Amazonian Since 1999

True Love and Dogs

Revisado: 05-03-25

The narrators were excellent, and the fact that it was performed in duet made it even better (I always get a little thrown off otherwise).

I loved the main characters’ interactions with each other and with the animals. (You must appreciate pets to enjoy this story, but if you don’t, that’s a you problem.) This deals with a few heavy themes that could bring a reader down, especially if they hit close to personal experience, but they are treated with sensitivity and the best intentions.

Without giving too much away, I disagreed with some of the decisions the characters made, but the resolution was ultimately satisfying. This is not a fluff romance, and it builds a believable relationship between the leads and adds the substance of real-world issues.

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So Much More Than a Romance!

Revisado: 04-24-25

I am a huge fan of Emily Henry’s, partly because her stories are so rich and layered. There is a great romance at the heart of them, but they’re really about what it means to be human, to be part of a family, and to have friends. This book has almost two whole stories in one, and it’s amazing how they each add depth to the other. Julia Whelan is also the best American narrator working today. It’s easy to visualize each of the characters to whom she lends her voice. You will definitely enjoy this story. I only wish it didn’t have to end.

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Funniest Story Plus Sweet Romance

Revisado: 04-18-25

This story was hilarious! I laughed so often, especially at the gentle teasing of Minnesota-type characteristics. It also spoofs the romance genre a bit and the graphic vocabulary sometimes used. The male lead was genuinely likable without having to be a stereotype. What I liked the most, though, was the character arc for the female lead. She grew from a shy, repressed kindergarten teacher at a church school, who couldn’t bring herself to say body parts out loud when she was alone in her kitchen to a confident content creator who could ask for what she wanted and solve her own problems. I hope these authors have other stories or will collaborate again. The narrator/co-author does a great job with all the voices.

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A Long Meet-Cute

Revisado: 03-06-25

This was a fun and enjoyable listen. I loved the fact that it was duet narration, so the male narrator always voiced the male protagonist and likewise the female narrator did the female protagonist (no flip-flopping between the two actors doing each other’s parts - which I find so distracting). It was also a gently developing romance, both realistic and fairly believable. It’s easy to root for these characters and their little triumphs, personally and professionally. It was “sweet” rather than “steamy” but satisfying.

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Mystery and Romance

Revisado: 03-06-25

This was an intriguing plot that kept me interested all the way along. I had to force myself to turn it off before bedtime, or I knew I would stay up for hours to find out what happened next. The relationships between the various characters were engaging, and I loved how the two protagonists worked together to solve the mysteries and face the challenges. They were both clever and brave without being overly perfect. I especially liked how competent they both were. The intimacy is mostly hinted at, rather than described, but it was satisfyingly romantic as well as a twisty mystery (a good combination in my book). I will look for more from this author.

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Great Information About Writing

Revisado: 10-31-22

I found the information in this course helpful and inspirational, however I found the professor presenting it a bit tiresome. The only transitional phrase she seems to know is “after all,” and she says it every few paragraphs. She also places heavy emphasis on several words in every sentence, as if we are all dumb freshmen who won’t understand her meaning unless she punches it out. I wish she spoke more naturally and conversationally, but she is a teacher by profession (as am I), so I suspect this is her style of lecturing to her students. On the other hand, if you can ignore the pedantic tone, the content of the course is relevant to anyone who aspires to write, whether non-fiction or fiction. There are some good nuggets and technical details that are worth learning. I downloaded the .pdf that comes with it and intend to review and highlight the key points.

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Touching Stories

Revisado: 06-07-21

Unlike some of PGW’s later works, which make me question how he feels about humanity, these short stories have heart and some genuine emotion in them. I am a fan of his wacky literary devices, but here it’s more a matter of showing how people take care of each other. I will probably listen again.

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Intriguing Story but Lots of Stereotypes

Revisado: 03-10-21

This is good listening for an afternoon while you're working around the house (which is what I did). The mystery was not super difficult to solve, but it was interesting enough to keep me wanting to find out what was going to happen next. The dialogue and action were fast-paced, and although there were more characters than I could keep track of, I could usually tell what was going on. I recommend you listen if it's included in your membership anyway. Zachary Quinto's performance alone was worth the time.

The only thing that irritated me somewhat was how stereotypical and one-sided all the characters (or caricatures) seemed. Only Quinto's character seemed to have any nuance or subtlety (or maybe that was due to his superior acting). The other characters seemed like stock figures from the box of standard Floridians of the social media age: the Black female partner who always has her outrage dialed up to 11 and every third word starts with F, the new-age husband who lies and talks over his partner and never really listens to him, his pushy sister and her video-gamer son, the shallow reality TV personality who screams like a brat while trying to cultivate her image, her nightmare of a stage mother who expects to be treated like royalty, a Scottish homeless person (it seemed) who popped up in odd places and made mysterious pronouncements, the gruff New York-ish police boss who was always grumpy about something. There were what I took to be stereotypes of every kind of background: Jewish, Latinx, LGBTQ, Black, elderly, TV fan, drama queen, and mobster. They were probably supposed to be funny, but since I have seen them all before, I didn't find anything particularly enlightening or entertaining about them. I mean, good for them for having such a diverse group of characters in the story, but did they have to be so over the top?

None of them had much of a character arc. Even Quinto's character, when he learns the truth about certain people, he doesn't change his opinion about them or their business. It seemed like he was supposed to be learning something from this experience, but it was slight. Everyone else continued in their cartoonish ways, and I felt like it was a missed opportunity to create comedic characters who had more dimensions to them, who weren't always fabulous, angry, loopy, scheming, irresponsible, demanding, deceptive, or grown men acting like teenage fangirls. I think the writers were taking lazy short-cuts to comedy by borrowing personalities from past sitcoms instead of inventing fresh, new people who had a few more layers to them. The actors all threw themselves into their roles with gusto, but maybe I was hoping for a little more realism. I mean, I hope Florida isn't really like this! It's possible to write comedic satire with a little more originality.

My literary criticism aside, the other reviewers seemed to love this to pieces, so don't let my quibbles stop you giving it a try. We all need some good stories these days.

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Excellent Performance of a Beautiful Story

Revisado: 01-04-21

Juliet Stevenson does an amazing job performing all the characters in this story: male and female, upper and lower classes, northern and southern (British) accents. I almost forgot that it was just one person doing everything. I will look out for more of her work.

The story itself is long and complex. It strives to be a social commentary on the challenges of life and work in Britain in the mid-19th century rather than just a romantic drama. There is a beautiful love story woven into it, but there is also an emphasis on character: pointing out the virtues of those who are hard-working, honest, compassionate, and striving to contribute to society and the folly of those who are idle, selfish, unduly proud, or insensitive to the feelings of others. There is also an effort to show both sides of the conflict between management and labor during the Industrial Revolution.

If you are only interested in the love story, you will have to wait an age for it to develop and progress. If you are interested in a richly detailed picture of life in that time and place, you will enjoy every minute.

If you like the book, I also recommend the BBC series that was made of it in 2004 (four episodes). The actors in that version filled my head as I was listening to this, as they were so well cast. The series was faithful to the events of the book but synthesized them in an efficient way to tell the story more quickly but with all the same emotions.

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Good laughs and good stories

Revisado: 11-05-20

If you like Scotland, history, and two playful lads poking each other in the ribs while telling stories of their careers as actors and what they’ve learned about their homeland, you will enjoy this book. If you are a fan of Outlander and specifically Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish, you will love all the behind-the-scenes insight into the show and its cast and what went on when the cameras weren’t rolling. There is also a lot about the battles among the clans and between them and the English, so you might need to follow along with the print version to keep track of all the names and dates. Many adult beverages were consumed as well, but they warn you about that in the title.

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