Damage Control

The Hollywood Series, Book 2

By: Jae

Narrated by: Abigail Rakocy

Length: 17 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's Summary

An actress practically since birth, Grace Durand has finally made it in Hollywood. When a photo of her in a seeming compromising situation with another woman is plastered all over the tabloids, she fears for her career as a lead in romantic movies.

Desperate for a publicist who’ll convince America that she’s straight, Grace hires Lauren Pearce, one of Hollywood’s leading PR agents, not knowing that she’s a lesbian.

Lauren has dealt with PR nightmares for years, so doing damage control for one more rich, spoiled client shouldn’t be a problem - or so she thinks. But the more time she spends with Grace, the more she realizes how different she is from her television persona.

Getting involved with her client is not in her game plan, especially since it would confirm the rumors and ruin Grace’s career, but the attraction between them is growing as they run the gauntlet of the paparazzi together.

©2015 Jae (P)2019 Ylva Publishing

couldn't finish

Jae huge fan of your writing and I love the premise of this book. I have read other books with close to the same outline but this one had a nice twist. I stopped the book at chapter 5. I really wanted to keep going but the narration for me was just off. there needed to be more seriousness in certain spots and the dialect needed to alter on some scenes. I have no harsh words for the narrator as I know how difficult this is but with that said, this would have worked better with Abbey Craden, or Victoria N. Vincent...

Could've been better

I almost gave up on this one pretty early on ONLY because of the narrator. But I liked the plot so I continued and hoped I'd just get used to it. I didn't. The story had so much potential and probably would've received 5 stars but the narrator ruined it for me. There wasn't enough variation with the character's voices so at times I wasn't sure who was speaking. And she would pause at odd and random points in the sentence, causing them not to flow as smoothly as they should have. Basically, it sounded like the narrator was reading a book. And I know that sounds weird seeing as how this is an audiobook. However, the way she read prevented me from connecting with the characters at all. But maybe that's just me. I'm sure I would've loved this book with a different narrator. My advice is to listen to a sample and make your own decisions.

Great Book - Bad Voice Artist

The book is great - as always with a book from Jae. Play it at 1,2 (speed up the performance) that works!

Don't be A mother f

I laughed, I cried, and I got lost in the story. I fell into the adventure of being in the world. I fell in love with them. I fell in love that M.S. is not a disability that control you. Heartfelt and heartwarming and was really was starting to not like that mother, but the end.

love this!

I love this book! Finally a well rounded and we'll written book that is long enough to keep me entertained and reading for a few days instead of just one sitting. 😁

I enjoyed this one.

The narrator sounds like she's reading affirmations in the mirror and is having trouble convincing herself. Or like she's reading a phone script in a call center with a big fake smile plastered on her face because 'the callers can hear it in your voice'. Or like she's forcing herself to give a warm greeting to a relative she'd rather not have over for the holidays but her partner couldn't stand to not invite them. And sadly, the narration stays that way for the entire book, and from the few other titles I've listened to that were voiced by this narrator, this narration style is her standard performance. There were a couple major scenes that had their tone significantly undermined by the narrator's performance, with odd speaking rhythm, misplaced emphasis, and out-of-place tones of voice that changed the dynamic between the characters in the scene in a way I'm sure the author didn't intend. That said, the author's writing is excellent as is the case with most of her work. The story is good enough to make this a worthwhile read for me even with this narrator reading it. I liked the story premise and Jae pulled it off superbly. I think I might just read the next book in this series in ebook format.

Great story, TERRIBLE narrator

Like many others who have reviewed this book, I enjoyed the story, but the narrator’s performance was like nails on a chalk board for me. I read the kindle book first before listening to the audio version and I’m glad I did. If I had started with the audio I probably would have been put off entirely by the narrator’s performance and never would have finished what is actually a good book. At times her performance is completely, cartoonishly overblown (in the case of Grace’s mother) and at other times it’s lacking entirely in emotional depth where it’s called for (in the case of the more serious dialogue or narrative). There’s also the fact that her reading voice barely differs from the voice she “gives” to the two MC’s, which is just lazy. All combined, it makes the experience of listening to the story annoying and a little outrageous. I actually found myself laughing out loud at some of her over-or-under-acting because, yes, it’s that bad. The book itself is definitely worth a read, as are most of Jae’s books; but save your money and don’t bother purchasing the audio version.

Loved the book

Good story, well written, loved the characters. Didn’t care for the narration... I would have liked another narrator or for this mone not to give such childish voices to 30YOs....

Gave Up on it

I'm generally a fan of this author and I've given pretty much all of her books a shot. I don't think that my expectations were out of line about this audio; I was encouraged by the fact that it was connected to "Just For Show," and the "Roommate Arrangement," and I was hoping I could make it through to the end. I couldn't; this book is at least 4 hours too long, perhaps 6 and is far too repetitive in overbearing stage parent mother scenes. I was wanting to give up on the book 2 or 3 hours in but kept telling myself that it was connected to the previously mentioned books and to give it a chance to get better; so I fought the good fight until I'd made it halfway through and could give up on it guilt free.

OMG - another roller coaster of emotions

We all know the outcome of romance novels. But the outcome is not what is important. What is important is the journey. And wow, Jae really takes us on a journey with this one.