Saira Ayers and Neil Shah narrate a budding romance. Bollywood star Dev Dixit and Pakistani-American beauty influencer Jia Ahmed, who don't know each other, nonetheless agree to pretend to date. He's on a lark, and she is trying to fend off her family's traditional Muslim intentions for her. Shah's voice is a treat for the listener's ears. Full of emotion, his rich, smooth timbre brings the reserved Bollywood actor to life. Ayers's delivery is missing the passion found in Shah's narration. In a flat, almost bored, tone for most of the production, she fails to engage the listener with her part of the story. This makes for an uneven performance that reduces the overall quality of the audiobook.
Pub Date: Feb. 16, 2021
Duration: 11 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9780062877918
Publisher: Harper 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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