Homestead

By: Radclyffe

Narrated by: Abby Craden

Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

Tess Rogers grew up in the midst of chaos and uncertainty, but she always knew one thing to be true - one day 600 acres of prime farmland would be hers. Then she discovers not even that truth can be counted on. Tess' stepfather has kept important secrets, and Tess' dream of breeding a line of organic dairy cows suddenly goes up in a burst of smoke and flame. R. Clayton Sutter is an expert at managing just about anything - money, businesses, and people. Getting NorthAm Fuel's newest shale refinery operational in the rolling hills of Upstate New York shouldn’t be much of a challenge, but then, she hadn't counted on dealing with vandalism, petitions, and a woman she’d never expected to see again - one who still haunts her dreams. When Tess and Clay square off on opposite sides of the heated debate, past and present collide in a battle of wills and unbidden desire.

©2013 Radclyffe (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

WOW

Radclyffe as the writer and Abby Craden as the narrator never disappoint,
The story is great, loved the characters and as always loved Abby Craden sexy voice.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Abby Craden is awesome.

Great story. Great performance. Would recommend to anyone who is a fan of Radclyffe books.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

This was a great story

I truly enjoyed the book, I loved the Narrator. Abby Craden did a wonderful job with all the Characters. This book is about a situation many towns in the Midwest deal with alot. Big oil companies wanting to come in a drill. Effecting thousands of lives. Radcyffe is amazing showing both sides of the story and how they work together for the best out come.
another part of this book deals with lost live, painfull memories and hidden passion.
There is a HEA.... but it's a long fight getting there.
This is must read for sure, you won't be disappointed.

Nice break away from the norm.

Nice venture into the country . A little light on story depth. That is to be expected more often than not. This will be better if you have not listened to a lot of Radclyffe stories or reads from Abby Craden. Radclyffe drops the Fbomb !! bout time!

Great unique book!

This book was just as well written as Radclyffe's other novels, but with a very different story-line than I'm used to reading from her. I loved the story and feel like it gave me a greater appreciation for farmers (as strange as that might sound). The narrator was wonderful and brought the book to a new level!

But for the ending

Good book. Genre outside the ER and the police station was awesome. Ending wimped a little - just a little too fast and tidy. But I loved the story and the topics it brought together. I would recommend this book

A great read but

Don't plan on reading it to fall asleep cause you won't. Dr. Radclyffe sets the bar in this format
too!

Radclyffe rocked my world again!

Would you consider the audio edition of Homestead to be better than the print version?

I normally read the books before I listen to the books but in this case I simple didn't have time to read the book first, wish I had because I loved the audio book and I know when I make time for the written novel I will love it.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I think I loved Tess best. I loved her dignity even after she found out what her step-father had done to her. And I loved that she wanted to be the one to make her own decision in life bad or good. I liked how strong she was, and how deeply she could give her love. I liked how smart she was for a simple farm girl. I just liked her.

Which scene was your favorite?

The bedroom sex scene between Tess and her lover (Who's name I can't remember, the lawyer with the company who came down to get the oil right to the area land-The girl from the lake) Anyway the sex scene as adults was hot and emotional and tender and I liked the fore-play too.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I tried my best wend ADL actives didn't get in the way like going to the bathroom or eating, feeding the cats, etc. But I listened to it in the shortest time period possible for me. And I loved every minute.

Any additional comments?

Radclyffe is a genius and if not this book, try one of her other on audio, or be like me and buy them all as they come out to listen to because you already know you will love them. She gets the best narrators and has the best books be they lesbian or just book on the market. She is brilliant. I have even gotten a couple of straight friends to try her out and they too loved her so I know I am not crazy. She rocks, this book rocks. And is just another in a long line that rocks.

needed stronger elements and conflicts

Its okay, not has good as Radclyffe's other work. The characters for me are not developed as well as they could be and do not have strong enough conflicts. There is some drama in the novel but its limited to two events which seem minor compared to other novels by Radclyffe. Abby Craden does a great job narrating and the writing is high quality as expected from Radclyffe. I marked this 3 because, the story itself is bland in comparison with other novels, and the premiss of the the oil drilling romantic lead Clay and the conflict between her and farming Tess does not work that well, since they were previously a entangled. So the build up to their relationship is not as strong as it could have been, and they seem to simply fall back together without much hesitation. The conflict between the farmers and the oil company in my mind is not as great as it should be, and to a degree I would have preferred more focus on the farming way of life and love of the land so get more of a connection with the character Tess as a reader. Clay seems less believable as a character, since its hard to equate the rebel teenager to the now corporate project manager. That all said I like the idea of a story focused around farming and the land, more detail and events on that side of the story would have helped.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

lovely

simple n straightforward story. loved it. abby craden's reading makes me want to listen to it over and over again.

It really fizzled out. I will lament the end.

I enjoyed this for the most part, however I do feel it fizzled out really badly at the end. I was expecting a nice little emotional confrontation between Clay and her father and his attorney, but all we got was Clay saying she would deal with them in the final couple of minutes. Plus we never really got the answer to the question as to why Clay's father was so invested in Tess's land either. It seemed to be a missed opportunity to make this story a lot meatier than it was, and that is a real shame.

I know Rayclyffe has her fans, and her work will always be popular, but sometimes I just wish the newer stories would hark back to her fanfiction days when there was more drama to the plot, which engaged the reader a lot more. When I think of those works I think of drama and some real suspense, but the latter non-fanfiction books just seem to be lacking that somehow. While this was not as bad as some for lacking those things, it still seemed to have missed opportunity's throughout the plot.

Another point to mention is the two main characters in Radclyffe's story 'When Dreams Tremble' make a couple of brief cameo appearances in the story-line. Yet it is not a sequel. This seems to be something Radclyffe does in a few of her books, and it works quite well as it allows you a brief glimpse into their lives after their main story has been told.

Abby Craden did a reasonable job with the narration, and again I know she has a lot of fans, but for some reason I find her tone hard to understand at times and I have to re-listen to parts in order to catch the words. I don't have that problem with other narrators, so I wonder if it's the engineering or her voice. I think it could be the recording because there was a definite break in the sound at one point in the story-line. Plus I have heard Abby Craden as narrator in a novel not written by Radclyffe and I don't have this problem listening to that recording. It might be something that the people doing the engineering works on this book might want to look into.

Overall I can listen to this again, but I will lament the real opportunity's missed.