All That Lies Within

By: Lynn Ames

Narrated by: Emily Beresford

Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

How far would you go to hide who you really are inside? And what do you do when you find the one person from whom hiding your true self isn't an option?

Glamorous movie star Dara Thomas has it all - an Oscar nomination, dozens of magazine covers proclaiming her the sexiest woman alive, and people of both sexes clamoring for her attention. She also has a carefully guarded secret life.

As Constance Darrow, Dara writes Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction, an outlet that allows her to be so much more than just a pretty face. Rebecca Minton is a professor of American Literature in love with the work of the mysterious, reclusive author Constance Darrow, with whom she strikes up a correspondence. A chance phrase in a letter leads her to a startling conclusion about the author. What happens next will change the course of both of their lives forever.

©2013 Lynn Ames (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Really?

The material was pretty trite. It sounded like every sentence ended in an exclamation mark. The reader was breathy in a way that meant all the voices sounded the same. It felt like both the writer and the reader were hyperventilating. All in all, not worth the time. I’m returning this one.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

3.5 for innovation w/slight spoilers

The story started off as a breath of fresh air from you normal whirlwind romance. The characters seemed fully flushed in the fact that they had their own lives and weren't just waiting around for love (or a good lay).

Synopsis: Dara Thomas is Hollywoods sweetheart moonlights as Pulitzer Prize fiction writer Constance Darrow. After finding out her estranged mother is dying, she flies to NYC to see her for the last time. She has to navigate her way through her mothers last apology and what it means to love again. Rebecca Minton is a collage professor obsessed with Constance's work and low key crushing on Dara. Once her and Constance's correspondence beings it's typical "I don't know why I feel so close to this person I barely know" flirtationship. After connecting to dots Rebecca and Dara form an "unlikely bond" to save the script of Dara/Constance's movie.

Sex: I honestly I couldn't tell if their flirting went over my head or if they had no chemistry from the letters. The most memorable scene for me was there second in person meeting after Dara chased after Rebecca. That was several hours into the book! The sex was very straight forward and more on the romantic side. I defiantly wasn't fanning myself but all in all a decent scene. Not notably cringe worthy until her dead mother pops up.

Plot: I was initially intrigued with the seeing angels aspect but how it was written was more of a last min plot device to try to bring interest. The explanation of how it stopped and why it started again felt like a transparent attempt at tying lose ends. Being a sensitive soul I am, I liked that the mothers death wasn't dwelled on but I do think it should have been more highlighted than it was.

On to narration:
The narrator gave Dara a husky sultry voice. That, along with the almost indifferent dialogue after her mothers death, chipped away at the character I felt Dara was in the beginning. I'm all for two fems but I think Rebecca's voice was too chipper for someone so supposedly scored... maybe switch the voices???

At times the writing was nothing more than literary bragging making the dialogue flat and impersonal. In the end I did believe these characters could love each other.

TL;DR- A basic book

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

When It's Good

It's really good. There are many of the same old lame romance, lesbian, and lesbian romance stand-byes here; fortunately they're is also a great deal of inspired writing and two pretty damn good lead characters. I liked the unique manner the author used to get the characters together, I liked the redemption of Dara's mother and Rene Maupin, and the lack of a "heavy" in the narrative. Dara's friend Carolyn is another well written character; in fact this genre seems to run to excellent characters and weak, overly contrived plots with occasionally ridiculous plot twists.
Oftentimes this is done in service to a story that contains too much conflict for people who are presented just swimming with positive traits. If you're able to ignore the more ridiculous aspects pf plot and human reaction, this is an excellent read.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Beautifully written compelling story

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this story and finished the audible book within a few days. Compelling story with believable twists & turns. I look forward to reading/listening to more books by Lynn Ames.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Mediocre Brain Fluff at Best

I struggled to finish this and in the end decided not to with the last few chapters. I wanted to like this more, and the narrator did a good job, but the story and the main characters were difficult to invest in or relate to. Dara is too beautiful, too perfect, too 1-dimensional. Rebecca hardly seems to exist of her own accord outside how she plays to Dara. The insertion of Dara's psychic gift feels weird, forced and trite. It's hard to find good lesbian fiction and unfortunately this speaks to that for me.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

FANTASTIC NOVEL & PERFORMANCE!

Absolutely FANTASTIC story, original & flowing. And the performance by the narrator was just as great!

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Was ok

The story was ok. I'm not a religious person and there are a few moments the story goes into the after life. It's not overwhelming thankfully. The other part that I found annoying was the back and forth times that Dara or Rebecca questioning how the other could be with them and how to let them in which would lead to quick jumps to running away. I try to imagine books that are quick like this that they actually are taking place in a much longer time line then they really are. I ended up just listening to this in the background of homework or house work. It was a nice read and glad it's part of my monthly trial with Escapes, it's not a book I would buy or read again. But maybe you may like it.

great book!

I really enjoyed this book. looking forward to more like it. I really enjoyed the characters

Wonderfully Sweet Romance!

It lifted my spirits from beginning to HEA. In a time where one might actually find comfort in discovering that the dark headlines of the day are fake, a slightly saccharine escape into a love story such as this is provides welcome respite for the discouraged soul.

So contrived

There’s a good premise here, but it’s poorly executed and SO unbelievable, especially as the characters gradually flatten more and more into two dimensional cardboard cutouts of “tortured movie star” that had a “bad childhood” and “can see dead people” and her “insecure professor” lover who “got bullied in high school for being smart” but has matured into a beauty. I don’t usually love romance novels anyway, but when someone like Georgia Beers can pull it off with as little pain as possible I wonder how texts like this end up published let alone on audible. Not good.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

No betrayal required

The characters are well rounded and we get insight into their - sometimes - parallel thought processes.

It's so good to see the decisions some of us face written about in a calm and practical manner no melodrama about coming out just the gradual acceptance of our real selves.

I will be looking for more books by Lynn Ames

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Not every novel is enhanced by addition of audio.

Any additional comments?

This award winning novel from best selling lesfic author Lynn Ames really should have worked well with the addition of audio and narration by a very experienced narrator. I really wish I had read the book first. The storyline had a LOT going for it and maybe the book itself could have been split into different novels in a series? For me the pace and enjoyment of the book really picked up considerably after Rebecca met up with Dara's bff and from then on it was a much easier listen. At times it was a bit saccharine sweet, but I guess that is more to personal taste/choice of reading material. The narrative was a bit too soppy for me at other times and I felt the characterisations could have been more developed. The trickiest part for me was the choice of voices. Rebecca sounded 16 and adolescent, and Dara sounded far too deep and more masculine than her characterisation suggested. The bff/business manager had the voice that would have best suited Dara imo.There were lots of interesting clever touches and very neat tying up of loose ends. Perhaps a couple of characters were superfluous to the plot? I'm glad I stuck with it because overall I enjoyed it.

Totally improbable,very predictable,but enjoyable

Just as a good book can be ruined by poor narration, a poor story can be saved by a good one-Emily Beresford does just that. Narrated well.
An orginsl story. This isn't the best audio book, but it's not the worst. (Not had as awful as Radclyffe who should retire! and let the better authors rise) Its original. Don't expect much from this book and you won't be disappointed, It's a lightweight book you'll easily get through it and enjoy it.

Dreadful.

Trashy fiction at its clichèd worst! Don't torment yourself with starting this book and thinking it will get better. I battled through it whilst on holiday - and it didn't.
Not sure if this is typical lesbian fiction, but the storyline is minimal, the characters are less than developed and the absurd 'happily ever after just one date' was always on the cards. Dreadful. (Although the narrator gave it a good shot!)