Check Me Out

By: Becca Wilhite

Narrated by: Carla Mercer-Meyer

Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Greta loves her job as assistant librarian. She loves her best friend, Will, the high school civics teacher and debate coach. She even loves her mother despite her obvious disappointment that Greta is still single. Then she meets Mac in the poetry section of the library, and she is smitten. Mac is heart-stoppingly gorgeous and showers her with affection - poetic text messages, and free hot chocolate at the local café where he works. The only problem is that he seems to be a different person in his texts than in his face-to-face conversation.

When the Franklin Library is threatened with closure, Greta leaps into action. She arranges for a "battle of the bands" book jam, hosts a book signing by a famous author, and finally, stages a protest that raises more than a few eyebrows.

Through it all, she slowly realizes that it is Will, not Mac, who she turns to for support and encouragement. Mac has the looks; Will has the heart. How can she choose between them?

Check Me Out is a contemporary romance - with just a hint of Cyrano de Bergerac - that reminds us that it is what's on the inside that matters most.

©2018 Becca Wilhite (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Good story. Narrator mispronounces library.

The story was good. It had multiple story lines.

The narrator was good except that she mispronounced library all the way through the book. That word is used all the way through the book since the story is about a library. She doesn't say the first r after the b. She pronounces it li-berry. Since the main character works at the library and the book is about saving the library it would be good if it was pronounced correctly.

Should be classified YA genre, not a Romance.

There are some good moments in this book. Specifically, the plot which is definitely a modern take on the original play,, Cyrano de Bergerac, and the movie Roxanne. Like in the play and movie the heroine is gullible seeing (hearing) only what she wants to. This of course can be excused if we apply the cliché love is blind, - deaf and dumb. When faced with your ideal fantasy who doesn’t fall prey to your own destructive devices. Isn't the basis for all romance novels ? <wink> The background story of saving the library is interesting and relative. Kudos for the story idea! Unfortunately the execution leaves something to be desired.

At times the writing is dull and immature. In addition, the female main character, (FMC) is unlikable. Yes there is some character development but she never gets beyond thinking and acting as a petulant child. This combination had me questioning if I was reading a mean girl teenager voicing harsh opinions, criticisms and insults. At one point the heroine "prides" herself on being nice and mean at the same time... especially to her mother <smh>. She justifies passing constant judgement on people who are different or quirky. This negative attitude detracts from the enjoyment of story especially the support characters, who in most other books are usually celebrated as unique & lovable. Her thought process is uncomfortably pedestrian i.e., an entire chapter complain about Indian food, really? Equating winking as out dated and creepy (lol). This woman named "Greta" is stupefied to find herself speaking to a woman named after a flower, Marigold. The heroine prattles on about the name throughout the entire book. Has she never met women named Rose, Iris, Jasmine, Lily, Daisy, Violet, Ivy, or Heather? <eye roll>.
Her postal carrier once had a job delivering milk. <WOW> Which would place him in his 80s (a spry son of a gun I guess.) The book contains several of these unnecessary ramblings which led me to question the author's limited life experience. Perhaps a YA audience would appreciate this more because it certainly is not a Romance novel.

The narration is good except voices depicting males were a bit strange.

There are pockets of nice dialog (text and letters) but overall I must warn future readers that is a childish, cynical read.

On the fence (spoilers)

I'm honestly unsure about this one. I like the premise but Greta just gets under my skin. She is shallow, obtuse and worst of all stuck up. I can excuse the first two but not the last. Towards the end I wanted nothing more than to reach through the book and slap her, especially when she called Will fat. She is such a hypocrite and that part of the story is never really resolved if you ask me. There is zero explanation for why Will would still want to be with her after she was so callous and shallow towards him. Given, before she was callous Will straight up admitted that he knew she wouldn't give him a chance because of his looks. In the end things just don't really jive with Greta's character or the outcome of the story.
All in all, not the worst thing I've ever read but certainly not the greatest. I prefer a stronger more fierce female lead and this story does NOT deliver. Not sure I would recommend it to anyone. Bit of a let down. But hey, maybe that's your thing.

Charming library romance

Sweet library based romance. no spoilers, this was a wholesome quick listen . I enjoyed the plot line and characters. it was predictable but charming.

Take a chance on me

A sweet romance with a little drama , secrets , and finding true love . .
The narrator did a fantastic job acting out both the male and female characters .
A clean romance
Look at the inside and not the outside and you just might find the love you have been looking for

Likable Story, Despite Unlikable Heroine

I found this story when looking for a clean and wholesome story. I appreciate that I did find that in this story. For me, Greta was really unlikable, talk about shallow. She almost ruined the story for me. I'd like to say she was redeemed by the end, but not really. At least not a lot. The story was okay though. I finished the book and I don't regret getting it. It was what I was looking for, a clean good story. The story gets about 3 and a half stars. The heroine would only get 1. The narrator was great. I'd give her 5 stars.

Good story…but

I had to speed up the reading. It moved waaaaay too slowly. I’m also not a fan of male voices sounding like cartoon characters.

Entertaining but…

I enjoyed the light hearted feel of this story and I loved the authors witty humor that was Infused into this story. However, I did not enjoy the heroine. She was absolutely selfish, self centered and immature. It was hard to get past and affected every facet of this sweet story. I had issues with her being shallow and using her best friend when she needed him and easily discarding him when she had better options. He was the picture of a saint, taking all the drama and lapping up any bit of attention she decided to throw his way.
This character was silly, dealt in extremes, and really only focuses on her own agenda which made it hard to like her. It’s sad when the world started crumbling I was glad and hopeful that she would learn from natural consequences. I really loved the authors writing style and would happily try another book by her, I just didn’t click with this character and it really overshadowed my perception of the book as a whole. This narrator was great and did a wonderful job expressing the sarcastic nature of the characters.

Unlikeable main character made it hard to finish

The premise was interesting to me, but I was never able to like the main character and I felt like the supporting characters were never properly developed. The main character was snobby, naive, and completely self-absorbed. She seemed to have no clue how the world worked, how to properly do research, or how to think things through. I had a very hard time believing that she had a Masters Degree in Library Science.

Also, although she was constantly defending him to people, she seemed to be more hung up on Will's weight than anyone else was. Like ahe was always preemptively defending him because it was the first thing she thought about. I also felt like she had virtually zero growth as a person until the last chapter of the book and then it was very sudden and she started to act a bit more like an adult. I felt like it ended very abruptly and would have been better if a lot of the cluelessness in the middle had been cut out and there had been more about what hapoened in the year or so after the end of the book.

Perhaps the lack of character development in the supporting characters was necessary for the "twist" at the end, but it just made the main character seem even more self-absorbed because she didn't understand the people around her.

The narrator did a decent job, although the male voices were a little weird. And there was one major mispronunciation that I found jarring. Otherwise, I would say she was an above-average narrator and I would be willing to listen to other books she narrated.

Written for teenagers

I read this book for our book club. It is really for teens not adults so I had a hard time getting through it. I also did not like the narrators voices especially when she did the boys voices. So that made it hard to listen to. But teenagers might really like this book so my assessment may not be a fair one. I think it might be better to read it rather than listen to.