with it in audiobook format. This was not the case with Embracing The Dawn.
In this case, the audiobook revealed nuances within the characters which I glossed over when first reading the book.
The narrator is excellent. I definitely recommend this audiobook.

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Haunting and Poetic

Revisado: 11-09-17

The imagery Ms. Avilan conjures up in this novel is stunning and poetic. The narration contributes to this book having an dreamlike quality. While I did not like the main character, Anna, I still found the story compelling. Usually if I don't care for one of the main characters, I can't connect with the work, but that was not the case here. This book dealt with themes that were greater than any one single character and I know that I will find myself mulling this novel over in my mind for weeks to come. There is a certain lyrical quality to this book that reminds me of the three novels that make up The Secret Trilogy by Francine Saint Marie. The narration by Christine Williams fits the narrative perfectly.

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Spectacular

Revisado: 11-06-17

This recording of one of my most favorite books, lives up to my expectations and that is a first time for me. When I begin an audio version of a book that I have already read, I am usually disappointed within the first five minutes. The narrator was the perfect choice for Caidence Harris which was paramount as the novel is told from her point of view. She really is perfect. I would have liked a slightly deeper voice for Robyn Ward, but that is completely subjective. Overall, Ms. Cordileone pulled off what I thought was impossible. I enjoyed the audio version of this book just as much as I did when I first read it.

For me, the Audible version actually made Robyn a little more sympathetic than she is in the book. The narrator was able to highlight what may have been going on in Robyn's head a lot better than I had imagined, so I felt like there were a few "Ah - ha!" moments for her character. This version made it more clear that Robyn was hoping that Caid was a lesbian and showed her disappointment when she concluded that Caid was straight. This was much clearer than how it was on the written page. The narrator also did a great job of navigating between Caid's inner monologues and what she was actually saying in a way that was not confusing.

The recording itself is first rate. The sound editing is virtually seamless. So often in audio books, there are pops and shifts in ambient sound when there are edits and I find those so distracting. I have a background in film/television post-production so I am really picky about these issues. This is the best recording on Audible that I have heard to date.

If you read the book, I think you will definitely love this version as well. It adds a new layer of depth to the work and is a joy to listen to.

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Best So Far

Revisado: 09-04-17

I am not a fan of audio books. I'm an old-fashioned, book nerd, but so many people rave about audible that I thought I would give it a try. I first listened to two books by my favorite author and I hated it. The narrator just sounded like a bad actress to me.
I read this book when it first came out and enjoyed it, but not overly so. I read some great reviews on this audio book so I decided to give it a try. I was so pleasantly surprised. This narrator and the production quality in general is fantastic.
I'm not going to do a synopsis of the book as you can find that in other reviews, but if you are on the fence about trying an audio book, this is the perfect one to try out.

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New Format ~ Favorite Author

Revisado: 06-05-17

This is my first audio book so I can't really write that much of an informed review. I've never been interested in this format because I have always been such an avid reader. Having said that, I'm not sure this format is for me. It seemed to cut down my ability to conjure up the vivid sights and sounds that reading allows me.

This is my favorite book by this author so I have a very strong sense of how things "should" be and the audio book just didn't meet that. At times it was hard for me to distinguish between the narrator's voice and Eve's voice. I also heard some exhales and inhales that were probably supposed to have been edited out so those bothered me.

I m going to try out some more titles read by different narrator's and see if this format grows on me.

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