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Title: The Blood Doctor

Author: Barbara Vine

Narrator: Robert Powell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-01-10

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 65 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The First Lord Nanther, expert in blood diseases, particularly the royal disease of Heamophilia, and favoured physician to Queen Victoria, clearly hoped to be the subject of an admiring posthumous biography. But when his great-grandson, Martin Nanther begins to research his life for a biography, the Martin comes to suspect that his great-grandfathers old records conceal more than they reveal. Henry had been obsessed with blood, to him, blood was a thing of beauty and he could not fathom how anyone could flinch or faint at the sight of it. As Martins research deepens, he begins to wonder whether the mysterious deaths of a number of friends and relatives of his great-grandfather really were mere coincidence or did Henrys fascination with blood have a much darker side?

Members Reviews:

clever, excellent storytelling

I didn't know what to expect from Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine (except good writing) and feared that this was some kind of gothic horror - but it is an absorbing character-driven story, with a mystery element very secondary. In fact, it's more of a puzzle than a mystery, pieced together in the course of the slowly moving narrative, with storylines nesting inside one another like Russian dolls.

Its tone reminded me a bit of French Lieutenant's Woman: Though not set in Victorian England, it evokes and reflects on that period in a similar way as the main character undertakes a biography of an ancestor. The story of writing the Victorian biography is so convincing that at times I forgot I was listening to fiction.

As another reviewer pointed out, there are serious editing glitches at around hour 5 and 5:45 of part 1 - annoying, but they don't ruin the listen. This is a slow listen - but that can be good - in fact, to me it's the best novel I've heard this past year (out of approximately 30-40).

I love the way her mind works

This is one of my favorite Barbara Vine novels, the other being THE MINOTAUR. This is a very good reader, which makes it a good story well-told in every way.

Central conceit doesn't work

What did you like best about The Blood Doctor? What did you like least?

Because the story is told by a British lord, this doesn't have the strangeness of other Barbara Vine novels. Any delicious weirdness of character, which I so enjoy in other novels Ruth Rendell writes as B.V, is not conveyed by the narrow perspective of the proper upper-class narrator. The biggest disappointment for me, though, was that the motive of the great doctor who is the narrator's ancestor, a motive easily guessed at towards the end and eventually spelled out, is not convincing. And, as another reviewer says, the subplot about the lord's trophy wife's efforts to have a baby soon becomes tiresome. It's meant to, I guess.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The motive of the central figure in the family saga is not fully explained.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Sure.

Any additional comments?

If you're not a fan of Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford, try the altogether different genre of her alter ego Barbara Vine's books. Creepy people hold big secrets for convoluted reasons.

Annoyance

Chapter 10 contains a repeat of several pages. Editing needed here. Story moves slowly enough without the repetition.

Complex and Convincing

This is among the best of the Barbara Vine books.

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Title: Super Sad True Love Story

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Gary Shteyngart

Narrator: Ali Ahn, Adam Grupper

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-27-10

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 822 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutantes Handbook, creates a compelling reality in this tale about an illiterate America in the not-too-distant future. Lenny Abramov may just be penning the worlds last diary. Which is good, because while falling in love with a rather unpleasant woman and witnessing the fall of a great empire, Lenny has a lot to write about.

Critic Reviews:

"Shteyngart's earnestly struggling charactersalong with a flurry of running gagskeep the nightmare tour of tomorrow grounded. A rich commentary on the obsessions and catastrophes of the information age and a heartbreaker worthy of its title, this is Shteyngart's best yet." (Publishers Weekly)

"Full-tilt and fulminating satirist Shteyngart is mordant, gleeful, and embracive as he funnels today's follies and atrocities into a devilishly hilarious, soul-shriveling, and all-too plausible vision of a ruthless and crass digital dystopia in which techno-addled humans are still humbled by love and death." (Booklist)

Its not easy to summarize Shteyngart; theres so much satirical gunpowder packed into every sentence that the effect gets lost in the short version. But basically, this is a love story [that is] ridiculously witty and painfully prescient, but more than either of those, its romantic." (Time)

Members Reviews:

Dystopia Now

Brilliant. I very much enjoyed Steyngart's Absurdistan, which satirized the former Soviet Union, but his writing reaches a whole new level here. This is a book about the near future America seems to be headed for, a country that's become a bankrupt, corporate-controlled police state on the verge of collapse, while mainstream Americans lead lives of vapid indifference, aggressively obsessed with youth, beauty, media profiles, and their rankings on a facebook-like service that publicly rates citizens on everything from their credit score to their "f***ability" (this is not a book for the prudish). It's very pointed satire, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, but often depressing because it's just close enough to reality.

Steyngart does a marvelous job with his two main characters: there's Lennie, a shlumpy, trod-upon 39 year old who works as a salesman at a life extension company, has a set of hilariously-rendered Russian immigrant parents who spend their day watching "Fox Liberty Ultra", hangs out with self-righteous hipster friends, and clings to his antiquated hobby of collecting old books in a post-literate era. He falls obsessively in love with Eunice Park, a young Korean-American woman who personifies much about Generation iPhone, with her short attention span, text message vocabulary, constant online shopping (for brands with names like "Juicy P***y"), and lifelong immersion in a culture of looks and casual sex, and who struggles with her own old-country parents (including a mom whose advice-filled, English-challenged emails are quite funny). Their relationship captures, in a rich way, so much about the America we're living in. Steyngart doesn't take the easy path of simply mocking his self-absorbed characters (flawed though they are), but gives them them earnest voices, making them people we empathize with as the artificial bubbles of their worlds burst.

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Title: One Day

Author: David Nicholls

Narrator: Anna Bentinck

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-13-10

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 1134 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

It's 1988 and Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley have only just met. They both know that the next day, after college graduation, they must go their separate ways. But after only one day together, they cannot stop thinking about one another. As the years go by, Dex and Em begin to lead separate liveslives very different from the people they once dreamed they'd become. And yet, unable to let go of that special something that grabbed onto them that first night, an extraordinary relationship develops between the two.

Over 20 years, snapshots of that relationship are revealed on the same dayJuly 15thof each year. Dex and Em face squabbles and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. And as the true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed, they must come to grips with the nature of love and life itself.

Critic Reviews:

"[An] instant classic....One of the most hilarious and emotionally riveting love stories youll ever encounter." (People)

Big, absorbing, smart, fantastically readable." (Nick Hornby)

"[Nicholls] has a gift for zeitgeist description and emotional empathy that's wholly his own.... [A] light but surprisingly deep romance...thoroughly satisfying." (Entertainment Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Great book, bad ending

Story:

Great book, great idea, great premise, however...the ending was what killed it for me.

For the sake of not wanting to ruin the book I will just say that after spending hours and hours with characters that I really liked and cared about, I felt so emotionally unfulfilled and empty. It sort of left me feeling- 'what?! this can't be it. Seriously! It really can't be it!'

Despite the bad ending, the journey was extremely pleasant and I feel that putting this into the romance category is not doing the book its justice since it implies it's a light read- in reality it is anything but. The romance plot, although always looming in the background, is very secondary.

The story is mainly about stages of life that one goes through and how the perspective of life changes over the course of 20 years. Some passages actually made me pause and reflect upon since they were remarkably profound. I will for sure try to read more books by Nicholls.

Narration:

I suspect that a great deal of the book's appeal comes from Ms. Bentinck's narration. She did a splendid job with the voices! I love how she did distinctive accents and how just by listening to her voice I knew what Dexter was up to (if he was drunk/felt depressed/happy). Great narrator and I will definitely try more of her books.

Hornby like dialogue only better - on top 10 list

One Day grabbed me and never let me go. The most engaging, laugh out loud, true to life dialogue I've ever come across. The characters complex and intriguing - I cared so much for these two that I felt a bit lonely after the last page. It also brought back the sweet, sensual nature of letter writing - right back to the scent of the paper. Please please read or listen to it before seeing the movie. The reader, Anna Bentinck, is such a talented actress. She did men as well as Nicholls wrote women. On my top 10 list for sure!

An excellent 'read!'

I had read a brief review of this book before ordering it on audible.

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Title: The Island

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Elin Hilderbrand

Narrator: Denice Hicks

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-06-10

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 254 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Birdie Cousins has thrown herself into the details of her daughter Chess's lavish wedding, from the floating dance floor in her Connecticut back yard to the color of the cocktail napkins. Like any mother of a bride-to-be, she is weathering the storms of excitement and chaos, tears and joy. But Birdie, a woman who prides herself on preparing for every possibility, could never have predicted the late-night phone call from Chess, abruptly announcing that she's cancelled her engagement.

It's only the first hint of what will be a summer of upheavals and revelations. Before the dust has even begun to settle, far worse news arrives, sending Chess into a tailspin of despair. Reluctantly taking a break from the first new romance she's embarked on since the recent end of her 30-year marriage, Birdie circles the wagons and enlists the help of her younger daughter, Tate, and her own sister, India. Soon all four are headed for beautiful, rustic Tuckernuck Island, off the coast of Nantucket, where their family has summered for generations. No phones, no television, no grocery store - a place without distractions where they can escape their troubles.

But throw sisters, daughters, ex-lovers, and long-kept secrets onto a remote island, and what might sound like a peaceful getaway becomes much more. Before summer has ended, dramatic truths are uncovered, old loves are rekindled, and new loves make themselves known. It's a summertime story only Elin Hilderbrand can tell, filled with the heartache, laughter, and surprises that have made her best-selling novels as much a part of summer as a long afternoon on a sunny beach.

Editorial Reviews:

Summer, sand, salt water does anyone do it better than Elin Hilderbrand? In her latest effort, The Island, the author again embraces that idealistic all-American scene with a story that manages to be both easy and breezy, yet heartbreaking and profound. Its a tall order for a writer whose books all which have taken place in the WASP-y enclave of Nantucket and its surrounding islands bring to life the blonde, the beautiful, and the privileged.

The Island, whose setting is the remote private isle of Tuckernuck, is primarily a story of four women Birdie Cousins, her daughters Chess and Tate, and Birdies sister, India. The women, of course, are all harboring dark secrets and rediscovering long-lost desires, and they agree to reunite at the familys rustic compound after an absence of more than a dozen years. Over the course of a month and plenty bottles of Sancerre the women fight and reconnect, love and lose love. The impetus for the gathering is Chess, whos recovering from both a broken engagement and the subsequent accidental death of her ex-fiance, but the Cousins gals all in turn come to face and conquer their own, less obvious demons.

This, as is much of the best so-called summer beach reading, is about women tapping into their empowerment. The book rotates among the perspectives of each woman, and narrator Denice Hicks is at her best when giving voice to Birdie, a perpetual people-pleaser and the most naive of the bunch. This is a wide-eyed matriarch whose continual surprise and shock at lifes event lends credence to Hicks lilting, almost musical inflections. Hicks does falter, though, when she reads as the other characters, most notably the worldly and adventurous India, whose nascent affair with a younger woman comes across as disingenuous.

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Title: What Alice Forgot

Author: Liane Moriarty

Narrator: Caroline Lee

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-16-10

Publisher: Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 281 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

When Alice Love surfaces from a beautiful dream to find she's been injured in a gym, she knows that something is very wrong she hates exercise. Alice's first concern is her baby she's pregnant with her first child, and she's desperate to see her husband, Nick, whom she knows will be worried about her. But Alice isn't pregnant. And Nick isn't worried. Alice is the mother of three children and her hostile husband is in the process of divorcing her. Alice has lost ten years of her life.

In the days that follow, small bubbles of the past rise to the surface, and Alice is forced to confront uncomfortable truths. It turns out forgetting might be the most memorable thing that's ever happened to her.

Members Reviews:

Didn't want it to end!

Would you listen to What Alice Forgot again? Why?

Yes I probably will listen to it again

What did you like best about this story?

I loved the concept of the book. It was so well written and believable.

Which character as performed by Caroline Lee was your favorite?

I liked all of them but my favourite was Franny

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Imagine skipping 10 years of your life

Any additional comments?

I'm just new to listening to Liane Moriarty and I lust love her stories! This is my second book of hers, I listened to My Husbands Secret and loved that's. This one I enjoyed more and didn't want it to end.

A wonderful reshreshing honest and beautiful book.

Would you consider the audio edition of What Alice Forgot to be better than the print version?

Yes, the Australian narrator nailed the funny moments and accentuated the personalities of the main characters

What other book might you compare What Alice Forgot to and why?

None so far. It was very different and a real opener to how we can change in 10 years, why and how everyone has a different perspective on things

Which character as performed by Caroline Lee was your favorite?

I loved Elizabeth and her "homework" to her Doctor

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

WhenAlices senses were overloaded in the hospital by frangrance. Sense of smell is very emotive and it captures this perfectly

Realistic, funny and touching

I could hardly stop listening. The story seems very true to reality. I love the way the author interprets her characters, so honest and sometimes very funny. And of course I love Caroline Lee as a reader. It's so easy to listen to her. She is a very talented lady.

What Alice Forgot

Really enjoyed this book. It was engaging, the characters were well described and realistic. In book form I would have found it hard to put down.

Such a nicely written story!! Couldnt stop listening

I truly enjoyed this book! Its the first time I read something written by Liane Moriarty and I feel I won the lottery! The story is nicely written and truly relatable, the characters are lovable, and the narration is nicely accomplished.

I cant wait to tackle more books from this author!

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Title: The Girl Who Chased the Moon

Author: Sarah Addison Allen

Narrator: Rebecca Lowman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-16-10

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 748 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

In her latest enchanting novel, New York Times best-selling author Sarah Addison Allen invites you to a quirky little Southern town with more magic than a full Carolina moon. Here two very different women discover how to find their place in the world - no matter how out of place they feel.

Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother's life - such as, why did Dulcie Shelby leave her hometown so suddenly? And why did she vow never to return? But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew - a reclusive, real-life gentle giant - she realizes that mysteries aren't solved in Mullaby, they're a way of life: Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor bakes hope in the form of cakes.

Everyone in Mullaby adores Julia Winterson's cakes - which is a good thing, because Julia can't seem to stop baking them. She offers them to satisfy the town's sweet tooth but also in the hope of rekindling the love she fears might be lost forever. Flour, eggs, milk, and sugar...Baking is the only language the proud but vulnerable Julia has to communicate what is truly in her heart. But is it enough to call back to her those she's hurt in the past?

Can a hummingbird cake really bring back a lost love? Is there really a ghost dancing in Emily's backyard? The answers are never what you expect. But in this town of lovable misfits, the unexpected fits right in.

Critic Reviews:

"There are love interests, big family secrets, and magical happenings (color-changing wallpaper, mysterious lights) aplenty as Allen charts the spiraling inter-generational stories, bringing everything together in an unexpected way." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Lovely

This is a really fun read with gorgeous imagery. A chick flick with literary pizzazz.

Lovely Writing ends Abruptly

I was in the midst of enjoying this book when it suddenly and without warning ended. It leaves many things unsettled or unexplained and I was very dissatisfied. The reader has a lovely voice and I did enjoy listening to her.

Disappointing

This book starts to unravel at the halfway point, and then it continues to fall apart in the most anticlimactic and cliche-ridden way possible. I greatly enjoyed "Garden Spells", but this book seemed like it was born from the notebook of a teenage Twilight fan. You will not believe how boring the much-hyped town secret is.

A little magic

The Girl Who Chased the Moon is full of little mysteries and unusual characters which make you wish the world Allen's created in Mulaby, NC could go on and on. Allen must know what I've known since I was eleven, that small Southern towns simply have a bit of magic here and there.

Just delicious

I really can't rave about Sarah Addison Allen enough. Her books are sweet, charming, and just full of the most wonderful Romance (love stories, not bodice-ripping). They're also beautiful when read aloud. I'm sure it helps that I grew up in North Carolina, but when I listen to them, I always feel a little like a kid listening to grown-up fairy tales. Also, there aren't many great English-language novels that are magical realism.

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Title: Baby Momma Drama

Author: Carl Weber

Narrator: Kevin Free, Caroline Clay, SiSi Johnson, Ezra Knight

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-15-10

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 227 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

National best-selling author of Married Men and a recipient of the Blackboard Bookseller of the Year Award, Carl Weber is popular for his passionate modern love stories. In Baby Momma Drama, sisters Jasmine and Stephanie struggle to understand the complicated relationships they have with the men in their lives. Luckily, theyve got each other to turn to when the going gets tough.

Members Reviews:

Indeed enough drama

Drama and love in one story these ladies in this story were unforgettable. Carl Weber does an amazing job again telling this story and the characters reminded me of different people in my life who have faced the same challenges as the ones in this book.

excellant

I enjoyed this book I will say there were a couple of times I forgot it was a book and not really happening in one of my friends life. it was so real

Great Book

This was a great book. Very entertaining. The narrators were excellent. I normally stray away from books of this caliber. "Baby Momma Drama" is not a title I would've choose no matter the author but I took a chance and wasn't disappointed.

Drama Yes

I love Carl Weber but this was not one of my favorites, I thought it was funny, but not as funny as most of the reviews said.

Too many sex scenes

This book is ok for a low level reader, not stimulating enough for those who want more substance and dialect.

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Title: The Cellist of Sarajevo

Author: Steven Galloway

Narrator: Gareth Armstrong

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-11-10

Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 310 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Sarajevo, in the 1990s, is a hellish place. The ongoing war devours human life, tears families apart and transforms even banal routines, such as acquiring water, into life-threatening expeditions. Day after day, a cellist stations himself in the midst of the devastation, defying the ever-present snipers to play tributes to victims of a massacre. A true story of a cellist's resistance helps to form this pivotal event in Steven Galloway's extraordinary novel. Against this, the author touchingly describes three ordinary townspeople and their efforts to retain their humanity, sanity and autonomy as war takes hold of their lives. This bestselling novel is immediate, vivid and deeply affecting on audiobook, fully immersing the listener in the havoc of war.

Members Reviews:

One wonders if humans will ever be civilized

I'm very pleased to have the experience of this book. The cello music adds much to this particular story. It gives room for thought when the voice of the cello is there instead of the words.

The book is well crafted to make one think. The performance is excellent.

Could I be the cellist? What kind of life is my life? How would I behave? What makes any of us worthy of life, love, food, water, music? With war everywhere in all times, one can almost feel the weight of evil pushing from all directions. This book takes ideas of life, hope, and fear and braids them into some understanding of what war really is.

Engrossing and Enlightening

I got this audiobook on the recommendation of a friend. I was glad I did. An enlightening look on the history and atrocities that took place in Sarajevo. At times truly sad, at other times bright spots of humor that showed humanity can still exist even in the most inhumane of situations.

war never makes sense

First time author for me, a novella of sorts. In the 1990's the Balkan peninsula fell into war and long standing hatreds came to life. Much of it didn't make sense and still doesn't.

In this book, the city of Sarajevo, which is in Bosnia, was surrounded by the Serbian army who sat in the hills surrounding the city and laid siege, lobbing bombs and having snipers shoot the Bosnians stuck in the city.

In one instance, and this is a true event, a mortar struck a line of people standing in line doing nothing more than trying to get bread for their families and them to east. 22 people were killed. A cellist, who saw the explosion from his apartment, in an act of defiance to the war, starts sitting in the street where the explosion happened, in full view of everyone even the enemy, and states he will play his cello for 22 straight days, a day for each of the victims. This is that story although the main characters are some of those people also affected by the war and how they responded to the craziness all around them.

Eye opening

This story, although fiction, is based on The Siege of Sarajevo by the Bosnian Serbs in 1992 - 1996. It's descriptive of difficulties, fears and disruption of everyday life which cause changes in the view of life in the three narrators. I did some googling about this war, so reading this book became an educational experience.

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Title: An Irish Country Girl

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Patrick Taylor

Narrator: Terry Donnelly

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-05-10

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 459 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Readers of Patrick Taylor's books know Mrs. Kinky Kincaid as the unflappable housekeeper who looks after two frequently frazzled doctors in the colourful Irish village of Ballybucklebo. She is a trusted fixture in the lives of those around her, and it often seems as though Kinky has always been there. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Some 40-odd years before and many miles to the south, the girl who would someday be Kinky Kincaid was Maureen O'Hanlon, a farmer's daughter growing up in the emerald hills and glens of County Cork. A precocious girl on the cusp of womanhood, Maureen has a head full of dreams, a heart open to romance, and something more: a gift for seeing beyond the ordinary into the mystic realm of fairies, spirits, and even the dreaded Banshee, whose terrifying wail she first hears on a snowy night in 1922.

As she grows into a young woman, Maureen finds herself torn between love and her fondest aspirations, for the future is a mystery even for one blessed with the sight. Encountering both joy and sorrow, Maureen at last finds herself on the road to Ballybucklebo---and the strong and compassionate woman she was always destined to become.

An Irish Country Girl is another captivating tale by Patrick Taylor, a true Irish storyteller.

Members Reviews:

Stick with it!

I was undeterred by all of the reviews I had read here and purchased this book. It was my first by this author. The first few chapters, when Kinky is telling her story to the children is very off-putting and, to be honest, I almost abandoned it in agreement with the negative reviews. However, I stuck with it and ended up enjoying this book very much! Definitely worth it if you persist past the first few chapters.

Shanachie

If you like Irish folktales, this is a book for you. Just sit back and listen to the entertaining story.

If you are looking for Ballybucklebo it's not here

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

If the author had stuck with the characters and town that the other books in this series are about. This one is a boring long winded story, told to some kids by housekeeper Kinky Kincaid. Some demons or spirits didn't want her neighbor, when she was a young woman, to chop down a tree. So he chops down the tree and now ooooh scary, all these supernatural things are happening. I think Patrick Taylor had a left over short story in his files and thought he could make it part of this series by having good ol Kinky tell the story within the story. Its a huge disappointment!

What was most disappointing about Patrick Taylors story?

Boring, a story about a kid chopping down a tree drags on forever and ever. Get over it--it's a tree!

How could the performance have been better?

Narrator appears to be faking an Irish accent. I liked the male reader of the other books in this series much better.

You didnt love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No, none that I can see.

Any additional comments?

skip this one and read the Irish Country Doctor, Dublin City Student, and Irish Country Village.

Love this series

I have enjoyed every minute if the Irish Country Doctor series by Patrick Taylor. I will say that this was my least favorite of all the books but evem with that said, I still loved it.It was great to have a backstory on the lovable houskeeper, Kinky Kencaid. I also would have preferred that the same narrator had read this book.

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Title: Total Eclipse of the Heart

Author: Zane

Narrator: Hevin Hanover, Andre Blake

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-01-09

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 552 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Damon Johnson, who's been married to Carleigh for four years, is one of "the last good men" - compassionate and honest, he worships the ground his wife walks on. But Carleigh treats Damon like a trophy husband, allowing her friends to salivate over him and disrespect their happy home. Damon has dreams beyond his six-figure corporate job and Carleigh views his life aspirations as a joke. Her selfish nature makes Damon wonder if he made the right decision when he asked for her hand in marriage.

When a tragic event causes Brooke's and Damon's lives to intersect, truths unfold as they begin to reflect on their own relationships.

In this provocative tale of love and heartbreak, Zane explores what happens when you cater to your emotional well-being and discover the meaning of unconditional love - or rather, experience a total eclipse of the heart.

Members Reviews:

BRING MORE ZANE PLEASE!!!

Another Great Read by ZANE.

I don't understand why there are not MORE books by ZANE available here at audible.com

Total Eclipse

This is a great book!! I enjoyed every moment of it!! I just wish they had more zane books on audio.

Great listen

I commute to work about a 2hrs a day. I loved listening to this book. This was a very good zane book with a great story line. I really hated to get out of the car everyday. I never when have known this was an interracial couple. I hope that they add some more zane books pretty soon.

great story

i loved it!!!!

More romance; Less erotica

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes, I would recommend it but with reservations.

Did Hevin Hanover and Andre Blake do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Yes, but it was weird listening to Andre Blake read the lines of the female characters. Actually, I laughed a couple of times.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No,

Any additional comments?

I agree with the previous reviewers. The twist at the end was so unnecessary. Also, if you're looking for an erotic story, this one isn't it. It's a love story with a few explicitly described sex scenes thrown in. Actually, the sex scenes seemed out of place and as if they were thrown in to meet some erotica requirement.