The Long Road Home

By: Mary Alice Monroe

Narrated by: Sandra Burr

Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Her husband’s suicide left Nora MacKenzie alone, and his shady Wall Street dealings left the Manhattan socialite penniless. By a miracle, she’s held on to their mountainside farm - and she’ll keep holding on, no matter what. The property is Nora’s one chance to wring some dignity out of the sham she’s been living.

The Vermont locals think she’s a city girl on a nature kick, but she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty. Nora’s serious about learning the farming business...if she can figure out where to begin. Against the locals’ skepticism, she has only one ally: Charles “C.W.” Walker.

C.W. is hardworking, gentle with the animals and a patient teacher of the hundreds of chores Nora needs to learn. Slowly she starts to believe she’ll survive in her new life, even flourish. She might even be willing to open her heart again. But she won’t return to a life of lies...and the truth about C.W. may be more than Nora’s fragile heart can bear.

©2010 Mary Alice Kruesi (P)2010 Brilliance Audio. Updated from original publication by Harper Monogram, 1995

Loved it

This was my first Mary Alice Monroe book and i absolutely loved it - will definitely buy more of her books. The narrator was really good and the story was captivating. I would recommend it.

Entertaining romance

This is an entertaining romance. Not as good as her later books, but a fun listen.

M. A. Monroe fan

Took a bit to get used to the voice but, once I did, I enjoyed the story.

insipid narrator

Don't know if it was the character or the narrator that was so whiny! Annoying

Well worth the listen

I really enjoyed this book, and will certainly ready more by Mary Alice Monroe. Greed and power versus faith, love and trust. Sandra Burr as usual does an excellent narration.

Nice easy listen

This was an easy book to listen to and story line to follow. The characters were fairly interesting and I love happy endings.

Voices 😱

I enjoyed the story and the reader was fine on the story but when the characters talked...awful! Especially the male main character! Sounded like a robot and was very distracting. The accent used on the Vermont farm people was also horrible. I never realized before how much the character voices affect the enjoyment of the story.

Very good book

Well thought out, excellent story with lots of great MAM insights, depth and character development. Strong lead characters and supporting characters also well developed and likeable. The reviews that said this was a light read must be comparing the book to a classic, but for a romance it was very satisfying. I didn’t give it 5 stars because that rating is reserved for the classics. If Mary Alice Monroe had been able to go back and rewrite some of the tired old cliches she used, some of the corny things Nora said, the hideously embarrassing love scene where she questioned if she was any good or not, the story would have been even better. But it was still a very good romance.
What I didn’t like was Sandra Burr as narrator. This was the same narrator used in the Clan of the Bear series. Her voice for Ayla in that series made sense as Ayla had a style of speech that conveyed a choppy innunciation. But she used the same voice for Nora and it made Nora sound pathetic, whimpy and weak even though she clearly wasn’t. Why would you deliberately do that to a story? Truly I often felt I was transplanted back to another book series because the unusual characteristics of the voice carried over to this book. Really was distracting and grating, but the other voices were better. Also, the narrator was so slow that for the first time ever I upped the speed from 1 to 1.2.
Narrators are so important to making or breaking a story and the interpretation of a book can be so eloquently conveyed by not just the author but the reader and producer as well. I think the producer didn’t do us a favor in this interpretation.

Amazingly sweet and romantic

Such a sweet story; reading several comments I found that people didn't like how predictable it was, its a sweet romantic story ofcourse its predictable, but I just loved it, the way he talks to her, they way the story evolves and how she needs to grow and learn.
The writer makes you engage with the characters so much you feel and care for them.
I recommend you to listen to the audiobook narrated by Sandra Burr, she captures Nora MacKenzie's essence beautifully
#tagsgiving #sweepstakes #audible #listeningatwork #mybooks

poor depiction of Vermonters.

Vermonters are friendly folks. Mary Alice Monroe made them sound rude and stand offish. They are not all toothless and stupid.