by Melissa de la Cruz ; Read by Amielynn Abellera ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 9, 2024
Amielynn Abellera delivers a lively performance of this romance. Evan gets shot down after casually asking out his new coworker, Dalisay, who has just arrived from the Philippines. His Filipino friends advise that to earn her heart, he must embark on the Five Stages of Courtship, a tradition that doesn't fit his modern sensibilities. Abellera's vigorous performance offers a rich depiction of Evan's and Delisay's opposite personalities, as well as a robust supporting cast. Abellera's amusing performances of boisterous scenes between Evan and Dalisay, as well as their sensual reluctant romance, unfold at the perfect pace. Listeners will find Evan's pursuit intriguing and the couple's budding relationship spellbinding.
Pub Date: July 9, 2024
Duration: 9 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9798892730686
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
by LaVyrle Spencer ; Read by David Dukes ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
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
by Anne Rivers Siddons ; Read by Judith Ivey ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
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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