Swept Away

By: Mary Connealy

Narrated by: Barbara McCulloh

Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Swept away when her wagon train attempts a difficult river crossing, Ruthy MacNeil isn't all that upset at being separated from the family who raised her. All they've ever done is work her to the bone. She prayed for a chance to get away, and then came the raging flood. Alive but disoriented, she's rescued by Luke Stone...so unfortunately, there are more chances to die in her immediate future. Luke is heading home to reclaim the ranch stolen from his family. But the men who killed his father are working hard to ensure Luke doesn't make it alive. He has no choice but to keep moving. Still, he can't just abandon Ruthy, so she'll have to come along. His friends--a ragtag group of former Civil War soldiers--take a fast interest in the pretty gal. Luke thinks that's rather rude--he's the one who found her. And the more time he spends around the hard-working young woman who is a mighty good cook, the more he finds himself thinking beyond revenge and toward a different future. For the first time in a long time, Luke is tempted to turn from his destructive path and be swept away by love.

©2013 Mary Connealy (P)2013 Recorded Books

A sweet western romance, but with reality....

It's worth the credit for this listen. Although the narrator isn't good with the voices for each character. it's not distracting from the story. With twists and turns, the story winds around a good tale.

Texas after the Civil War

A story with all the elements of a great western . . . a wagon train, a flooded river, gun fighters, Texas Rangers . . . and the girl . . . When Ruthie MacNeil survives the ill-fated river crossing that leaves the rest of her party dead and is rescued by Luke Stone, she could never imagine how her life would change . . . and Luke, headed home to Texas, following the Civil War, has one thing on his mind: Reclaiming the ranch stolen from him and avenging the murder of his father. I fell in love with the gentle, yet honest writing style of Mary Connealy in Swept Away . . . and with the folks making their homes and lives in Texas . . . there is an under girding of faith and conviction in Luke and his friends who are fighting to reclaim his ranch . . . and Rosie (Ruthie) who has been abused and used by the family who took her in after her parents died, is finding that she can once again trust people. An element of subtle romance does not overshadow the overall story of life and comradeship in the emerging settlement of a young and growing Texas. An excellent listen.

Decent Story, Poor Narration

The Story: The plot is pretty standard for the genre, but the characters are quite enjoyable. I like that there is some real psychology in the villain; his characterization was certainly the most complex and interesting (though he is in NO way sympathetic). The romance(s) were sweet and done more realistically for the time period. Our hero is a zero in the romance department most of the time, but you can't help but love him like Ruthie does anyway. Ruthie herself is a fun spitfire, which speaks to my inner feminist :)

The biggest flaw is in McCulloh's narration. The worst part is that she pauses ridiculously long between her phrases. Seriously, ridiculously long. I had to listen to the whole book at 1.5x the speed, which made some words and phrases sound a bit funny, but shortened the pauses enough to keep me from going completely insane. Also, sometimes I couldn't distinguish between her different character voices and got confused about who was talking. I had to use the little rewind 30 seconds button and listen again, paying more attention to the other dialogue cues to figure it out.

All in all, the narration really took away from the selection, and my next step is to return Swept Away and get my credit back. I think I'll pick up the ebook though.

western drama

How could the performance have been better?

The men's voices either sounded whiny or squeaky like boy's voices changing. Hard to tell sometimes who's talking unless the name is stated.

Any additional comments?

Lots of drama in the old west, but if this is supposed to be Christian fiction, the Christian aspect is not brought out much.

Wonderful story

I usually don't listen to anything that has a western theme, but this story was wonderful, with great characters and humor and everything needed to make a good story. The narrator did a fantastic job.

wonderful listening

Loved the story and the narrator. It is refreshing to have love and excitement without vulgarity and gore.

Great!!!

I loved that this was a great clean story with everything you could imagine. I felt like I was there with them!

Good storyline

I enjoyed the story!! I felt like the reader made the characters sound unintelligent and childish. Her regular voice was lovely!

I love her books

I really enjoyed this author as well as this performer. This is the third series I have enjoyed by these two. I have read two other series by this author and love them all. I love how the story always starts off with action on top of action. It has three different things going on. I already read the last book in this series but I need to read the middle one.

Liked all the characters

I liked the story and all the characters and want to know more about the others that had a smaller role in this book. Great set up for the next books.  The narration was good too.