Very thought-provoking

I really, really enjoyed this book. I loved how it showed that you can rediscover who you are deep inside and invigorate your life without giving up your marriage or family. Elizabeth made mistakes in letting her family take over who she was and lost herself in the process, but she was able to reawaken herself without giving up her husband and daughters. My only real difficulty with this book was that Jack and Birdie didn't exactly have a "normal" family life, and while I'm sure many couples go through similar struggles, Jack's job and fame presented a lot of issues that other families wouldn't have to deal with. Plus, I'm really not a sports fan at all, and I found a lot of the aspects of his work to be pretty pretentious. Otherwise, I thought that the book was a very realistic presentation of what can happen to a couple once their children have left home and they realise that they've forgotten why they got married in the first place. I didn't find this at all depressing, as one might expect, since I'm getting married in five months. It didn't make me scared for what might come in twenty years time. Instead, it encouraged me to pursue my hobbies and talents and not let them get pushed aside. I wouldn't ever want to end up like Birdie, married for twenty-four years yet having no idea of who she is. I could see from Jack and Birdie's experiences that it's important to have a balance in marriage and in supporting each other's dreams. A very thought-provoking book. This was my first Kristin Hannah novel and I imagine that it'll stay with me for a while. I'll be reading more from her.

On the narration: The narrator managed to give each character distinct voices without being over-the-top , and I'm not sure how they managed it, but at certain parts of the recording the audio company used affects to make it sound like someone was talking down a telephone line or shouting from a different room. It definitely brought the characters of this novel to life. Highly recommended

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1 person found this helpful

Story of love and family values.

The story was quite good but the narrator’s drawl was very irritating and rather depressing.

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Average Read

This was an easy read without any major depth to it. I did enjoy it and would recommend it as such. Its nothing like the Nightingale by the same author. I would read other books by this author.

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2 people found this helpful

OK

it was a bit predictably. Certainly as you got into it you knew exactly what was going to happen. Narration was skilled but the americain accents grated a bit.

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2 people found this helpful

Narration very difficult to listen to

I love all Kristin Hannah stories, so I stick it out with this one. But have to say I nearly quit many times. The narrator has a very strange accent, -or way of emphasizing each word and a very strange way that is impossible to ignore or get used to. In addition each sentence is said in a monotonous drawn out way. Sorry to have to leave this critique

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Feel good love story

About love through out your life. Feel good and heart warm. Good to get you through stressful times.

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Awful narrator

I have up on this one and will read the book myself. I love all the authors books I have read but this was painful to listen to.

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Lovely story very poorly read

The story was to the usual Kristin Hannah standard, but the narrator was terrible, I recommend that this book should be read on a kindle rather than listened to

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Dreadful narrating - ruined the not very good story!

Fairly boring storyline utterly ruined by awful AWFUL narrator. Usually a brilliant author, not one of her finest by any stretch.

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1 person found this helpful