A December Bride

A Year of Weddings Novella

By: Denise Hunter

Narrated by: Julie Lyles Carr

Length: 2 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

A year's worth of novellas from 12 inspirational romance authors. Happily ever after guaranteed.

What started as a whim turned into an accidental - and very public - engagement. Can Layla and Seth keep up the façade in Chapel Springs this holiday season - for the sake of her career…and his heart?

Under normal circumstances, Seth Murphy - the best friend of Layla O'Reilly's ex-fiancé - would be the last person she'd marry. But the news of their upcoming (and phony) nuptials convinces a big client that Layla may be high-society enough to work for his agency - a coup that would put her fledgling home-staging business on the map.

Seth has secretly loved Layla for years, even when she was dating his best friend. Maybe she'll never forgive him for the way he hurt her back then, but he has to try. And Layla is willing to keep up their engagement farce until she's landed her client. For Layla, it's the chance to save her career. But for Seth, it's his last chance to win her heart.

©2013 Zondervan (P)2013 Zondervan

Short Cute story

I decided to read this book because I saw the movie and liked it a lot .. and after reading the book I still think Hallmark did a great job with the movie
the story is very short you practically will finish it in one sitting but it gives a good vibe no drama or any of that .. but I still think the movie was better :)

The narration was the worst thing about this book, she was so monotone and no voice ranges at all .. I wouldn't waste a credit over it just read the book

Reader was awful

Nice story but the reader was awful. She is not able to do different voices. It was hard to tell which character was speaking.

4 Star Story; 2 Star Narration

This was a decently well-developed novella in the Chapel Springs series and I enjoyed the kind of second chance, enemies-to-love romance. The characters were nice with an extra special hero. I loved Seth Murphy. Unfortunately, the audio narration was subpar. The narrator didn't use any kind of distinguishing inflections or diction for different characters. It was often a guessing game as to who was saying what until the definitive "he said/she said." If time had allowed, I would have switched to strictly reading, but I persevered since it was a fairly short story. I'll be sure to avoid this particular narrator in the future.

The movie ruined it

After seeing the Hallmark movie I must say I honestly thought the book would have been better :( Also, the narrator did not change her voice even a little for different characters.

Cute story, poor narration.

Having seen the Hallmark movie, which I loved, I thought the book would have been better as most times they are. Not this time. The narrator's voice was not entertaining at all, she simply read the words.

If you like fake relationships that dangle true love with great chemistry, then this is a good listen. However, the movie was so much better than the narration.

A fake engagement story.

A sweet fake engagement story set against the backdrop of Christmas. Layla and Seth have an arrangement that benefits them both, except one of them wishes it was a real relationship. This story shares characters from another of Mrs. Hunter’s books, Barefoot Summer. She is one of my favorite authors.

The narration is okay, but not great. The narrator over-emphasizes words throughout the story, which sounds a little bit odd to me.

Boring narrator

I listen to at least 5 books a week on audible. For me it’s not just the story but the narrator that holds my attention and keeps me listening. Neither happened with this narrator. I could not finish the audible version, which is a little over 2 hours long, even though I can sit through many audible books that are 12 hours long. I will try reading the book on kindle and hopefully I will finish the book.

Voice lacking

The written story is paced really well. The audio is not. And her character voices really lack.