Kyla Garcia takes listeners to rural Oklahoma with this slow-burn contemporary romance written by and featuring Native Americans. After an ill-advised magazine cover causes backlash and claims of cultural appropriation, pop superstar Avery Fox goes to her mother's hometown, where she hopes to learn about her heritage. Ranch worker Lucas Iron Eyes agrees to help her. As the two work closely together, they realize they have a deeper connection. Avery must decide between her career and the man she's falling for. Garcia's choice to give the Oklahoma residents a thick accent highlights the differences between Avery and the other characters. With her emotional performance, even secondary characters are brought to life.
Pub Date: July 22, 2025
Duration: 10 hrs
DD ISBN: 9798217075072
Publisher: Penguin 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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