The Great Escape

By: Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Narrated by: Shannon Cochran

Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Instead of saying "I do" to Mr. Irresistible, Lucy Jorik hitches a ride on the back of a beat-up motorcycle with a rough looking, bad-tempered stranger who couldn't be more foreign to her privileged existence. While the world searches for her, Lucy must search for herself, and she quickly realizes that her customary good manners are no defense against a man who's raised rudeness to an art form. Lucy needs to toughen up - and fast.

Her great escape takes her to his rambling beach house on a Great Lakes island. Here, she hopes to find a new direction...and to unlock the secrets of this man who knows so much about her but reveals nothing about himself. As the hot summer days unfold amid scented breezes and sudden storms, she'll encounter a passion that could change her life forever.

In this dazzling follow-up to her New York Times best seller, Call Me Irresistible, Susan Elizabeth Phillips tells the funny, touching, enchanting story of a young woman searching for her destiny...and of a damaged man who doesn't believe in second chances.

Performed by Shannon Cochran

©2012 Susan Elizabeth Phillips (P)2012 HarperCollinsPublishers

stupid

Would you try another book from Susan Elizabeth Phillips and/or Shannon Cochran?

yes, but I'd think again. She usually has good books, but this onei dumb....the narrator is so old.

What do you think your next listen will be?

dunno

How could the performance have been better?

a younger narrator....better story... it was a hugh task to get through it

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Great Escape?

Luci playing Viper. Period..

Any additional comments?

sucks!

A Very Long Tale With Unlikeable Characters

I too looked forward to this book's coming with full expectation of another entertaining story. For the first time, I was disappointed in SEP. Lucy was a multi-dimensional character in First Lady, with so many unusual facets that could have been explored. In this volume, she's primarily petulant, irritating and wishy-washy. Somewhere between the two volumes, we missed a major part of her character development when she became an obedient over-achiever unable to know her own mind.

The story drags, made worse by a poor narration by Shannon Cochran. I know Anna Fields is a hard act to follow, but Cochran's range of emotions is limited, with angry petulance and inappropriate excitement being the primary colors she draws with. The end result is that none of the characters feel "real." The story also suffers from several flaws: Panda's problem is well-hidden until nearly the end of the book, and yet it dictates so much of his behavior. Lucy's inability to understand her own behavior is hard to believe when she is supposed to be so intelligent. Both characters' unwillingness to accept their own feelings gets old quickly. This is a story that could be easily told in half the words.

Although I love Audible books, my recommendation is to read this one; it's a book that merits skimming. And without being limited by Cochran's narrowed abilities to portray characters, the story will likely have more life to it when you depend on your own imagination.

Didn't realize this was part of a series...

I felt a little lost right off the bat. It was an okay story. I didn't jump up and down about it. This was my first Susan Elizabeth Phillips, and I was feeling a bit "meh" about the whole thing.

Very disappointed in SEP's last 2 books

Would you try another book from Susan Elizabeth Phillips and/or Shannon Cochran?

yes

What could Susan Elizabeth Phillips have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

It needed her special humor and charisma between main characters. Remembering Lucky
Charms and I loved Kiss An Angel.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No

Skip it

What disappointed you about The Great Escape?

The narrator would fit a mature librarian, not try-to-be funky Lucy. I'm trying hard to finish listening... a big disappointment for SEP books.

Has The Great Escape turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The voice is too mature, it's impossible to feel the character

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Didn't feel the chemistry between Lucy and Panda. Lucy was a lot more interesting in the First Lady book. I'm glad this is not my first SEP's book else I might skip the rest.

Terrible narrator, weak story

I have loved *most* of the books of Susan Elizabeth Phillips but every once in a while she writes one I just can't enjoy. Fancy Pants, the first book in this series, is the only one of her books I've had to leave unfinished and I've tried it twice. This book was another one of those and it was made worse by the absolutely terrible narration -- I didn't like the reader in the last book of this series and she was even worse in this one. If you're like me and you can't resist trying all of SEP's books, I would recommend reading and not listening to this one.

A monumentally sad disappointment

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

The narrator has a hard act to follow. No-one can match Anna Fields. Taking that into account, and making allowances, this is still not good.

Would you ever listen to anything by Susan Elizabeth Phillips again?

I have all SEPs books. I have loved most of them but this was a great disappointment. The characters didn't develop. It was impossible to care about them. Lucy was just awful. What grown woman of 31 behaves that badly. Who on earth would name a grown man Panda? Ridiculous. The other characters in the book, especially Mike were one dimensional. I truly hope SEP has not lost IT.

What didn’t you like about Shannon Cochran’s performance?

The accents were bad, the tone was whiny. No enjoyable. Such a shame.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I hate to say this, but no.

I expected clichés, but…

But this was over the top. I swear at some point in the past I enjoyed Susan Elizabeth Phillips writing, but this was pretty bad. For the heroine - a career woman with a bad early childhood - to reach her wedding day - at 31, mind you - with sudden psychological difficulties was annoying as well as implausible. Plus the author couldn't seem to make up her mind whether these two people were completely different or completely alike, and neither could they. our hero kept describing the heroin as a spoiled rich girl, when he had to know she was in foster homes until she was 14. Bad writing. You can't have it both ways. Well, you can try but it will just annoy your reader. By the time we got to the idea that a woman of her age and background could get pregnant and apparently not realize it for several months I was just grinding my teeth wondering if I should break my cardinal rule never to give up. The narrator didn't help, but it wasn't entirely her fault. She would've done better to mutter, to throw away the clichés instead of giving them weight and drama. I still can't believe I thought I would enjoy this. Maybe just wasn't early work of the author. Or maybe I was thinking of Susan Isaacs.

Highly disappointing

I've loved or at least liked all of SEP's titles so far and had high hopes for Lucy's story. Unfortunately, it fell really short - Lucy acted like a spoiled, rebellious teenager throughout the book, in addition to dress like one. "ick" factor aside for the sex scenes, her and Panda's romance was not believable to me. They were nasty to each other for most of the book and barely exchanged any meaningful conversations.

I also thought that the way PTSD is "resolved" in this book was pretty simplistic and way too easy. As someone who's had to deal with a similar situation with my husband, I can tell you that you are never "cured" of PTSD, you learn to manage it, to live with it and to get help from trained professionals. The "darkness" never really goes away. I wish the author had done more research on the subject, as it is an issue more and more families are facing in the US - you can't just gloss over it anymore.

Lastly, I thought SEP tried to cram too much in one book - 3 story lines is way too much and of course she wasn't able to do any of them justice!

Please bring back the quality of "It Had to Be You", "Match Me if You Can" and "Ain't She Sweet"!

Note that the narrator was fine (and was fine for the last few books of SEP) but the voice she gave Lucy added to the childish attitude of the character.

jr high school selection

What would have made The Great Escape better?
a mature main character and not the childish, spoiled older juvenile that is portrayed. the things the character does is jr high school grade or either mentally touched adult.

Has The Great Escape turned you off from other books in this genre?
yes please

What character would you cut from The Great Escape?
the one that portrayed lucy/ viper (are you kidding me?) VIPER!!!

Any additional comments?
the story sounded like something i could enjoy and i actually did until the spoiled brat stuff started. i mean this is supposed to be a woman in her early thirties.