Narrator Mayuri Bhandari introduces Pakistani American Ziya Khan, who is feeling resigned after receiving another rejection of her latest book submission. Out of her desperation comes a wish granted: Aashiq, the physical manifestation of her literary talent, whose purpose is to help her make life changes. Bhandari portrays Ziya in a well-modulated voice with hints of self-deprecation. She delivers Urdu greetings and other cultural terms in a fluent manner. Her voices for Ziya's extended family are creatively crafted and memorable. Her voice for the chipper Aashiq is light and bright, although it could use greater differentiation from Ziya's. Bhandari's gently comedic delivery of Aashiq's meddling adds another fun layer to this contemporary audiobook with hints of magic.
Pub Date: 2025
Duration: 10 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781488235061
Publisher: Harlequin 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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