To the Ends of the Earth

De: Elizabeth Lowell

Narrado por: Laural Merlington

Photographer Cat Cochran has been to exotic places most people only dream about, but all she wants to do is settle down and get her life in order. One last assignment and she can put her past behind her. But first she must photograph the mysterious and elusive ship designer T.H. Danvers and his awesome creations.

Travis Danvers is dangerous - a millionaire with an athlete's body; an enigmatic charmer capable of breaking down Cat's well-constructed defenses with a buccaneer's arrogance and flourish. She knows she must resist him, for experience has taught her that pain is the eventual price of pleasure to be found in the arms of such a man. But caught in the waves of a sensual sea, Cat hears a siren whisper seductively, telling her to abandon all caution; to ride with Travis on the winds of forever.

©1998 Elizabeth Lowell (P)2008 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Stunning! Breathtaking, heartbreaking, beautiful.

Oh this is a surprise. A beautiful love story. Expect to be furious for a part of the story, but I promise it's worth it.
So highly recommended. Also great narrator.

If you need a good cry........

I read the Audible reviews after listening to this book and I was dismayed to see all of the negative reviews. Yes, the narrator did not portray characters very well,(except Cat), but the story was so heart wrenching that despite the annoying voice of the main male character Travis, I absolutely could not put it down. I teared up throughout the book, but for more than the last hour I cried and cried. Despite some of the flaws earlier reviewers described, the characters were well developed and had depth. I was so sorry to see it coming to an end that I just had to save the last chapter until I was by myself and unlikely to be disturbed.

Good characters, excellent narrator, story that didn't always age well

The narrator is excellent. Her speech cadence is rather fast, which annoyed me for the first chapter, maybe, but after that I didn't notice bc she does such a good job.

This story was written in 1998, and as such has some elements that have not aged well. For instance, in more than one scene, ignoring the woman's "no" and kissing her anyway is portrayed as romantic. This bothered me, from my lofty listening position 20 years and a world of awareness about rape culture later; however, the rest of the story was so good that I was able to overlook these less than desirable elements by remembering the book's age.

There are a few other plot pieces I took issue with--why Cat feels she must pay not only her bills but those of her extremely irresponsible mother and extremely ungrateful siblings, for instance. I've read other reviews about how readers/listeners wanted to punch Travis--and yes, he's a jerk (as he needs to be for the story to have any tension whatsoever)--but myself, I wanted to smack Cat's family (whom, to be fair, we never actually meet) for being selfish twits.

Overall, though, this recording earns 5 stars, because once I started, I hated to stop. Listened to the whole thing in one weekend, which is not my usual practice.

Tear Jerker

I cried during the last two chapters of this book. Our heroine was such a selfless person that when she needed help the only ones to help her was a neighbor and her physician. Where was her family? Her mother? Her siblings? And most of all the man she was in love with? This is where the book fell short in my opinion by not introducing her family, yet she was working herself to the bone to support them.
Read this one and weep, the ending was heart wrenching.. Travis was seeing all women as gold diggers because of the actions of his first wife, however he was eventually redeemed and came through for our girl. But it was not an easy road.

This is one of the authors earlier written books, I wasn't expecting too much based upon the reviews of some people, however I went to Goodreads and read some of the reviews there and decided to give it a try. It is truly a romance story, very little physical action, a few sex/love scenes, but an underlying story for both characters based upon previous relationships that were very dysfunctional that left lasting scars especially for Catherine.

Now for the narrator, Laurel does female and children voices well, however Travis sounded like an old man; because I was invested in the story I plowed on but his voice was a major turn off and probably colored my feelings about him. The Hispanic guy in the story sounded like a B actor from one of those old western pictures who tried to imitate how a Mexican should sound, quite annoying. Thank goodness he has a small part.

If you like tear jerker romance stories then this is one for you. Don't waste a credit, get it on sale.

Sex, sex, and more sex.... not much of a plot...

The narrator was good, and I enjoyed what plot there was, but it was mainly an erotic novel. So if you want to hear about sex, this is your book!

THE ENDING MAKES THE ENTIRE STORY WORTH IT

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

YES, GOOD ENDING

What was one of the most memorable moments of To the Ends of the Earth?

THE WAY KATHY STAYED TRUE TO HERSELF

What does Laural Merlington bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

GOOD NARRATION

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

NO, BUT THE LAST 3 OR 4 CHAPTERS YES

weegun

Blah,Blah,Blah, only purchase this if you want to listen to toooooo many prepositional phrases and a multitude of adjectives, along with a shallow unrealistic storyline. This was certainly not worth the money.