Make or Break

By: Catherine Bennetto

Narrated by: Anna Acton

Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's Summary

Romantic comedy with heart, perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Lindsey Kelk and Mhairi McFarlane.

Jess, a 29-year-old Londoner with a Kate Beckett fringe and a tendency for dramatics, gets taken on a surprise trip by her long-term boyfriend, Pete, to attend her best friend’s last-minute wedding in South Africa. Jess imagines sun, sand, wine and safaris. And returning to London with an ethically mined diamond on her left hand...

But this holiday isn’t set to be quite the fairy tale Jess has planned. Suddenly she finds her world tilting on its axis, and things are only set to get worse when Jess returns home.... 

Catherine Bennetto is back with her trademark wit and an equally hilarious cast of characters who will have you rooting for them from the first minute.
 

©2018 Catherine Bennetto (P)2018 Simon & Schuster UK

Critic Reviews

"Smart, witty and bursting with joie de vivre." (Wendy Holden) 

"Eloquent and heartfelt - seamlessly ensuring that the laughter and the lump-in-the-throat moments follow hot on each other's heels - another sure-fire hit." (Penny Parkes)

"Warm and witty, heart-breaking and heart-warming, an emotional roller coaster of a read." (Anna Bell, author of It Started with a Tweet) 

Excruciating. Save yourself.

Review

Only dive into this book if you feel a need to be highly annoyed and frustrated. The viewpoint character is not merely flawed; she is deeply selfish, arrogant, self-centered, judgmental, mean, melodramatic, demanding, self-obsessed, and extremely fond of being angry. Her endless insistence on spinning irritating thoughts and flogging others with them truly stretches a reader’s patience. It is painful to watch her torment those around her, making all situations exclusively about herself, no matter how mean and hurtful it is to others. The author over-indulges in these scenes to an extreme and in excruciating detail. They are torture. I found myself applauding Pete for running away from her. Never ever stay with someone who belittles and discounts your dreams, Pete. And I hoped against how these books go that Jimmy would realize that he deserves a kind, loving woman and not this soul-sucking cyclone of profound selfishness. Readers, don’t waste your energy on this mess.

The narrator does an excellent job of moving fluidly between accents, but Jess’s frequent shrieking is painful to listen to and hard to tolerate. I skipped through the last two hours of this book in about 5 minutes, and I didn’t miss a thing. Completely predictable.

Not a fan

The book was really good until about half way or so...but it went off the tracks and seemed to ramble on and on. After she returns from her trip the story just has no real point. I kept hoping it would get better, but it went no where.
Ana Acton did a fabulous job narrating.

Tourist guide

Enjoyed it but sometimes a bit too much like a tourist guide to Cape Town.

LOL!!!!

I can’t remember the last time I’ve laughed out loud as much as I have listening to this book!!! So funny! I want to be friends with everyone in it! Great listen!!!! Would highly recommend!

surprising good

This was a great book to listen to, the narrator was fantastic, and it was a good story line

Look for the abridged version

If given the option to choose, choose the shorter version. Other than that, great story! Worth it!

Amazing Narration!

I absolutely loved this book!

The storyline was fun, the characters were love-able, and the scenes were set so perfectly I felt as if I was in South Africa too!

I also truly enjoyed the narration by Anna Acton. Every character had a distinct accent and I could always tell who was talking before the story clarified.

I found myself sitting in my car longer than I needed to when I was driving around, as I always wanted to hear just a little more of the story!

Don’t miss out on this book, purchase it now :)

Not even

Not even entertaining. Boring! I really liked her previous book, so will hold off on this author in the future.

hilarious!

I loved it. This book had me laughing out loud! Not a dull moment. I highly recommend.

I loved it!

This was my first Catherine Bannetto book, and I can’t wait to listen to more! The narration was great, and I loved the story. I totally recommend!

Poor German accent

The book was overall entertaining and fun to listen to, although the main character is a bit bonkers.
But as a native German I felt slighted irritated by the poor German accent performed by the narrator. It’s like there was no practice before and the actual German words impossible to understand.

struggling to finish

Find the character of Jess annoying and self absorbed. Story seems to be dragging 😩. Predicable. The narration of Jess's exclaims were annoying. Really did not enjoy this book

wouldn't listen to the narrator again

Story was quite amusing. However, the narrator could have practiced her accents beforehand. Especially her German accent was not German at all. The 3 sentences she had to pronounce in German were also very very poor. You can tell it wasn't very well prepared, which I personally think is a shame. She has a lovely voice, but she made the character of Jess seem a little annoying.

Lovely!

Beautifully read and performed. Loved the characters and the story was engaging and satisfying.
Elequent language and delivery and gorgeous analogies.
A must read for a lazy Sunday!

Have not stopped laughing. Excellent book

Kudos to the author. I loved the story from start to finish. Excellently delivered. Get this is you want to laugh. Just wish there was not swearing though 😉

Absolutely brilliant

There is nothing I didn’t like about this book, it actually made me smile and even laugh out loud. I loved all of the characters and the way it was read really brought everyone to life. This is a book you have to listen to, I’d 110% recommend it and will definitely read more from this author.

Different

It took a while to get into this book but it was really worth it. Great humour and the narrator was brill.
Different from most of the stories I listen to but its very good

Great fun.

Made a lovely change to my usual listens and Anna Acton is a fabulous narrator. I will definitely follow her.

Great story but

Loved the story and reading but the German accent of the mother was terrible, sounded like East European but not believable to a German native. Do better research next time! Xx

Light hearted and pleasant

This book was so easy to listen to and the story was pleasant with a fairly happy ending. Some parts were a little unbelievable and silly ie. "vagina art" and should've been left out but overall good. nice easy listening.