A LOVELY LISTEN 3 STARS 🌟🌟🌟

I really enjoyed listening to this book and couldn't wait to listen to the next bit, I finished the book within 24 hours! Australia, Firefighters, Family Drama and House sitting, what more do the need!😀 Rosie & Owen have a funny friendship.

Charlie Sanderson is a great narrator who does her job well.

This listen was FREE with the Plus Catalogue included membership and I recommend you listen to this book

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Heart warming

Lovely narration and a absolutely lovely author who had written this book kept me on the side of my seat to see what happened next

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lovely story

love helens writing and am a big fan.
lovely story. I just couldn't warm to the narrator. hence the 2 stars for performance.

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Pure delight

Absolutely loved this book along with another by the same Author,although I knew the ending had to be good because I had come across Rosie x Owain in an earlier book by Helen Rolfe.

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What on earth is a Ducarti?

Storyline was ok but very annoying how the narrator continually called the Ducati bike a D u c a r t i

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Brilliant story better to listen than watch TV anytime.

I am a fan of this author. Loved this book and am looking forward to reading the next in the series.

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So boring

Managed to get to chapter 8. The narrator’s voice sounded like a petulant child. Definitely not my cup of tea

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Great story, dreadful narration.

The plot is wonderful - a slowly but believably growing love between the two main characters. Initially they appear to be completely unsuited to one another by temperament, lifestyle and situation. Given time; a few major revelations or about-turns in understanding (either of themselves or of one another), or the odd major incident (almost all perfectly plausibe - not always the case in this type of novel), the apparent differences are gently and gradually resolved, untangled or overcome to reach a very mutually happy ending.


Other characters are well-drawn and memorable. Plot twists aren't scattered around like chocolate sprinkles but fed in at what feels like an appropriate rate for the length of the piece. Well before the end of the novel, I'd grown to thoroughly like almost all of the characters but don't take that to mean that this work is sickly sweet - it's not. Instead, it deals pretty realistically with how keeping secrets can affect both the keepers and those from whom the information is kept; how family break-up (whether through separation, divorce or death) can affect the psyche of those touched by it and how "settling" for the apparently safe option isn't always the right decision. The only part of the plot that I felt was less than completely believable was the story about Owen's father. Without dropping a spoiler, I found it hard to believe that his story wouldn't already have exploded by the time the events told here take place. Outwith that qualm though, it was a great little book. For readers for whom some erotic element is important, you might want to note that physical action is either brushed over (referred to but not described) or increasingly wished for but with little actual action other than the odd thrilling touch; an occasional (well hidden) physical reaction from the MMC and one passionate kiss which goes no further than to move the plot along.

This audiobook is really let down though by two things. The first is the dreadful editing of the recording. The gaps between the chapter headings and the chapters actually beginning are so long that, on some occasions, I thought the book had failed to download properly and asked my Echo to resume the book. There are other points at which a chapter stops so abruptly that, again, I thought there had been a download failure or that the editing had cut off a word or two. Watch out also for the playback speed when you commence listening. This is the only audiobook I have EVER started which began by playing at two and a half times normal speed. All of those failures are down to poor editing of the audio footage.

What's even worse though is the dreadful narration. Unlike another reviewer, I didn't find the narrator's voice "whiney" but it was completely wrong for the book. Rosie is a diminutive; caring; wounded woman but a determined character. Owen is a tough giant; a good-time guy; a successful self-made man but with the heart of a gentleman. The narrator's voice suits neither. Nor does the narrator understand how to read prose in such a way that emphasis is used in the appropriate places. It's either not used at all (when it should be) or it's placed on the wrong words or phrases in a sentence. That left me, as a listener, often scrabbling to make sense of what I'd just heard - very unsatisfactory as a listening experience. The narrator repeats the same offence by occasionally managing to mangle words in the same way, emphasising the wrong syllable. Poor use or lack of emphasis can ruin a reading and it did exactly that for me in this work. Coupled with the odd mispronunciation of some words ("ducarti" has been commented on in other reviews but it's not the only example) and you have a recipe for a colourless reading with very little authentic flavour. There's no excuse for mistreating a decent plot in this way and Audible should not have allowed this to slip through the net.

So, overall, a good story which I finished listening to only because I was invested in the characters and what happened to them. If you can get past the dire quality of the narration and the editing of it, it's otherwise a little gem. Whilst I'll look for other works by the author, I'll think more than twice if they're read by the same narrator.

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Excellent

Really enjoyed this book. Couldn’t stop listening, great from start to finish. Would highly reccommend. Great narrator.

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What a brilliant book to listen to if you want an easy listen.

This was brilliant. Such an easy listen. 5 stars all round. It was that good,I’ve just purchased book 2 and 3 of this series. The author really did well on this one. Plus it was a feeebie from the Audible catalogue. I listened to this in 24 hours on and off. I just wanted to see what the next chapter held and so on. I loved the happy ending and was rooting for what happened in the end. I won’t spoil it for other readers though. Added this to my collections and plan to listen to all the authors books. A definete listen if you just want an easy story instead of blood and gore like I usually listen to. I’m glad I took a chance on this title. The narration was brilliant too and really made you get engrossed in the story. A big 5 stars overall.

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