Departure from the Script

The Hollywood Series, Book 1

By: Jae

Narrated by: Abigail Rakocy

Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's Summary

It’s aspiring actress meeting photographer, femme meeting butch in this light-hearted lesbian romance set in Hollywood. 

Aspiring actress Amanda Clark and photographer Michelle Osinski are two women burned by love and not looking to test the fire again. And even if they were, it certainly wouldn’t be with each other. Amanda has never been attracted to a butch woman before, and Michelle personifies the term butch.

Having just landed a role on a hot new TV show, she’s determined to focus on her career and doesn’t need any complications in her life. After a turbulent breakup with her starlet ex, Michelle swore she would never get involved with an actress again.

Another high-maintenance woman is the last thing she wants, and her first encounter with Amanda certainly makes her appear the type. But after a date that is not a date and some meddling from Amanda’s grandmother, they both begin to wonder if it’s not time for a departure from their usual dating scripts.

©2014 Jae (P)2020 Ylva Publishing

Wrong narrator

The description of the character Michelle is a butch with a warm voice and deep laugh, yet the narrator gave her a nasally whiny voice. It really ruined the character and took away from the story.

No surprise: Loved it

I loved this light sort of Hollywood romance... excellent for a summer read.
Narration was just OK no more... Abigail tends to sing a little when narrating and I don’t find it fitting....

No Butch, Rushed Ending

The other reviews staying "no Butch in the story" or bad narration are accurate. I get the idea of not being stereotypical characters but any butch that is wearing boxers and a suit is not going to sound just as femme as the girly actress. I think this would be a better read than the audiobook I just listened to. I love a good butch/femme storyline and this one totally had that but the narration blew it for me. I think Abby Craden would have been a much better choice as she would have brought the Butch out more like she did for Radclyffe's Honor Series.

I also felt the ending was rushed which is an author error. The whole book each character was dedicated to their career and then all of a sudden Amanda decides to miss a work party to "make love" to Michelle? Doesnt make sense. I also think the part that made it even more unbelievable is that the narration was not able to bring to life the sexual tension that the author was trying to convey between butch/femme characters. Without the tension build up throughout the story, the ending was even hard to wrap my head around...I'm sad to say I even fast forwarded through the last three chapters because I just couldn't get my head around it and the narration was so soft and nice, and both characters sounded the same it wasn't believable.

I wanted to like this story and I bought it during Audibles 80% off sale and recommend anyone else wait to buy this till it's discounted like that.

poor choice of voices. no butch in this story.

narrator, fem and butch characters all sound the same. sing spongy voices. at times I could even tell which character was talking. definately no butch in this story.

Excellent Audio!

I loved Departure from the Script. I had already read the book. But still enjoyed the audio. Really liked Amanda and Michelle as the two main characters. Abigail Rakocy does an excellent job with the narration.

Hollywood.

Amazing read. Characters were lovable funny and well written. I just love theesy Jae ties ate her character's together.

Disappointing

Normally I am full of praise for Jae's books but this one didn't work for me. It may have been the narrator but it definitely did not live up to Jae standards. I was relieved when the epilog was announced.

Happy story, wrong narrator, plot holes

Ok, so I have to admit I'm not much of an Abigail Rakocy fan. I want to be, because she's got a nice voice, and actually reads for content, but I can't get over feeling like she's reading to a kindergarten class. She puts a perpetually upbeat intonation into everything, and many of her female voices sound a bit whiny. In this case I really felt she was the wrong choice, because the way she voiced Michelle was about as far from the character as written as it's possible to get.

There were also a lot of places where I felt like the plot just didn't quite come together. Which is not usual for Jae.

That said, it is an upbeat story with some fun to it, and interesting characters.

Bad narrator

The narrator needs to read the cues. The book said Michelle had a bit of a rumble to her voice, and the narrator gave her a high, slightly nasal sound no butch would ever have.

Good story horrible choice for narrator

I’ve listened to almost all of Jae’s books and have loved every single one however this has been my least favorite by far, not because of the story line but solely due to the choice in narrator.
1. Michelle is depicted as a “butch” yet the narrator made her sound like a prissy fem and it just did not work.
2. The narrators voice constantly sounded like a mix of smiling and Siri no matter the scene and it was beyond irritating.
3. In one scene Michele was ordering food at a Mexican restaurant and the narrator pronounce pollo as polo like Ralph Lauren polo I had the worst second hand embarrassment.

If you can get past the narrators voice and mispronunciation of a few words then you’ll like the story itself. I do look forward to hearing about Amanda and Michelle as little Easter eggs in Jae’s other novels

another good one

nice story, easy to listen to . another nice story from a good writer, next please

A rehearsal that leads to a date

This is the first book in the series, although I read the second book first.
This book was fantastic, it was romantic, so funny, and I wasn’t expecting it to be.
The story is about Amanda who is an up and coming actress and Michelle who is a professional photographer. I loved the slow pace story, it wasn’t rushed, it was how it should be, they get to know each other slowly.
I think her grandmother was awesome, I am sure everyone would love to have a grandma like hers.
It was from Amanda’s point of view.

The narration was fantastic you could easily tell who was who. And the narration added to the story.
Jae is a brilliant writer and puts a lot into her stories.

Good story

A good story with engaging characters. A slow burn romance between opposites following a humorous blind date.
Enjoyed the story and the narrator has a good voice and generally easy to listen to although imho her interpretation of Michelle was not good the whole concept that she is not Amanda's type and that she is a "Butch" who is regularly mistaken for a man did not fit with the quite girly voice given by the narrator.