Narrator Ewan Goddard perfectly captures the anxiety of a young gay man and his bumbling attempts at love while being a contestant on a fictional version of Britain's favorite baking show. Paris Daillencourt is often written off by others as posh and unapproachable, but it's really his anxiety that makes him seem aloof. When he and a fellow contestant begin to fall in love, it's any listener's guess whether it will be Paris's anxiety or the competition that will drive them apart. Goddard captures scenes of the two men trying to work through awkward flirtations and the stress of competing against each other. Goddard's performance delineates characters who are hilarious and easy to fall in love with.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
Duration: 13 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781668606407
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
After her divorce, Roberta Jewett, with her three daughters, returns to Camden, Maine, to start a new life. Such an independent move in 1916 brings difficulties with her mother, her in-laws and the townspeople. Dukes's performance, while skillful, sometimes suffer in scenes of emotional content. His pace slows, and his reading acquires the peculiar emphasis of someone trying to get instructions across to a non-English-speaking person. The effect is disturbingly laughable. When he resumes his normal pace, the story revives and personalities emerge again, but the awkwardness remains as an odd interruption to Spencer's drama of pain and love, dispelling Dukes's carefully constructed characterizations.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: Dove
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
A young Southern woman marries into an aristocratic Boston family and spends her summers at a vacation community on the Maine coast. Heavy-handed abridgment reduces this novel to an outline which denies the listener any character development. Judith Ivey offers stereotypical dialects which are discordant to a New Englander's ear. In her interpretation the Down East Mainers speak like thugs in raspy voices. Her presentation of a Boston accent is phonetically erratic and also spoken in gruff tones. The color and flavor of Maine are missing from this tasteless rendition.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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