Love and the Dream Come True

The State of Grace Series, Book 3

By: Tammy L. Gray

Narrated by: Erica Sullivan, Alex Boyles

Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Their faith will face its toughest test yet.

Four years after getting the biggest break of his life, Cameron Lee’s music career has taken a nose dive, leaving him two options: become a sellout or give up on his lifelong dream. He reluctantly returns home for his sister’s wedding, hoping to avoid his past and find his love for music again.

Single mom Lexie Walters has suffered her fair share of tragedies and setbacks, but she has finally scraped together the money to achieve her dream of going into business with her cousin as an interior designer. When Lexie’s life is at an all-time high, she runs into her teenage crush, Cameron Lee.

Lost in the emotional turmoil of failure, Cameron is immediately drawn to Lexie and her infectious smile and optimistic spirit. Moreover, he adores her mouthy, no-holds-barred daughter. But fantasies only last so long, and soon Lexie and Cameron must face the real world, the one fraught with heartbreak, disappointment, and questions that sometimes can only be answered by a leap of faith.

©2022 Tammy L. Gray (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

The good and the not so good.

I enjoyed the story but the female narrator had a cadence to her reading that I didn't care for. I much preferred the narrator of the previous books.This is the 3rd in the series and I recommend reading the others first.

Good story - really bad narration

I listen to 3-5 books weekly and I have had my fair share of bad narration. I was excited about this series and I listened to and love the two books prior. I really wanted to hear how Cameron finally got his happily ever after but, after the first 3-4 chapters, I got overwhelmed by the voice/cadence of the female voice (Lexi) I tried so hard to get past her narration - I usually listen to some of my favorite books twice (I did with the two previous) because I like to hear the conversations and analyze/ponder the thoughts/emotions. With this book, I did the complete opposite. Whenever the chapter was read for Lexi - I found myself fast forwarding the story.. I thought her reading/narration/cadence was very distracting, annoying, sounding very immature. The characters were supposed to be strong, admirable instead and sadly, as I listen to the story from Lexi’s perspective - I imagined her as a high schooler who was reading for her first school play and trying so hard to sound smart/credible.. and failed miserably. I just wanted to get to the last few chapters & epilogue to find out how it all ended up for Cameron and the previous characters (Darcy, January, Bryson) **curious about the process these audio books are made to be published - does the author have the readers do practices or do a trial run before completing the final version? I don’t understand how this version was considered a good reflection of what it was written about.

Good story

The narrator wasn’t the best the other books came across much better. It would have been better if it didn’t feel like she was actually reading the book

The Story is Worth the Listen

The female narrator does have an odd cadence, but the story is so good that after about 4 chapters, it didn’t bother me any more. All 3 books in this series are wonderful. I will listen to them again.

Cameron comes home

Hearing Cameron’s story reminds me how much God likes to restore relationships and redeem past mistakes and pain.

I was worried I wouldn’t enjoy listening to it after reading other reviews but the female narrator didn’t bother me like it did others. However after just listening to the other 2 books in the series by another narrator, I found myself wanting to hear her take on the voices instead of someone else, since that was what I was used to. All that said, I still really enjoyed listening to this story.

Good but that voice cadence

I love listening to audio books so of course I was going to listen to the whole series. the voice for the female character was so weird. it was like she had a cadence to her voice that was just not natural. at times she would get it together & it would sound like a good book but other times, I just could not. I have heard worse however. otherwise really good book.

the voice!

The voice of Lexy was hard to listen to. It was way too sing-song for me.

Love the series

I have really enjoyed this series but I have to say this was my least favorite. The story line was good overall but it was hard to focus on it because of the reader for Lexi's part. Her cadence was not natural and just odd. That being said, I am definitely glad I listened. It does wrap up some lose ends from the first two books.

Good story, nice listen

I enjoyed all the books the only thing I didn’t care about was the way the last book was read. The sing song tempo of the narration was irritating to me. But other than that I really like the story line of all the books.

I really enjoyed these books!

I listened to the first two books in this series in one week. Great story! I didn’t want to stop listening. I’m ready to dive into the third book ASAP.