Vacation

De: JC Miller

Narrado por: Curt Simmons

Dr. William Koval, a pragmatist with little faith in humanity, prefers to dwell in the eerily comforting microscopic realm, where he is master of his domain. But his worldview is upended when he decides to go on the English walking tour his wife had been planning before her murder three years earlier. Only when William confronts his past, including his troubled marriage, will he find a way to rejoin the living, to move forward, and perhaps love again. The real journey, he discovers, lies within.

©2012, 2014 Jeanne Miller (P)2017 Jeanne Miller

A Great Story Well Told

I found this novel hard to stop listening to. JC's characters are true-to-life and the story moves along at a good clip so there is nary a dull moment. The narration by Simmons is a great match due to his masterful ability to bring the characters to life with the different and authentic accents of the travelers. I would recommend this book highly--it does not disappoint!

Great story, wonderful reading

This is a wonderful rendition of JC Miller's book Vacation. The characters, people you will recognize in their complexities of emotion and reaction, come to life with this narration. It is great to explore the different settings as the main characters explore and discover things about themselves and each other. A satisfying tale well worth listening to!

Started off great, then a little predictable

Dr. William Koval is a 40 year old widower. He loves his microscope and petri dishes, his life being pretty uncomplicated. However, a shadow glooms his life up a bit, his wife, Kathleen, having been killed by a mentally unstable man three years earlier. Now work forces him to take a vacation and he decides on a whim to sign up for an English walking tour, something him and his wife were planning to do before her untimely death. The walking tour brings him some closure and perhaps a new chance at happiness.

I have to say this isn’t my normal cup of tea but I was intrigued by the English walking tour and a still-grieving widower trying to say goodbye to his deceased wife and the life they had together. I really enjoyed the first half of this book. The English walking tour has some bumps and burrs to it and that made it interesting. I was hoping for a touch more here and there. In fact, if the book had all been set in this English country walk, with rich history and some cultural tidbits tossed in, then I would have been very happy with the book. There were plenty of fun & interesting characters on the tour as well but we had to say goodbye to almost all of them when the tour ended.

Alas, the second half of the book is back in the states and is a pretty standard contemporary romance. Should he call her? Will she call him back? Can he get over his past? Will she forgive him? Can they come together over a shared travesty? Quite frankly, it was pretty boring to me. The first half is exciting and different and more than a simple romance. It had complexity. The second half lacked these traits.

The main characters themselves were interesting. William is a doctor, but not a people person nor does he seek glory in complicated surgeries or being a leading expert in some minute field of interest. He’s a practical, quiet man. Deciding to go off to England on a whim was so out of his norm and yet I could clearly see it was him trying to breath life back into this stagnant existence he was stuck in.

Annie Logan is a history buff and also hails from the Seattle area (same as William) and it’s one of those odd quirks that they meet in England. I liked that she was generally soft spoken but would hold her ground, politely but firmly, when she decided enough was enough. She had this trait not only in England but also back home on Vashon Island.

It turns out that Kathleen had a secret, one that William starts to put together on the English walking tour. Kathleen’s best friend, Liz, is now William’s best friend. It’s a friendship that has given them each much comfort, especially when William comes over for a homecooked meal with Liz’s family. I really liked how comfortable they were with each other and how their friendship kept the good parts of Kathleen’s memory alive.

So all told, this story had a solid start with a complex William in an unusual situation. The second half wasn’t my normal fare and while it bored me a bit, I had to know how things turned out for Annie and William. If contemporary romance is your thing, then I highly recommend this book. It has depth.

I received a free copy of this book.

Narration: Curt Simmons was most excellent in this performance. I am truly impressed by his range of not only male & female voices but also his ability to capture nuanced emotions. He had the perfect voice for William, sounding as mild as milk initially and growing in complexity as learn more about William. His female voices were spot on. Each character was distinct and there were several accents for the English walking tour half of the book (Australian, French, British, etc.). He was a pleasure to listen to.

Brilliant read

First, I have to start off by stating that I got this book free of charge in exchange for a review, but as I always state, this does not in any way impact my review. My reviews are always honest and my own.

Perhaps it is because I have recently returned from two months in Florida, but the description of the trip brought many memories back about this beautiful countryside. The hero is an introverted, insecure, and socially uncomfortable pathologist who takes the vacation that his late wife and he had been planning before her untimely death. Over the course of the next few months, he begins to heal from the trauma in his life. I enjoyed this novel and will read more offerings by this author.

Ready for a Walking Tour of the English Countryside!

I enjoyed listening to "Vacation" by CJ Miller immensely. The story may have been a bit predictable but it was still sweet and the characters were believable and so well done by narrator Curt Simmons.

One thing that really stood out and impressed me was the quality of his dialects. I'm so used to hearing the Australian accent mangled by Americans that I cringe at the thought. So, when the story required going from an Australian accent to an English accent, back and forth, back and forth, and then throw in a couple of French accents on top of that, it could have been a disaster! However, Simmons made the transitions seamlessly. Very impressive.

Simmons skilled, accomplished voice is easy to listen to and draws the listeners in, giving us a connection to the characters. I will be looking for more books narrated by Simmons.