An enjoyable listen about renewing bonds.
Narrator Brittany Pressley transports listeners to small-town Benson, Texas, where Tina has returned to reconcile with her past. Five years ago, she left behind her two best friends, Walker and Gracie. Now she is back and hoping they will forgive her for her long absence. As children, the three friends were cared for by two elderly ladies, Mae and Cleo. Pressley gives the two women gravelly voices that are fitting for their ages. Pressley exudes all of Tina’s emotions, from her joy at reuniting with her friends to her painful realization that her parents don’t love her. Pressley skillfully handles both the male and female characters, giving Walker a quiet strength.
An enjoyable listen about renewing bonds.Pub Date: July 1, 2026
Duration: 10 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781511388696
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: July 14, 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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