Jackie Chung narrates the charming and humorous story of a romance between former childhood rivals. After Jessie Kim loses her Wall Street job via a Zoom HR meeting, she moves back in with her parents to figure out her life. Running into her middle school nemesis, Daniel Choi, was not on her to-do list. Chung perfectly balances the humor in the story with the difficulties Jessie faces after her unexpected move; she gives Jessie compassion and grace, while still allowing the funny parts of her life to be awkwardly hilarious. Jessie's dignity may occasionally be bruised, but it is never lost. Jessie's parents and friends play important roles in the story of her reinvention, and Chung makes each of them memorable and believable. A breezy and entertaining story.
Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
Duration: 8 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063071179
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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