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.

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 :)

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!

What a great story

I loved this book, so many twists and turns. The story is truly brought to life by the narrator. Definitely recommend for those who enjoy an emotional read.

The writing was great

I love how the author weaved this story. It did remind me of mhaire Mcfarland in places. It did have some twists I didnt see coming! I listened in oneday with a few breaks for meals! Love a good book on a winter day!

Loved this

This book had me laughing out loud and teary eyed at work. I’m sure my coworkers thought I was loosing it. It was funny, quirky, smart, sad and sexy. Great story.
I think the narrator did a great job I enjoyed listening to the many tones of her voice. I felt like she conveyed the emotions right off the pages into her voice to the listener.
Give it a try maybe you’ll love it like I did or maybe you won’t.

Great Chick- Lit!

As far as the genre goes, it doesn’t get any better than this.
Lovely story about family and romantic love with Bennetto’s trademark wit.
Narration was near perfect.
And the setting in Cape Town was, for me, a unique journey

Charming

I loved listening to this book! Anna Acton did a great job narrating. I listened every chance I could! The story had charm, drama & tons of laughs. I also appreciated that although there was general talk of sex, I didn’t have to skip through ridiculous sex scenes. Thank you Catherine Bennetto! This was the first book of hers that I read (listened), but I will absolutely be looking for more!

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

Disappointing

Good narration, but not as funny or poignant as the reader was led to believe. How the narrator felt any empathy for the silly, self absorbed heroine I can’t imagine, I really didn’t like her much. Disappointing, as I have enjoyed other titles by this author.

Enjoyable & funny

really enjoyed this audiobook you really get into the characters it's funny laugh out loud.

Not as good as I thought it would be

This book was a bit all over the place.
I had really high hopes for this book as me & my daughter both LOVED 'How Not To Fall In Love, Actually'. That book was brilliant.

I found this book a struggle to finish. The plot dragged in places and could easily have been cut down.
I managed to listen til the end but only in the hope it would get better but it got sad.
I love the Narrator Anna Acton as I have listened to her a few times before.
But I wouldn't waste a credit if I was you.

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