Maybe This Time

By: Jill Mansell

Narrated by: Imogen Church

Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

Lottie Carlyle isn't looking for love when she meets her new boss, Tyler Klein. Living in a beautiful cottage with her two adorable - sometimes - kids in an idyllic village in the Cotswolds, on good terms with her ex-husband and with friends all around, she's happy enough with her lot. But Tyler's perfect for Lottie and quickly she falls for him - and he for her. 

Unfortunately, there's a problem. For reasons that are totally unfair, Lottie's children HATE Tyler. When a rival for Lottie's affections comes on the scene in the shape of charmer Seb, the children adore him, and he's certainly a distraction. But he's not Tyler - and he's not even at all what he seems. 

Lottie's got a problem - but thanks, in classic Jill Mansell style, to a tobogganing accident and a delicious series of mix-ups, all will be revealed and true love will find a way.

©2019 Jill Mansell (P)2019 Headline Publishing Group Ltd

Critic Reviews

"The queen of witty, heart-warming, feel-good love stories." (Red)

"A heartwarming treat from one of my favourite writers." (Katie Fforde) 

"Reading Jill is always such a joy!" (Veronica Henry) 

Terrible narration

I have been reading this book and I cannot believe my ears! Does this narrator actually think she is good?! it's OK when she is reading in a normal voice, but her doing the characters' impersonations is so sloppy. And her sudden lowering of the voice, whispering
and horrid 'singing' at the end of sentences is so terribly annoying! I'm not listening to anything of Ms Church's anymore.

Maybe This Time

Maybe This Time. Another great book from Jill. Loved the story, everything about this one. Jill is one great writer.

Great listen!

Sucked in to the story straight away! Listened everywhere... driving, walking cleaning. The change in voices was fantastic just wish it didn’t end. Will be listening again soon

Absolutely brilliant

I had never tried this author before, although I knew that she was very popular, and I knew that I liked the narrator. Both surpassed themselves. The story is full of fun, interesting characters that seem very real, and although the story is not particularly dramatic, apart from one major event near the beginning, it has all sorts of events and twists and turns to keep it interesting. Very, very high quality chick-lit! As for the narration, perfect! Beautifully read, capturing the subtle humour of the characters, and getting every voice and accent just right. I loved this book.

Thoroughly enjoyed it!

I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Typical Jill Mansell type story I grant you but well worth a listen

Great story - great characters

Volume was an issue - lots of quiet speaking and had to have really loud to hear the quiet talking
Either too loud or too quiet

Loveable

I love these books, they're like giant hugs that make you feel so warm and happy. Easy listening and thoroughly enjoyed!

Narration frustrating

I really enjoyed this book apart from the narration . I listen to audio books while driving but found it so distracting when the narrator went quiet then louder throughout the book. I had to keep increasing the volume then turn it down . It really spoiled my listening experience of what was a truly lovely book

Narrator is excellent

What a pleasure this book is to listen to.
Could not put it down.
Thoroughly enjoyed.

Long winded!

Very long winded quite boring, I felt like pleeaassse get to the point. A reasonable story but far to long.

A good performance RUINED by appalling production

Imogen Church is a really good narrator. That's one of the reasons I chose this book. However, whoever was responsible for the recording and production of this audio book has made a complete and utter **** up of it.

I should, for the record, say I'm an expert in audio and music technology.

So, what's the problem? The problem is, put simply, the volume levels fluctuate wildly. You can set your device to a reasonable listening level one minute, and then next minute the narrator has increased the volume of her voice so much that the neighbours can hear every word. And the next minute, the narrator is whispering so quietly that you can't hear a b****y word. I have audio book on my Alexa device at bed time, and it is so frustrating and jarring becoming accustomed to this frantic escalation and drop of volume every couple of sentences.

This, I should hasten to add, is not the fault of the narrator. A performer while naturally perform with large variations of dynamic. But, there are OH SO SIMPLE audio processing techniques which can be applied to make a recording fit for general consumption. Somehow these processes have been COMPLETELY BYPASSED.

I mean, seriously, if one of my students were to submit this, they would fail (again, based on the quality of production, not the actual performance of the narrator).

I know I'm not the only person to notice this because I've seen other comments on here of a similar nature to mine.

The alarming question here is, does audible do any quality control checks on its recordings? It seems unfathomable that they just let these things out the door without any quality control. And, more worrying, if somebody has listened to this, it shows that they do not have anyone with the necessary critical listening skills to evaluate the work they're producing.

This, is shocking.

Shockingly bad.

Story spoilt by narration

I found the story ok, nothing particularly out of the ordinary but an average listen. However I didn’t finish it, solely because of the narration. It would either be so quiet almost whispered, that you have to rewind to listen again ( which is frustrating) . So you have to keep increasing volume to hear adequately. Then the narrator would literally shout or scream the next line which was deafening! This happens over and over again. Gave up increasing decreasing volume every minute or so.
Anyone who uses audible books to relax and zone out for a while would not enjoy this as nor did I