Bright Eyes

Kendrick/Coulter/Harrigan Series, Book 5

By: Catherine Anderson

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

In this Coulter family romance from New York Times best-selling author Catherine Anderson, serious-minded Zeke Coulter's life gets brighter when he finally meets his match....

Zeke has no intention of getting married - until he buys a ranch next door to Natalie Patterson, a sexy divorcee with two kids, a zany extended family, and a philandering ex-husband involved in shady business dealings. When Natalie's 12-year-old son vandalizes Zeke's property and Natalie is unable to pay for the damages, Zeke offers to let the boy work off the debt.

As Zeke struggles to instill a sense of responsibility and self-worth in the troubled youngster, he finds his life being turned upside down by Natalie, whose sultry singing voice and striking eyes disguise her underlying lack of belief in herself or in her dream of becoming a professional singer. With rugged determination, Zeke undertakes to bolster her confidence, revive her ability to trust men...and thoroughly seduce her.

But just as their attraction begins to blossom, a twist of fate gravely threatens their life together....

©2004 Adeline Catherine Anderson (P)2018 Tantor

Good listen.

I liked the story. Thoroughly enjoyed the characters. I think Susan Bennett should have narrated.

Okay, worth finishing

Some of the narration was a bit much but I appreciated the effort to really differentiate between characters. The story was, as usual predictable but still entertaining

Really Good

This was the first time listening to Suzanne Toren performances and won't be my last. Catherine Anderson story was really good. Romance, mystery and suspense. I recommend this audiobook. Enjoy!😄

More to my Taste

I like all the brothers, but this was my favorite story so far. I enjoyed the children and the humor of Chester.

I'm in love with the Coulter men.

loved the story but the reader had pretty much the same voice for every character. with that being said I will still listen to and recommend again and again.

Fantastic!

Fantastic story I loved ever minute of it! The caricatures were animated the narrator was wonderful!

Zeke and Natalie

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

'Bright Eyes' by Catherine Anderson, book 5 in the Kendrick/Coulter/Harrigan series. Audible Premium Plus borrow. Dual POV. It's listed as 13 hours 10 minutes. I listened for 5 hours 16 minutes at speed 2.50. Narrator Suzanne Toren is easy to understand and has a nice pace. This one is my least favorite of the series so far. It wasn't as special the others. It wasn't as much about the main couple as it was about their families, businesses, and the mystery surrounding who k¡lled the h ex-husband. Content warnings: the h son vandalized the H property; the h is accused k¡ll¡ng her scheming ex-husband; a character never mentioned until the end tried to k¡ll the h: by tampering with her brakes (causing a car accident), breaking into her business and sabotaging her stage (injuring her pianist), and then breaking into her home and attempting to suffocate her.

Date: unknown
Location: Crystal Falls, OR

Zeke Coulter (33) is the second of six children, owns a ranch supply store, gardens, fiddles, has dark hair, blue eyes, a large nose, is a pro roper, and has no intention of getting married or having children. Natalie Patterson (30; aka Nattie) is a divorced mother of two children [Chad (12; honey brown hair) and Rosie (4; aka Rosebud; brown eyes; curly dark hair; February 24th birthday; and very verbose)]. Natalie has brown eyes, brown curly hair, enjoys singing, writes songs, is forgetful in the kitchen, and is the owner of the Blue Parrot (a supper club/bar). Zeke and Natalie are neighbors who don't meet until after Chad vandalized Zeke's home and garden. Zeke demands that Chad help repair the damage he did to Zeke's home and do some work for him on his property for three and a half weeks since Natalie can't afford to pay for the repairs. Natalie offers to help but Zeke refuses her help and threatens to call the authorities if Chad doesn't work off his debt himself. Chad goes to work to repair the damage he's done. Rosie pleads with Zeke to shorten Chad's work sentence so he can go to camp. Zeke relents and allows Natalie and Rosie to help work off Chad's debt. Zeke falls for all three of them. Natalie's ex-husband is murdered and the detective is certain it was Natalie. In the end, the bad guy is caught, Zeke helped Natalie remodel her business, Zeke finds Natalie an agent, the agent sells one of Natalie's songs, they're married, and plan to move into Zeke's home. JP

Other characters: ●Zeke's family: Harv (Zeke's dad; 3rd generation cattlemen); Mary (Zeke's mom); Jake (Zeke's older brother, oldest of 6; red haired wife: Molly; 1 son; Lazy J owner); Tucker and Isaiah (32, 33 in December, 10 months younger than Zeke; identical twin brothers; wild child and bookish; co-own a vet clinic); Hank (Zeke's youngest brother; pregnant blonde wife: Carly; works on the Lazy J with Jake); Bethany (Zeke's little sister, youngest of 6; former barrel racer; racing accident ended her career when she was 18; paraplegic; wealthy husband: Ryan Kendrick; 1 child; opened a riding academy for handicapped kids) ●Natalie's family: Pete Westfield (aka Pop/Poppy; Natalie's father; divorced 10 years; leases out his fields after a lower back injury); Charlie Westfield (aka Gramps; Natalie's grandfather; blue eyes); Robert Patterson (43; Natalie's ex-husband; wealthy; deadbeat dad; cheater; land developer; met Natalie when she was 18, got her pregnant, and Pete made them marry; murdered-asphyxiated in his car in his garage); Valerie Lynn (Natalie's younger sister; long dark curly hair; dimple; big dark eyes; 2 years of community college, legal secretary; currently unemployed); Bonnie Decker (Robert's blonde mistress); Naomi Westfield (Natalie's mom; divorced 10 years; cosmetologist; her dad stole an over-the-counter medication for his sick wife; her mom died of cancer); Kevin (Valerie's ex-boyfriend); Grace Patterson (60; Robert's mom; tall, slender, elegant, blonde; wealthy; uses money to control Robert; blue eyes); Cheryl Steiner (Robert's current girlfriend); Herbert (Robert's father; deceased); Helena Grant Patterson (Robert's great-grandmother); ? (Natalie's grandmother; deceased; left her farm to Natalie); Grandma Devereaux (Natalie's grandmother); Detective Monroe (grey hair; pudgy); Sterling Johnson (Natalie's lawyer); Harry Baskin (notarized the contract Robert drew up between himself and Natalie that separated their family property and heirlooms from each other after the divorce); Stan Ragnor (real estate broker Robert screwed over); Mike Salisbury (realtor Robert screwed over; murdered Robert; tried to k¡ll Natalie; wife has cancer); Roger Granger (famous musician; bought one of Natalie's songs). ●The Works (Zeke's ranch supply store) employee: Randall (night manager). ●Blue Parrot (Natalie's supper club); Frank Stephanopoulos (pianist; wife: Sharon; 2 kids; injured when the stage came down on him); Ironclad Security (employee: Nancy Steingold). ●Animals: Chester (the Westfield's goose); Daisy and Marigold (the Westfield's cows); Zeke's horses: Wind Walker, Cinnamon (sorrel), and Jellybean (chestnut mare).

2 out of 5 on my spice scale.

1st listen 11-03-23

Good story, not good narration

This is a cute romance and I love Catherine’s novels, but I cannot stand the narrator. I would advise you just read the book.