It Takes a Villa

Calculated Risk, Book 1

By: Kilby Blades

Narrated by: Zuzu Robinson

Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

For the reasonable price of $1, Natalie Malone just bought herself an abandoned villa on the Amalfi Coast. With a detailed spreadsheet and an ancient key, she's arrived in Italy ready to renovate—and with only six months to do it. Which seemed reasonable until architect Pietro Indelicato began critically watching her every move . . .

From the sweeping ocean views to the scent of the lemon trees, there's nothing Pietro loves more than his hometown. And after seeing too many botched jobs and garish design choices, he's done watching from the sidelines. As far as he's concerned, Natalie should quit before the project drains her entire bank account and her ridiculously sunny optimism.

With Natalie determined to move forward, the gorgeous architect reluctantly agrees to pitch in, giving her a real chance to succeed. But when the fine print on Natalie's contract is brought to light, she might have no choice but to leave her dream, and Pietro, behind.

Contains mature themes.

©2022 Kilby Blades (P)2022 Tantor

I Can't Believe I Finally Finished!

I struggled for over 2 weeks to finish this book, & I listen to Audible throughout my day & go to sleep to it. The narrator's voice modulation was as if she were reading this book to a group of children, and did not belong to this story. I had to switch to several other books, & then come back in increments to finish this. In my many, many years of audible listening, & hundreds of books, this is the 2nd narrator that I will never listen to again, so I should count myself fortunate. I just don't know how I missed it in the sample listening.

Not impressed with narration or the story

The Director/producer of this production to look for another line of work. Not sure why this was ever released. The narrator needs a lot of coaching. If you were to graph the pitch of the narration, it would look like a roller coaster with a lot of untimely pauses. She did much better with her accents and the spoken text. And so I think there’s hope for the narrator she just needs some better coaches.

Did not care for this narrator

She tried to hard to make every sentence dramatic. The non-dramatic story did not need that.

Could not handle the narration

Storyline seemed good but could not get past Chapter 4 due to narration style that had no energy or emotion.

Enjoyable story

While I enjoyed the story, the narration was very awkward. I recommend listening at 1.3x speed. Maybe better to read this one.

Starts really slow, gets better

The story was a bit confusing to me at first, the “program” was not initially explained well, and the intro of the characters awkward. But once I figured it out I enjoyed the story and the characters. I did not love the narrator’s style.

Nice story. Awful narrator.

While I liked the story, I had to put the book on 2x speed to be able to endure the narrator.

potential

This story has great potential, but it's not quite there. Most of my problem with it was the narrator. The narration was stilted and flat with slow downs and weird inflections.

Charming, slow burn

Who wouldn’t love to have their own Italian villa? This is a charming story about going for what you want, living in the moment and enjoying each day as it comes. The romance is a smoldering slow burn but so fitting for the story. I loved all the characters and especially the setting.

Expected to enjoy

Started out good, but had to devolve into sex scenes. I stopped listening about 1/2 way through.