Anna Acton narrates this workplace contemporary romance. When former soap actress Kate Elliot agrees to pose as a romance author on a book tour for a publicity-shy client, she has no idea she'll find her own real-life love story. Charlie Francisco is hoping to become more than Kate's talent agent. Acton's light, expressive tone captures Kate's doubts, vulnerabilities, and passions as she steps into her new job. However, when Acton is delivering the male dialogue, her voice lacks variation in pitch. Overall, though, Acton's nuanced performance makes this an enjoyable listen.
Pub Date: June 10, 2025
Duration: 9 hrs
DD ISBN: 9780593787243
Publisher: Random House 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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