Traci

An interesting story with fantastic narration

Reviewed: 10-17-24

I was intrigued by the title and cover picture. The story drew me in and the narration was fantastic. I don't remember anything that would be a trigger warning. The story moves slowly but interestingly as you get to know the characters. This isn't an action adventure story, but a story about people and their histories and what motivates them, and yet, there is enough forward momentum that I didn't want to stop listening. I really hope the series continues. The book ends, not exactly on a cliffhanger, but at a point where you really want to know what happens next in their lives. The narrator is highly skilled and makes the story all the more interesting. Thank you for writing this story!

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Unhealthy relationship

Reviewed: 10-14-24

This book feels like porn. When he first sees her, he rushes to her and drinks her blood from her neck without her permission. She is upset about the violation of her personal boundaries, but it feels so good that she really wants it. He does it a second time later. She then spends much of her time imagining herself in bed with him. The plot (which seems interesting) moves slowly because we have to wade through all of her thoughts, which are mostly about him. The relationship might get better later, but I don't like the undertones. It seems unhealthy to me. I gave up listening at chapter 30, and there are still 8 hours left in the book. Also, the f-word is used quite a bit in regular conversation (not even when the character is angry, just f-this and f-that). I found it distracting.

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1 person found this helpful

The male narrator should not do female voices

Reviewed: 09-01-24

This is my first audiobook by Rachel Fordham, and overall, I liked it. About halfway through, I thought I might listen to some of her other books, but about 3/4 of the way through, I became frustrated by the characters. I felt like they were behaving in ways that were a bit melodramatic, and the plot became unnecessarily tangled in order to increase tension, but it just frustrated me. For example, Sadie writes a letter to Otis, but he avoids the music room, so he doesn't see it, so he assumes she doesn't love him, and he packs up to leave. This kind of miscommunication, or non-communication, drives me crazy. If Otis loved Sadie, he would go to her and clear up any misunderstanding between them. He would not just leave. People like that don't deserve to be happy because they won't put the work into a relationship that is required. I don't care if he has insecurities. He had already faced the worst of his fears, so why he would avoid this situation was unclear to me. The lost letter felt like a plot device (and there were a few others like that). Also, I don't read books, but I listen to audiobooks, so the narrators are just as important to my enjoyment of a book as the author's work. Em Eldridge did a great job with all voices. Jason Keller has a nice voice for males, but he should not be allowed to do female voices at all. He makes them too high and quavery and insubstantial. It sounds like a fake voice, very fake, and it detracted from the story. I think it is worth mentioning because when you listen to the preview (when there are two or more narrators), you usually only hear one narrator and you don't get a chance to listen to the other narrator. I will probably listen to another audiobook by Rachel Fordham. The romance was clean and not overly-contrived. The characters got to know each other over time (they did not fall instantly in love). That was nice. I think the author handles the complexities of relationships well.

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I didn't like the characters but I like the author

Reviewed: 06-25-24

I have listened to 5 books by the author so far and this is my least favorite, mostly just because I didn't like the main characters. Georgie was selfish. I saw no evidence of kindness or compassion and she only cared about what people thought of her. I just don't like people like that. He was also difficult to understand. I'm not sure why he liked her because she didn't consider his needs at all (until the end, and then it didn't quite feel authentic). I also like the narrator in general, but the main male character's American accent was off, but not too distracting. So although I didn't like this book as much, the author writes well. Her plots are light and simple (no triggers, cleanish) and often humorous, so I recommend some of her other books.

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Enjoyable light romance

Reviewed: 06-25-24

I enjoyed this story. The main female character had superficial friends, but she herself was not superficial, and when she returned to her hometown she realized, by comparison to the locals, that her friends were not true friends. She tried to help people and in the end she made a place for herself and for a new relationship. The main male character was a really good person who just had some insecurities about not being good enough to be in a relationship. There were a few kissing scenes but nothing spicy and the one sex event was fade to black. There was some swearing at the beginning when she broke her leg and was in pain. She said the same word (sh*t) about 20 times but after that, I don't remember much swearing. This was a cute rom-com, a light and enjoyable read.

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1 person found this helpful

A cozy romance, fade-to-black sex, some swearing

Reviewed: 06-22-24

I liked this story and I appreciate that the one love scene was fade to black. I would call it a cozy romance. There weren't any triggers in the plot. The plot felt like drifting along a gentle river, following the characters along the events of their lives. There were some events that happened, and then the characters went somewhere else, and I would have liked to have known what happened to those other characters, like maybe even a brief mention of a newspaper article or something. The author does a good job with running themes throughout the book (such as sticky notes) and wrapping things up in the end. The characters were interesting, but the author didn't go into their back-stories and underlying motivations. There was some swearing, but maybe less than ten words. Overall, since I like relaxing stories that just kind of float along where nothing too stressful happens, I really liked this book and have already purchased more from the author.

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A cozy story with the f-bomb but no sex

Reviewed: 06-21-24

I liked this story and I appreciate that the one love scene was fade to black. I would call it a cozy romance except for the approximately 20 f-words mostly said by the main female character. I liked the characters and the plot was interesting and funny. The dialog is funny and authentic. I will definitely be reading more books by this author.

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A cozy, sweet romance with about 20 swear words

Reviewed: 01-21-24

This story is categorized as a cozy, sweet romance. The one sex scene fades to black and gives no details beyond kissing, so it is clean from that perspective. However, there are about 15 F-words and about 10 other swear words, so the language is unexpected in a cozy romance. This profanity doesn't even seem necessary to the story, but is used in every day conversation. I found that jarring to the story.

The other aspect I found jarring was the number of people in the LGTBQIA community. The only heterosexuals in the story were Iris and Eli and Iris's vampire parents. Two fey beings and one nineteen-year-old teenager were not referred to by gender, and it was suggested at the end of the book that the teenager would like to have a poly-sexual situation with the two fey. The teenager used the pronoun "they." Eli's grandmother (who moved away) and two other female housemates were all in lesbian relationships (not with each other, but with other characters, one being Eli's female attorney). There was one other housemate, an older man, who didn't want to be in a sexual relationship with anyone, male or female. The messaging here is very strong. I'm not opposed to reading about the LGTBQIA community, but I would like to be told beforehand via the category of the book, and it just doesn't seem to fit my idea of a cozy heterosexual romance. It felt like more time was spent on everyone else's romances, or at least a lot more references were made to them. If the goal was to normalize these relationships and make them seem mainstream, it had the opposite effect for me. It made them seem unnatural, rather than natural, because it was overdone. I think diving deeper into one of the relationships and making it more real and giving details about who they loved and why would have been better rather than listing out so many characters and what they identified as and leaving it at that.

For Iris and Eli, their relationship was super simple. They had one fight and she kicked him out, then she realized that she over-reacted and she asked for forgiveness. They got back together and were on track to get married. It all ended happily ever after. The plot was fairly simple and their relationship was shallow. In showing versus telling, the author did a lot of simple telling, so there is not much left to the reader's imagination or analysis. Overall, it was an OK story but not one I will listen to again because I only revisit books where I want to spend time with the characters, and these characters are fairly flat. The narration was fantastic (different voices, timing, etc.).

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OK clean regency romance

Reviewed: 02-04-22

I liked Miss Lattimore's Letter better (a little). In this book, the characters are shallow and the plot is fairly simple. I appreciate that it is a clean romance, although the Mr. Malcolm seemed rather gropey. What I really, really disliked about the situation was how often Selina said "no" and people just kept ignoring her. One phrase from the book: "but her protests went unheeded." Everyone did it to her: her supposed friend who invited her to London, her mother, and Mr. Malcolm. That sets a bad precedent for a relationship. At the end, Mr. Malcolm treated her very badly and although he sort of apologized, I didn't get the impression that he was going to make an effort to change much. He will do it to her again in the future. I didn't like their relationship, so it was difficult for me to like the story in general. The author writes well, but I would like to see deeper relationships / characterization.

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1 person found this helpful

Cute short story about 2 people deciding to date

Reviewed: 03-22-21

The story takes place in New York and was about two characters whose families were originally from India. There were many references to the Indian culture (food, dance) that made the setting feel authentic. At first they resisted being set up, but they realized that they had more in common than they realized at first. In the end, they decided to date. My complaints are: 1) the story is too short (I enjoyed it and wished it were longer), 2) they agree to date in the last 5-10 minutes and it feels rushed, and 3) I think it will lead to heartache because they didn't resolve the main underlying conflict (they had different views on marriage). But, the characters are interesting and I can see why they liked each other. I enjoyed spending time with them. The narration was fantastic. Also, if you're looking for a clean romance, this is pretty clean except that the male character used the F-word about between 10-15 times. There are no sex scenes but there are hints toward past behavior (for example: "I, um, dated, before I married your grandmother") but nothing explicit. Overall, this was a fun, interesting story.

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