Listeners—especially Ted Lasso fans—will be delighted.
This LGBTQ+ romance featuring pro football (soccer) players showcases Joe Jameson’s talents. When Oliver is injured, Leo joins the team to fill in. Leo’s high-energy, cheerful personality annoys Oliver. As he lets go of his frustrations and gets to know Leo, Oliver realizes that his feelings go beyond friendship. Still closeted, Oliver worries how it will affect his career if anyone finds out he’s gay and crushing on his teammate. Jameson handily switches between characters, inhabiting Oliver and Leo’s teammates and delivering their wide variety of accents. Jameson captures the nuances of the protagonists’ personalities and emotions. His performance immerses listeners in Oliver and Leo’s world, bringing their story to life.
Listeners—especially Ted Lasso fans—will be delighted.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
Duration: 10 hrs
DD ISBN: 9798217173686
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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