Pamela Rosen

Did You Ask Chevy Chase if He Would Join Your Project?

Revisado: 10-14-22

As a general rule, I will always tell people that the book is better than the movie, probably 99% of the time. (All of this, of course, is IMPO.) Gone With the Wind, The Bourne Identity, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Room with a View, all Shakespeare works, and the list goes on. There are a few anomalies. Ordinary People. 12 Angry Men. Bang the Drum Slowly (many ppl might disagree). And now we have Fletch.

Had the book never been made into a movie, my review might be different. But it was not only made into a movie, it was made into a movie wherein Fletch became synonymous with Chevy Chase. Indeed, there was more than one movie. While that wouldn’t change the differences between the movie and the book, hearing somebody else voice the character of Fletch is (to me) like fingernails on a chalkboard. How difficult would it really have been to ask the original Fletch to read the story, be the narrator? Bc as mentioned, just hearing the voice of somebody else voicing the character didn’t work for me. I (mistakenly) assumed that a ten hour book would be long enough to get me to stop envisioning CC and start simply imagining the narrator in the part. I was wrong.

While I hadn’t seen the movie in literally decades, it did include much of the novel so that listening to the words simply brought back CC into my head. But it was as if another person was attempting to do CC, except without the charm and charisma.

Again, others may feel differently and if you’ve never seen the movie, I believe that will a huge difference in your perspective of the reading. But anyone who has, indeed, seen Chevy Chase in either one of the Fletch films will not enjoy the narrative even half as much as desired.

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Dyeing to Read it Again and Again

Revisado: 01-17-21

This is the second time I’ve read this book in the past week. I mention this only bc I’ve been reading the series in order (as well as the Road to Blissville Srs). So one would think that I have plenty of new books to read, and it’s unnecessary to repeat a book I read such a short time ago. However, the thing is, the beginning of Jazz and Gabe’s relationship is key to all the books that follow (to one extent or another) and this book in particular is vastly entertaining while, at the same time, leading the reader through the full spectrum of emotions while reading what one would generally call a romantic suspense novel (but one with great humor). AN Walker manages to cause the reader to choke with laughter and yet, there are moments where one is filled with sadness. I won’t explain why, as I don’t wish to give away any plot points, also bc so many are written in such an engaging manner, but it’s easily my favorite of the series. That’s not often the case with series such as these, but is definitely the case here. I own both, but it’s up to a potential listener or reader whether to purchase the book or the audiobook (or both). Personally, I think it’s worth it to purchase both, but everybody has their own opinions. Mine is: do not miss reading this wondrous novel given extra time in your schedule!!

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Mostly a Winner

Revisado: 01-15-21

The Road to Blissville Srs appears to be the sequel to the Curl Up and Dye Srs by AN Walker. Except that the more books I read in CUAD, it became clear that things were happening with the secondary characters that should probably ALREADY have been read. Indeed, when I reached the Christmas Book in CUAD, it went PAST obvious to (let’s say) spoilers as to what had occurred with the other characters since a certain point in Jazz and Gabe’s life.

This wasn’t an issue in the sense that I purchased the full series of both series named, in both print and Audible, but I felt that maybe it would have been helpful to have a list of books in the order that they should be read. Theoretically they are all SA Bks, but they are much better read in order as a full Srs (like a season on tv) and perhaps there IS a list of the books in the order I should read them that I missed. I would highly recommend doing so (I imagine a Google search would pull this up.)

Obviously, I very much enjoy Aimee Nicole Walker’s style of writing or I wouldn’t own 26 print bks, not counting the Audible books. I generally give 5* reviews to almost every single book she writes. The storyline’s are intriguing, the characters are unique, the writing is excellent, the sex scenes are hot (boiling, combustible!!) so there had to be a reason I rated two of three ratings to 4, instead of 5.



SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT


Okay. You’ve been warned. I felt as if Chaz and Kyle had the same problem crop up again and again and again and again and I (personally) found it grating. After a certain point, Chaz’ reluctance to tell Kyle about his deception became irritating to the point where I lost much respect for Kyle for continuing to go after the man. Chaz was acting like a complete shit (again, just IMO) and I wish Kyle had decided that Chaz wasn’t worth this much trouble. And clearly Chaz’ character lost much in his “should I, I can’t do this...” repetitive thought process every time he saw the vet.

The thing is, Walker likes her characters to be soulmates or OTL such that you can’t give up on them bc, they are supposed to be “endgame”. With Gabe and Josh, I could see where it made sense for them to keep trying, bc even tho they had problems, they were both immensely attracted to the other; they both wished to BE with the other one (Altho Jazz was scared by the concept based on previous life experiences) and there was reason to believe they would end up together bc Gabe was not always the one making the first move.

With Kyle and Chaz, I felt that the more Chaz screwed with Kyle’s head, the less I wanted them together and the more I wished another character would appear with whom Kyle could start up a healthy relationship. Ultimately the issues were worked out, but I felt it was done all at the expense of Kyles dignity and self respect.

However, it’s not as if I was so horrified the rating went down to three. Walker is too good an author for that to happen. I simply wish the book had been written somewhat differently so that Kyle received a individual who treated him right from the beginning. But c’est la vie. I still greatly enjoyed it!

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The Trilogy is fantastic but you’d be better off reading the books

Revisado: 01-11-21

I woke up a few weeks ago and due to seriously dry eyes, torn my right cornea, such that I’ve been unable to read (even w my left eye) for about 14-17 days. So, obviously, once the pain accompanied by this matter died down, I needed either music or audio books to pass the time and even tho I’ve already read this trilogy about six months ago (and absolutely loved it) I decided why not listen to the books?!

Indeed, I had done something quite similar with C.S. Pacat’s Kings Trilogy, wherein I first read the books myself (numerous, numerous times!) and then later decided to listen to the books, and found it extremely interesting to hear the voices of the different characters read aloud. There was something intriguing about hearing the narrator put voice to each of the MCs, and even the side characters in the books.

I think the problem here (and I promise it’s not something you notice while reading the books, as one might notice by the ratings if nothing else) is that Pacats books are written a bit more eloquently, whereas Sakavic is continuously using the phrase “said ‘so and so’” said ‘so and so’”, again and again to the point where the listener (or maybe just me) feels like slapping the narrator and saying at the very least, change said to replied, exclaimed, noted, empathized, laconically stated, etc. etc. It’s not terrible at the very begging, but if you listen to the books straight thru, which is what I did, it might drive you crazy. Now mind you, I loved the trilogy when I read it a while back, so either when I was reading it, it didn’t sound so annoying in my head or I simply skimmed thru each instance and it never bothered me at all. I recall only being fascinated (which I was again) with the different characters of the Exy teams, and how they intermingled thruout the trilogy.

Please don’t take this somewhat petty annoyance as something that should stop you from reading the trilogy itself. Again, i loved it first time I read it. I believe most people feel the same way. Certainly I’ve never seen a bad review. And it involves a sport I’d never before heard of in my life. But I’d still suggest reading the books (maybe just my personal preference) bc it’s obviously faster, and I read them straight through as well.

Either way, the storyline is original, exciting, and written for fans of mysteries and thrillers. Not sweet Regency romances. I read both but there is violence in the books and if that bothers you, these are not the books for you. If violence doesn’t bother you, this is totally fantastic!!

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Worst narration I’ve ever encountered in an Audible book.

Revisado: 02-06-20

I’ve owned, read and reread Linda Howard’s novels for maybe the last 20 years or so. While Mr. Perfect isn’t my favorite book that she’s written, it’s definitely up in the top ten. However, if I had never read the book and was listening to it for the first time, I would have been so put off by the narrator that I wouldn’t have been able to emerge into the storyline. I (personally) found her voice so grating that it was difficult to listen to the book all the way through. Indeed, I’m not sure how I managed it.

While I’ve listened to other books where I might have given certain characters different types of voices — or perhaps I already had a general idea of how I imagined they would sound — this is the first time I found the narrator so annoying it stopped my enjoyment of the novel itself. Which, by the by, I highly recommend. The book. But I suggest you wait for a different narrator if you have to or wish to listen to the book, rather then simply reading it. It makes a huge difference.

Indeed, until this audible novel, I didn’t realize how much an awful narrator would affect my enjoyment. I had only thought of it the other way around (I.e., how much better a book can be when the narrator has a soothing voice or the ability to channel Martin Short.)

Just as proof of how different this experience was — if one can look at all the ratings another person has given to books heard, I’m pretty certain that there isn’t any other book that received a 3 or lower rating. Perhaps I’m not grading harshly enough or have allowed satisfaction w the novel take over when I rate the books, but if you look, you’ll see that almost all my books received 4 or 5 ratings almost every time. I would like to believe this is an anomaly, and doesn’t happen again for a long while.

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