Melanie Greene (1)

Single mom Rachel has enough on her plate with raising her daughter and dealing with her less than good parent husband and his interfering mother. Single dad Theo is busy running his business and long-distance dadding. Neither was looking for a relationship but then it happened. Can Rachel see past the similarities between Theo and her ex to appreciate the differences?
I really enjoyed this sweet romance. Rachel comes with a lot of baggage but has a strength of character that allows her to face adversity. Theo's life has been far less drama-free and he is a rock, a great guy that any woman would love to have in her life. You will be rooting for them, cheering when Rachel confronts a teenage nemesis, comes to terms with her parents' favouritism towards her sister and accepts that Theo is the real thing.… (más)

Could've been a page-tuner contemporary romance if it wasn't for the lengthy and slow going of the story. There was a good plot there with both hero and heroine had some hang-ups of their own to make a story more complex and intrigue. But do we really need to know all about what's going on at work, and all the lingo in graphic design business? We aren't that interested in what they did at lunch break everyday, or the weekly routine. Skip some of that and we would be more into the story, make it move faster and harder to put the book down.… (más)

A long listen that feels like a long listen.

I am a sucker for romance in just about any form, though I prefer contemporary romance that is not New Adult -- I'm no longer a New Adult myself and prefer smarter, more experienced, thoughtful women with more common sense than often found in NA. Ms Greene provides those qualities in her MCs in this book! I would categorize this as romantic comedy. While the banter isn't necessarily laugh-out-loud funny, the overall tone remains light throughout the story, even in the serious heart-to-heart moments.

I received this book in audio form from the author in exchange for a review. As I listened rather than read, I cannot comment on the book's state of edit, but can only assume the grammar, punctuation, etc is in a "finished" state based on what the narrator read.

Please refer to the book blurb or other reviewers' synopses if you wish to learn about the story summary. This review is spoiler-free and focuses on the audio book format.

The audio book is 12 1/2 hours in length and is narrated by Amy Rubinate. It took me at least 2-3 hours to "get used" to the narrator performance as her characters' voices have only slight differences, one character's voice being barely distinguishable from another, especially within a gender -- the male voices sound identical and the female voices sound identical. Initially, I even had a difficult time distinguishing the male main character's voice from the female main character's voice. I think my challenges in hearing the subtle voice differences is why this good story felt like a long listen. There are instances peppered throughout the book in which our female MC "thought" and then "spoke" without the narrator using her voice to distinguish -- this is something a reader can see by way of quotation marks and possible italicized thought words, but the listener cannot and, thus, must rely on the narrator's voice whether it is by way of change in pitch, or simply giving a MC an "internal" voice that sounds different than their "spoken" voice.

By the second half of the story, either I figured out the understated differences or I just went with the flow of the book to let the words sort themselves out. This isn't a reason to pass on book, author or narrator -- just know that this narrator doesn't "perform", per se, but "reads". Her voice is fine, her pace is good, the production of the audio book is good, too. There are no extraneous noises or tinny, empty-room sound to the recording.

This is the first book of a four-series. The series will continue with at least three more stories bringing into the spotlight the three college friends of Serena. As of this review, this book is followed by a novella, bringing a secondary character, a work colleague, from this first book into the forefront. As of today, this novella is available in Kindle form for no charge. Yes, I have snatched a copy and look forward to reading Janice and Miquel's story.… (más)