Joel Leslie brings his usual spirited charm to this sweet, angsty romance set in New York City in the late 1950s. Nick is a newspaper reporter who doesn't let anyone get too close; it's the only way he knows how to stay safe as a queer man in a hostile world. Andy is the optimistic and tenderhearted son of the newspaper's owner, who's determined to show Andy another way of life is possible. Leslie gets every voice just right--from Nick's lightly New York-accented gruff rumble to Andy's smoother timbre. Leslie also brings every secondary character to life, including Nick's many Italian aunts and the fast-talking reporters who inhabit the newsroom. Perfect pacing, real pathos, and plenty of delicious banter make this an enticing listen.
Pub Date: June 6, 2023
Duration: 11 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063272781
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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