Sunset at Lake Crane

A Livingston Valley Novel, Book 1

By: Casey Hagen

Narrated by: Russell Lord

Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Love, truth, and pain lie buried beneath the Sunset at Lake Crane….

Faced with a blackmailer's ultimatum, 19-year-old Erynn O'Neal protects her lover by disappearing from his life. Brokenhearted, she vanishes - and takes a life-altering secret with her.

Grant Alexander crossed the line when he took former student Erynn O'Neal as his own a mere two months after her high school graduation. Knowing the truth revealed would shred his career and reputation, he accepted the risks in exchange for the promise of a lifelong love. A heartbeat later, Erynn abandoned him without a word.

Years pass as Grant and Erynn lead separate lives - he as a reclusive author, she as an ambitious reporter. Yet, despite scarred hearts, true love lost is never forgotten, and Grant devises a way to draw Erynn back into his sphere of passion. Their aching hearts begin a tentative detente, but old jealousies flare, devastating truths come to light, and Grant and Erynn must resurrect and overcome the painful secrets of the past if they're ever to love again.

©2015 Casey Hagen (P)2016 Casey Hagen

Hooked me within the first 20 minutes

This was a nice surprise. The story is long but worth it. I never got bored. I love that the lead female character had spunk. This story didn't have many steamy scenes, so those of you who tend to shy away from that would like this.
I think this is a credit-worthy listen.
Narrator did a good job.
This audiobook was gifted from the author in exchange for an honest review .

A painful, forbidden love story

This is a love story with an interesting twist. We have heard of the teacher/student many times and also know that it is a forbidden kind of love or crush. However, for some people love really happens and Sunset at Lake Crane really does it justice.

The story is well-written and the characters are well-developed. The main characters Erynn and Grant shows a lot of emotion and holds a lot of pain. Each one of them holds many secrets as the story develops.

When Erynn and Grant meet again 8 years later, they find out that they still have feelings for each other. They are now older and wiser and their relationship have to stand trial. This is a story about scarred hearts, pain, forgiveness, betrayel and a lot more.

The one thing I'll have to complain about is the choice of narrator. This is the second romance I've listened to narrated by Russell Lord and many times I was about to give up on the story because of the narration. Allthough, I loved this compelling story and hung on to it, it was hard to finish. Russell Lord doesn't have a romance voice and is not suited for this genre. However, I'd love to hear him in almost anything else.

*This book was gifted to me in exchange for an honest review. Read all my reviews at mybookhype dot com

Good storyline

I enjoyed this story. It pulls you in from the beginning and it's a good listen.
"This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Blast."

3.5 Sunset Stars

I don’t really know how I feel. So I am going to break this down and go from there. I loved that Grant was a teacher, and Erynn was a former student. No it wasn’t creepy at all.

I loved the setting of this book so much, the lake it was like I could see it in my head so very clearly. The peace and quiet that would bring. Very much liked Grants next door neighbor.

Here is where I scratch my head a little. So Erynn was blackmailed to leave, she does and now that she is back and doing a job there wasn’t much “creepy” stuff going on. You would think if someone wanted her out of the picture so bad back then they would be more forceful now that Erynn was back.

Grant and Erynn definitely have some great chemistry. And there past does play a big role in this book and that I was fine with. Kind of enjoyed watching them get to know each other again.

“I know you didn’t leave because you wanted to, but at the time I didn’t know that. I thought I wasn’t good enough.” – Grant

I loved Erynn’s roommate/bestie he was pretty cute. I did enjoy the jealousy from Grant on that. Made me giggle.

I am just going to put this out there, I didn’t like the last hour of the book I felt the story was perfectly fine without adding another tragedy. Again this is just my opinion. Though I did love the epilogue.

I liked the narration, Russell Lord has a unique voice. He brought Grant to life for me.
I did find the book jumped back and forth between pov’s and I didn’t really like that I think the books whole would have been perfect in just Grants pov to be honest.



*All my Reviews are 100% honest and my own.*
*This Audiobook was given for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.*

Emotional ride with a HEA....but

Any additional comments?

Really enjoyed this story.

It's an emotional roller-coaster but worth the ride. When an author can pull you in and make you feel so much for the characters it's always an entertaining and enjoyable story.

Romance, mystery, lost love, hope, heartbreak, deceit, forgiveness and betrayal woven into a steamy second chance at love story.

Both Grant and Erynn are great characters. Each is struggling with the inner turmoil that has been with them since Erynn disappeared 8 years ago. The chemistry between them was perfect. Even though they have led separate lives, grown and matured with time, the one thing that has never changed is the love they share .

The story is told in the POV of both Grant and Erynn which I really liked, you were able to see what each of them were thinking as the story progressed.

The But....There are several repeated lines throughout the book, the ones I was able to jot down at the time are Chapter 15 about 5 min in ,Chapter 31 about 8 1/2 min in, Chapter 32 about 8 min in ,Chapter 34 about 3 min left in chapter. If I had purchased the book I would have returned it based on this.

This is the second book I have listened to that was narrated by Russell Lord. I have gotten used to his voice more and while I like his character voices the narrative parts of the story are still a bit flat with an odd inflection occasionally. Almost as if he's bored at times. He has a very deep voice that of coarse is great for the male characters, for me just not the right voice for sex scenes. I think his voice is better situated for Sci-Fi military or Western stories.

This audiobook was provided by author, narrator or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBoom

Terrible narration

Good story but best to READ it, not to listen. The narrator speaks with an odd cadence but I'm not sure if his gravelly voice was artificially created as it did not sound natural. I love deep-voiced male narrators and will even tolerate their poor female voices but Lord's narrative voice is bad and his characters, worse.