I love audiobooks and will usually listen to anything on audio, but recently I’ve have had a long line of DNFs.
Bourbon Kings by J.R. Ward
When I first turned on this audiobook I was so into it. The narrator’s old time-y southern accent worked well with the story and he switched effortlessly between dialects. The billionaire bourbon making family felt authentic and I was getting all kinds Downton Abbey vibes. But I was terrified of how this book would handle race since it takes place in Kentucky. There is a black female cook who was practically a Mammy character and I couldn’t do it. This trope show up a lot in books, but I think all the conversations about race and representation made me especially sensitive to it. I went to read some reviews to see if this lets up, but apparently it doesn’t. I was surprised to learn that JR Ward has a history missapropritating black culture so, I poured one out and peaced out on this one.
Against The Ropes by Sarah Castille
I really enjoy MMA elements in my romances, so I decided to try a full on MMA romance. Like the previous book, I like the narrator, Lucy Rivers. Her voice is perfect for NA or contemporary romance. But man, this heroine was just a little To Stupid To Live for me. In the first few minutes she’s selling tickets to a fight and when she sees a guy walk into the gym without paying she runs after him into a freaking MMA gym during a fight. Like why? And of course, the guy is the owner of the gym who is fighting that night and he makes her stay for the fight even though violence literally makes her ill. Which didn’t explain why she went into the gym in the first place. Also, the hero ? His name is Torment, which feels a little on the nose.
At Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen
After those other two I actually settled into this one. It’s about an American heiress who follows her husband and his friend to Scotland during WWII to capture the Loch Ness Monster. As you do. I guess. The narrator is Justina Erye who does Sara MacLean’s romances. While her British accent sounds older, her American voices sound much younger. But man, after a certain point this book just gets dull, because the female protagonist is just hanging around a hotel while her husband goes off. I read in some reviews about how she finds meaning in life through the poor folks in the Scottish moors and I just was not into that.
I’m a lifelong reader who started blogging about YA books in 2011 but now I read in just about every genre! I love YA coming of age stories, compelling memoirs and genre bending SFF. You can find me talking all things romance at Romance and Sensibility.