The Perfect Match by Kristan Higgins--Audio Version

My daughter smiled and rolled her eyes at me the other day as we were getting into my car. I was getting ready to listen to my audio book during our hour long drive back to her college dorm.

"Mom", she said. "Why do you read romance? Do you really believe in all that happily ever after stuff?"

The Perfect Match by Kristan Higgins is the perfect example of why I enjoy reading romance books.   The Perfect Match provides a slice -of - life  look into the lives of the Holland family. Blue Heron vineyard is located in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of New York State. The vineyard has been owned and operated by the Hollands through several generations. I loved how four generations of the Holland family are portrayed in the novel; from Grandmother Goggie to teenage niece Abby. Lots of laugh- out- loud family conversations. Goggie made me laugh each time she and Honor visited the retirement home for movie night. Great honest and witty dialogue between Goggie and her peers. The Perfect Match also deals with several family issues such as caring for an elderly relative, teenage angst, pressures at work, dating and the desire to be married and have a child.

Our heroine, Honor Holland is the marketing manager for her family's vineyard.  Honor is 35 and her biological clock is ticking very loudly. She's been in a relationship with Brogan Lane for 17 years. Honor wants a baby and asks Brogan to marry him. Instead of accepting Honor's proposal, he dumps her. Goggie arranges a blind date for Honor with a friend's nephew, Tom Barlow, with disastrous results. Tom, a college professor with an interesting past and an almost step-son, needs a green card to stay in the United States.

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The Perfect Match--Series: Blue Heron, Book 2 Unabridged Audio Book
Written by: Kristan Higgins
Narrated by: Amy Rubinate
Length: 12 hrs and 12 minutes

Great narrator, excellent job with expressing the emotion in Honor's voice. Loved how the narrator switched effortlessly to Tom's British accent and the teenage defiance in Charlie's tone. The audio is over 12 hours long which made it great listen during my work week commute. I never noticed the traffic!

  

Who will be Honor's Perfect Match?
Will photographer and sometime boyfriend Brogan realise that he loves Honor?
Does Tom have feelings for Honor? If they marry will it be for love or for a green card?
Or will Honor live at the Vineyard with her little dog Spike?

This is the first book by Kristan Higgins that I have had the pleasure to listen to and read. I synched my Iphone to my Ipad and alternated listening and reading to the story. I read the story through to its conclusion. Great contemporary read which will leave you smiling and will remind you to cherish your family. Am planning to purchase Jack's story In Your Dreams when it is available at the end of the month. 

Reviewed by Susan Gorman.

Dead Man's Curve - Review

Dead Man's Curve - by Paula Graves - Review


It is always a good day for me when I get to start reading a new series by Paula Graves. Paula Graves writes romantic suspense that you just have to sit down and read in one sitting. Dead Man's Curve is the start of a new miniseries called The Gates, set in the mysterious Smoky Mountains.  The action leaps off the page in typical Paula Graves cinematic style with non-stop intrigue, heart pounding danger and bad guys that make you get up to check and see if your doors are locked. 

Paula Graves pulls you into her world, where trust is a scarce commodity, and loyalty is earned the hard way. I always really enjoy reading Paula's intrigues, because her characters are real people with flaws, hopes and secrets. Also, she doesn't make her characters rush into the physical side of the relationship, and for me that makes the story so much more believable.

Have you ever looked out into a crowd of faces, and think that you recognize someone? Someone that meant something special to you? Dead Man's Curve starts with the FBI agent Ava Trent responding to a kidnapping case, and turns into something bigger. Ava Trent scans the crowd and thinks she sees a ghost from her past. Sinclair Solano meant something to her, eight years ago but he could not be there in that crowd, because he is dead. He died a wanted man, under explosive circumstances, but then things aren't always as they seem. Ava Trent is confident, funny and determined to find out the truth. 

"He had a full lower lip and deep brown eyes, back in her foolish, romantic youth, she'd thought soulful."

There are some characters in Dead Man's Curve from previous series, but they don't overwhelm the story. For fans of the Cooper Justice and Cooper Security series it is a bonus, to get to check in with some familiar faces. My favorite hero, Gabe Cooper from The Man from Gossamer Ridge, finds himself in a bit of a mess in this book.  

I was talking to the book the whole time,"Duck! Get out of there! Kiss her!", which typically means for me it was a winner. The dialogue is crisp and is funny, though the hero and heroine were hardly in a laughing situation. Luckily for me and fans of Paula Graves the next two books in the series, Crybaby Falls and Boneyard Ridge will be available in October and November of this year. 

 

Reviewed by Gayle Cochrane

Four Friends - Audio Version Review

Four Friends

by Robyn Carr

Audio Version

This was my first Robyn Carr experience. She is an author

that I see around often. But just never got around to reading.

I saw this one on sale at audible.com so I gave it a try.

As you might guess, it is a story of four friends.
They share a street in a typical neighborhood. I have
wondered, if I got to know the other women on my
street, would I find such a diverse group? They are each

very different women. Their lives, their marriages, children,

family, history, thought processes all so very very

different. And yet, they are able to be supportive and

encouraging of each other. There are secrets and mysteries.

There are plenty of those ah-ha moments.

I do highly recommend this one. If you have never tried

an audio book before, this is a good one. It is

twelve and a half hours long. So you definitely get your

moneys worth. The narration is terrific.

The only problem you will have is when to pause the story.
I had a hard time just stopping. I am guessing if I had

read the paperback, I would have felt the same.  

I can promise laughs and tears, surprise, shocks.
And at the end, you will probably go out your front

door and look up and down your street searching

for a truck. But I wont tell you whose truck. haha!

I will definitely give Robyn Carr another listen to or read.

This one was fabulous.
Review by Lisa Hutson