Narrated By: Justine Eyre
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Age: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Format: Audiobook
Release Date: November 17th, 2020
Goodreads
Rating: 3/5 Stars
This one was okay. Enjoyable enough but nothing really great and a few too many cons outweighing the pros. The narrator was Justine Eyre, and while she did a good job, it felt like this could have been made stronger by someone who could have done slightly different voices for the female characters, as they all sounded the same with the same accent and kind of ran into each other, and maybe a better job with the male voices, which, again, all sounded similar and a little off. There are multiple references to Owen’s Welsh accent, which if you were listening, just isn’t there. At all. There’s also other parts of Owen’s character that served to really put me off him, but I’ll mention that a bit later.
Emily moves to Willoughby Close because her boss, Harry Trent, is moving there and wants his ‘best employee’ nearby. Emily is a bit of a loner; she prefers her own company and rarely gets involved with others more than she has to. But as she gets to know the people of Wychwood-on-Lea, she finds herself opening up, and realises when a crisis hits, it’s not a bad thing to have people who can support you. When she meets Owen Jones, a local pub owner, Emily doesn’t really know what to think, but soon she softens towards him, and sparks fly.
I really liked Emily, at first. She was intriguing, and I do like books that have characters who, for whatever reason, are closed off, and gradually get to see them open up through the novel. But Emily – and I think some of the people around her – was just a little bit too much. I get why she tries to avoid people, but she comes across as very self-centred at points, not to mention quite naïve when she finally realises, in her late 20s, that yes, everyone has various shitty hands they have to deal with.
This was another aspect where the book fell a little flat – literally everyone around Emily has a tragic or near-tragic backstory, though Owen’s was more “I left Wales because there was nothing for me around there and I abandoned my sisters”. This could have been a really interesting avenue to explore, but the town he mentions he’s from isn’t actually that far from Cardiff, and from the way he talks about ‘home’ you’d really think Wales was a backwater country with absolutely nothing to offer anyone ever. Yes, there is poverty, and unemployment, but I think this could have been handled much, much better than the way it is, as if Owen couldn’t have got a pub a little closer to home? There could have at least been a better reason for him leaving the area, basically. I also struggled to understand the connection between the two characters – it felt flimsy, and for someone she’s known for such a short while, the whole ‘love of my life’ moaning and self-pity when Owen decides it’s time for him to up sticks and leave felt a bit over the top.
This wasn’t bad – I do like the attempts to highlight some social issues, even though it was often handled in a clumsy way. There’s a cute kitten, and I do love when no-pet-type characters end up with an accidental pet, and we all know the cat distribution system works wonders for that. I thought there were aspects of the plot around Emily’s mother were mostly good, and there is always something quite nice about romances where the FMC finds a community as well as a partner.
Overall, this one was a little middling for me – I’m not sure if I’ll read any more of the series, still a bit on the fence about that, but it’s a sweet enough book and mostly was a good listening experience with the audiobook.
Reading Challenge
Barbie Reading Challenge
Prompt: Dance the Night – Cause every romance shakes and it bends – a romance book
Progress: 1/17 Completed
Unwrapping Words 