10 Days

New South Romance

By: M.K. Chester

Narrated by: Sophie Wilson

Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

Vacation romances weren't supposed to last. That's why they were a thing.  

Maid of honor Reagan Newhart arrives in Charleston only to learn the wedding party is delayed for three whole days. On the bride's advice, she decides it's time to let loose.  

Russell Gannon, a regular to Charleston, sees a stunning young woman who grabs his attention. They start an affair that lasts until her friends arrive - and they discover they're in town for the same wedding, that of his estranged daughter. As the star-crossed lovers dive for cover, a vicious ex-wife, entitled bride, and plenty of self-doubt threaten to derail what could be true love. 

Can they commit to something fleeting and defy the odds to capture their happily ever after? 

©2019 LBD Media Co (P)2020 Martha K Chester

Just WOW!

I think this was a really great book. The chapters were a good length and the story moved along nicely.

A woman is stuck in a hotel, waiting for a wedding to start and ends up falling for the father of the bride. Not giving away too much, but this was a great story and I want to read it over a few more times.

Russell and Reagan

I just finished listening to 10 Days by M K Chester. It is an older man younger woman romance. There is instant attraction, a rich hot man, a beautiful confident woman, steamy sex and a fair amount of angst. There isn't any real edge of your seat moments though. Just a solid wedding event story. Each chapter was a day in this 10 day romance.
The narrator did a good job of giving different voices to each character, which I always appreciate. I felt her performance could have been more dramatic in some situations, bringing out more emotion for the listeners. But I found her real easy to listen to.

Short age gap romance with insensitive themes

I usually give all MK Chester books a 5 star rating as I love this author’s work, but this book had too many unfavorable themes for me to truly enjoy. I appreciate a romance the two characters must fight for, but the characters of Chelsea (the bride) and Gayle (the mother of the bride) were almost demonized for reacting to traumatic events. They also did many unrealistic actions that were written in borderline misogynistic fashion.

It wasn’t clear what made the love interests fall for each other so quickly other than “she’s so sexy” and “he’s a good guy.” The progression wasn’t very believable to me. I do like the setting of the affair happening days before the wedding though.

There were also multiple steamy scenes that occurred on the grounds of a historical plantation in which slaves used to live, which I found difficult to listen to as that was extremely insensitive.

As I read the audiobook version, the female narrator did not do the best job performing male voices. This made the steamy scenes awkward to listen to. Usually Chester’s female narrators do a more adequate performance. For this book especially, I would rather had a male narrator.

I received a free audiobook copy from Story Origin and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Surprisingly Good

I don't normally go for the age gap romances however I received this as an ARC for an honest review. This story was entertaining from starting to finish. The fact that both parties were unsure about the relationship but could also not deny themselves.. I loved the drama that enfolded once the heroine's friends showed up.. it was kind of expected but damn did it not have my jaw drop at every turn. I thoroughly enjoyed how the story was written. Though I didn't like how they made it seem like the hero was "old" when they said he was in his late 40s and kept referring to taking viagra. Last I checked, late 40s is not that old and definitely not old enough to have trouble keeping up with a 25ish year old.

The narrator was also very annoying. While I enjoyed the southern accent. I didn't like how she made the hero sound like he was in his 60s and had been drinking and smoking all of his life on a daily basis. It was annoying. There was also the issue of not reading with punctuation. She read everything like a run on sentence with no real pauses. Which got a little confusing when she switched from Hero to Heroine in what sounded like one sentence when it was clearly a jump to a new paragraph.

Sweet and sexy age gap

May/December romance is my jam. I adore it. However, there’s definitely an art to pulling off age gaps as large as 20 years – and M.K. Chester did it really well. With an added twist of the Best Friend’s Father/Daughter’s Best Friend dynamic and balancing sweet with sexy this was a really enjoyable story.

Covering each day per chapter was a unique way to juxtapose a short time period with feeling like Reagan and Russell really got to know one another – Chester turned a vacation fling into a believable romance. I appreciated that she highlighted the age difference without turning Reagan into a helpless damsel in need of rescuing. Russell’s fears were rooted in his past mistakes and it was interesting to see him examine them in a new light. There’s an evil ex stirring up trouble adding to the tension of trying to keep their romance a secret.

Because the story does end on Day 10, I do wish there was a bit of an epilogue – but I think it’s pretty typical when you enjoy characters this much to always want more. This is an audio I see myself listening to again in the future.

Note: While part of a series, all the New South Romance books have no overlapping characters or events. These truly stand alone and can be read/listened to in any order.

This was my first experience with Sophie Wilson. I thought she did a great job of being able to sound young for Reagan and older and husky for Russell. I appreciated her subtle southern accent for the Charleston natives. Her inflections brought all the characters to life.

I already owned the entire series in ebook, however I received a free copy of this audiobook from Story Origin.

Love Sees No Age

Title: 10 Days
Author: M.K. Chester
Format: Audio
Narrator: Sophie Wilson
Genre: Romance, Age-Gap, Best Friend's Father
Standalone: Yes
Part of a Series: A New South Romance
POV: Raegan and Russell
Steam Level: Warm
4/5

Sooo I'm not a big age-gap romance reader. In fact, I tend to avoid them and I probably wouldn't have picked this book up if I had read the description a little closer (whoops). Overall, it was okay. Chelsea (the bride) and her mom were a bit much but M.K. Chester nails the hurt, anger, betrayal and guilt without it being over the top. I wish that there was an epilogue so we can see how this relationship worked.

I received this audiobook for free from StoryOrigin. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Age Gap

This is a sweet and sexy contemporary romance. I loved to follow Reagan and Russel in their journey. They share an instant attraction and a great chemistry. This is a good older man and younger woman romance. Sophie Wilson did a good job with the narration.

Sweet with a little heat

Reagan and Russell have the hots for each other from the minute they meet at the hotel they’re both staying. Too bad that he turns out to be the estranged father of the bride, which is her best friend. And there’s also the age gap, and also a jealous ex wife.

I really enjoyed this sweet (with a little heat) story.

In general I liked the narrator's voice, but she made Russell sound like an 80 year old man. Which made it very easy to differentiate the characters, lol.

what should have been

What was supposed to be a nice relaxing vaca for her bff's wedding turned into anything but relaxing. From the time Reagan exited the airplane with no one there to meet her, she should have known. On the bright side, there's an older hunk of a man who can't take his eyes off her and she can't help but check him out in turn...what should have been a nice, one night fling seems so much deeper and as the days progress and time together develops deep feelings. All hell breaks looses as Reagan's bff finally arrives for her wedding...can Reagan be the best friend she's expected to be or will her new found feeling make her think of herself for a change? Beautifully written with just the right amount of steam and sweet. I loved it and the narration was spot on, although I would have loved a bit of southern drawl or southernisms thrown in but I'm a southern girl myself so...

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Age-gap

This is my first book by this author. The book was written in third person with is fine but I personally prefer a first person perspective. That said, I really did enjoy the story. It was an age-gap romance with a bit of forbidden thrown in as well. I like the setting of the story in Charleston. Nice change from so many stories being NY or LA.

The biggest issue I had was the narration. The narrator herself was not the problem. She was fine, although to me she sounded older than this character who is supposed to be 25. Her male voice was good but I prefer books with a male narrator reading the male character's chapters. The problem with the narration for me was the quality of the recording. At the start, the voice was slightly distorted and I heard humming other static throughout.
If you don't notice it or it does not affect your enjoyment of the story, I guess it's not a big deal.

Overall, I can say I recommend this book and will try other titles by this author.

Older man, younger women.

An enjoyable book. Older man younger woman. When the bride finds out that the main people in her wedding party hooked up stuff gets crazy. Little angst. HEA. Standalone. I liked the characters and the narration was good. I recommend this book.

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