In this romance narrated by Joy Osmanski, Korean American Lily Lee is forced to return to college to finish her degree, which she thought she'd earned 10 years earlier. Without that credential, the successful business consultant and well-known author may lose her dream job and her reputation. At the same time, she is struggling with cultural stresses and a heartbreak in her past. But what starts off as an inconvenience may turn into an opportunity. Osmanski switches with ease between several American accents and a Korean accent, and delivers sporadic conversations in actual Korean. Her best friend Mia's impersonation of actor/rapper Awkwafina is spot-on. Osmanski also narrates the foreword, which explains the importance of depicting themes of mental health and anxiety in the Asian community.
Pub Date: April 4, 2023
Duration: 9 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063216075
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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