Meant to Be

By: Jea Hawkins

Narrated by: Lori Prince

Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's Summary

The girl who got away.

Twenty years ago, best friends Alice and Misty shared a kiss...and then their entire relationship unraveled. 

Alice Cavanaugh has spent the past 20 years trying to forget her best friend's betrayal. She moved on with her life as a single mother and librarian in her hometown. But when Alice finds out Misty is coming for their high school reunion, she can no longer hide her feelings.

In 1996, Misty Morse promised Alice they would go to Seattle together, so Misty could pursue her dream of being a musician. With one quick, fearful decision, though, Misty ended up on her own. And she has regretted it ever since. 

When Misty returns, the former friends are thrown together for more than a week in small-town Vermont. Can Alice forgive Misty for leaving her behind all those years ago? And will Misty tell Alice how she really felt about her all along?

©2016 Jea Hawkins (P)2018 Jea Hawkins

Lucky for both women that neither moved on!!

"Meant to Be" is six hours long as an audiobook. I was very much looking forward to comparing Jea Hawkin's version of the second-chance lesfic trop with the much shorter treatment of the trope by Lucy Felthouse in "Another Dance".

Now, I know many people love this plotline, but as I’ve shared before, it's not my favorite. Though I do enjoy the stories, I don't believe in spending your life waiting to see if someone who left you 10 or 20 years ago just might come back to you for your mutual HEA. Giving that much power for your own happiness to someone who chose to build a life without you is just not for me. IRL, my first love, and then-current girlfriend, told me over the phone during my freshman year at university that she'd just gotten married...to a man. Not expected, and not fun. And while I'll always have some great memories of my first love, no...I do not spend my days pining for her and adopting cats waiting for inevitable loneliness in middle and old age.

Anyway...I share my perspective with you because while I don't penalize any book for being overly unbelievable, neither do I get all warm and gushy at second-chance HEAs and award instant five stars. I probably dissect the story a bit more than usual.

With all that in mind...this story is pretty unrealistic and unbelievable! Its very well written, its got some great dialogue, Lori Prince provides fantastic narration...but sheesh for both MCs! Actually, two sheeshes...each MC deserves her own!

38yo MC Alice is worried about her upcoming 20th reunion because she was mysteriously abandoned by her then bff and kind of girlfriend, the now world-famous musician MC Misty. Now, immediately after Misty left her, Alice decided to be a rebel and had a one-night stand with Bill, resulting in her now 16yo daughter...and after that hetero experience, Alice became confident that she's a lesbian. In theory, because she never dates.

Which works out well, because superstar Misty also never dates...because no-one could compare with Alice, her once-love, whom she abandoned, without explanation, and with whom she's never been in contact with for 20 years.

Anyway, they meet again, talk, sort of explain, sort of but don’t apologize, meet again, talk again, sort of explain more, do apologize, and then repeat that cycle for most of the book.

Yes, as 18yo's, each had fears and uncertainties...but they certainly didn’t have very good communication skills! Aannnnd...they still don't. Lots of flirting, explaining, apologizing and talking but not until the very VERY end of the book...no real communication between them. I didn't dislike either character, but neither did I really root for either of them, or for both as a couple. Misty is a doormat to her manager and label, and the ending made my eyeballs hurt with the rolling it induced. I had a very difficult time believing that both characters were lesbian virgins, and that Misty was even a hetero virgin. It just didn’t feel like true love waiting to be finally acknowledged as much as two women willing to live unhappy lives because of mistakes each made at 18 years old.

I liked the secondary characters, Alice’s friends and 16yo daughter. Misty's manager and label executives were pretty over-the-top...like evil Disney cartoon characters as one goodreads friend once quipped.

Back to my initial comment about comparing this plotline with a 1 hour vs. 6 hour treatment...the 1 hour treatment wins. MCs split, MCs reconnect, MCs still feel attraction, MCs apologize and begin building a life together. Yeah...1 hour covers it. While 6 hours gave more time to explore friends and family as secondary characters, too much of the additional 5 hours was repeating apologies and revisiting "what if" self-doubts and ongoing insecurities over and over.

So, I rate "Meant to Be"s writing and dialogue 4*, the MCs and their story as 2.5*, the narration as 5*, and overall...3.7*, rounded up to 4*.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

My rating and my review was not in anyway affected by my having been provided a review copy.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

2nd Chance at Love

Our 2 leading ladies reconnect at their 20 year high school reunion. They were best friends... romantic almosts... until the day when Misty left Alice behind. Now Misty is back, and she wants something she's not sure she can have. More than just the love of a good woman, she's ready to try a new career path. But will it work? Spoiler: This is a romance, so odds are good.

As with any novel, the characters make it, and this one has Alice's daughter Liza and Alice's high school friends who are still friends after all this time. Once she and Misty finally air their differences, they try to have a relationship as adults. That's one of the great finds in books from Hawkins--forget the needless melodrama. These people act like adults who can communicate with each other and don't let contrivance get in the way. As for the few sex scenes in this story, they are handled with delicacy, but it isn't the most important part of the story.

As for Lori Prince's performance, she's one of the better narrators out there. All her characters are distinct, and she handles the material well. She especially sounds great in younger characters. Use the audio sample to decide if this is a voice for you. I know I'll listen to her again.

Bottom line: A FF fic with a happy ending just in time for the Christmas and New Year season. Sometimes that's just what you want. It's a shorter story, too, so give it a listen.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Just as before

I read 3 books of Jea Hawkins loved them all, especially this one, which I find more mature. Being an old lesbian I prefer books about more mature and older lesbians, and this one is one of them.
Lori Prince narrates wonderfully, I always enjoy her narration
So all in all this was a pleasure

Great Read

Meant to Be was a great read by Jeanier Hawkins. Alice and Misty were friends in high school that shared a kiss that could have changed everything for them. Unfortunately Misty betrayed Alice and they stayed apart for twenty years. Misty returns to her home town for their high school reunion. I enjoyed reading Misty and Alice's story.

Lovely and touching (an audio review)

There are times when you just want a fun listen with little angst but good chemistry between the main characters. Jea Hawkins books fit the bill perfectly. I was looking for something more than light and fluffy but not completely angst-ridden. Since I’ve listened to Jea’s books before, I knew what I was getting and wasn’t disappointed.

Alice is being forced to face the only woman she’s ever loved after twenty years of silently pining. She’s moved on with her life after the disappointment of the end of a great friendship that had the promise of more. One fated kiss and everything had ended abruptly, leaving Alice with no clear understanding of what happened. She did eventually get pregnant and is the happy single mother of the very precocious Liza. The mother/daughter dynamic works and the love is so clear. Not all single mothers are able to raise such healthy and well-adjusted daughters and not all daughters are appreciative of the sacrifices her mother made to give her a good life.

Now it’s the twenty-year reunion party during the Christmas season and Misty, a successful rock singer, has been invited back to give a concert. Defying her manager, she makes the commitment, knowing she’ll not just be facing her old comrades but the one woman she’s never forgotten.

This book is a slow burn because there are a lot of hurt feelings to be worked through and no simple solutions – just the way I like it. Misty has to explain why she left without warning twenty years ago, breaking her word and commitment to Alice. She also has to explain why she eventually lost touch and why she’s never communicated with her former best friend when she came back to town to visit her father. For her part, Alice has to own up to the disappointment and face her anger that she considers righteous.

I enjoyed watching the two women circling, searching for the right words to make things right. Finding a way to work through their issues, all the while knowing Misty’s leaving right after the holidays to go back to her career in Los Angeles, including a future recording contract, tying her to a label and manager she no longer cares for. The set-up for a simple resolution might be there, but the women have to work to get it and that made the happily ever after all the more satisfying.

I adore Lori Prince as a narrator. She has a wide range and I find her collaborations with Jea to be some of her best work. I first listened to Must Love Chickens a few months ago and fell in love. When this book came out, I pounced. Although it wasn’t quite as good as the previous audio, it is still one of my favorites. I highly recommend this great book.

Good story, great narration

This story of Alice and Misty reconnecting after twenty years is sweet and funny, as well as occasionally sexy. I liked both women, though I found it a bit unrealistic that neither had managed to have a romantic relationship in their many years apart. Their interaction was a lot of fun when they stopped arguing, and the secondary characters added a great deal of humor and heart.
While this might not be my favorite book by this author - that would be Must Love Chickens - I did enjoy it. The narrator offered a great performance and made me appreciate it even more. I liked the romance, friendship, and love of family here, and I found the ending sweetly satisfying.

Another Outstanding Story to Enjoy!

I've grown to love Jea's storytelling ability. The stories have drama, humor, heat and of course love. Another out of the park narration by Lori Prince. You won't be sorry.

It's not spaghetti!

I love the Jea Hawkins and Lori Prince combo. Jea writes a lot of cute fluff stories, and Lori's narration is fantastic across multiple characters. Even though the frame of the story sounds like angst, it's really mostly fluff. From the beginning, we hear how much Misty thinks about alice, but she made the (regrettable) decision to avoid changing Alice's life. Alice's daughter Liza adds her own support and quirks to the relationship, not to mention a bit of fan-girling. They also team up to show Misty how (not) to eat Pad Thai.

I received a free review copy from the narrator.

Great story

Jea Hawkins did a great job on this book. You feel like you know the characters personally not just in a book. Lori Prince did a great job narrating the book. I will buy more book from both Jae hawking and Lori Prince. That you.

I love Jea's books

She makes the cutest FF books. Everytime i'm in a reading rut, one of Jea's books reminds me why I like reading. She's super great at taking the tropes from mainstream romances and adding them to niche ff romances. This one was great and I loved reading it.

Received a complimentary copy from the author/narrator