Dream Lover

By: James Lawless

Narrated by: Heber Rowan

During a long, hot summer, a young man, inspired by Bobby Darin's "Dream Lover", becomes infatuated with a beautiful girl only to make an emotionally wrenching discovery.

©2018 James Lawless (P)2019 James Lawless

Innocent romantic pursuit

Ignore the horrible porn-y cover image. This story is an innocent tale of a man pursuing his romantic interest. We travel with him in a visual and musical short story as he works up the nerve to ask out his 'dream lover.' If I have to have something stuck in my head, you could do worse than Bobby Darin. I've spent the last few days listening to Frank McCourt, so my head is in the perfect space to hear more Irish storytelling.

The narration is a mixed bag. The narrator is clearly talented. His speech is crisp and clear, the voices are pleasant, the singing was a treat, and his lovely accent is positively musical. However, there are too many times where it has the jarring stilted pauses that come from reading off an unfamiliar page. These moments kill the immersion. Once he can read without these pauses, this is going to be a narrator to look out for -- when he's good, he's excellent.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Heartwarming pursuit

Like a slice of lemon pie.
A bittersweet story that warms the heart and makes you feel good.
The narration suffers from the extreme use of pauses. Heber Rowan is a very talented narrator with a good inflection and voice range. His voice is excelent however he pauses too much in between words which kills the immersion. It gives the impression that he is either unfamiliar with the work he is performing or he didnt practice enough.