Chose the Wrong Guy, Gave Him the Wrong Finger

I listened to and loved Driving With the Top Down so I took a shot at this one; wish I hadn't done that. I gave up on this one after an excruciatingly long seven hours. Even when broken down into hour long segments even those seemed to drag on intermediately and in excruciating detail about a woman who even according to her lives a boring in a small boring town. Well now that's just great, so glad you decided to share it with us but I could have done without the insomnia cure.
Beth Harbison is usually an excellent writer and Orlagh Cassidy's has a smooth pleasant voice and does a good job with this audiobook. Though in retrospect that might have been part of the problem; her voice was so smooth that it further flattened the story. I enjoyed Driving With the Top Down enough to take a shot at another of her novels on audio but this one ain't it.

Another book I am in love with. it made laugh and even cry a little. very good book....

I usually love Beth Harbison books but I guess I favor the ones that have multiple main characters. I wanted to hear more of a story but this book mostly focused on the character's inner emotional progress more than anything. Not that it was bad just not what I feel like I typically hear in a Beth Harbison book.

My Review:
Overall.... 3.50
Performance... 3.50
Story.... 3.50

Beth Harbison's books tend to fall more under women's fiction than my normal straight romance genres that I like to read, but every once in a while, I grab one on audio for something different. I absolutely adore the title of this one which is definitely what grabbed me and the story sounded intriguing.

This book is okay. It's really about Quinn and where her life has gone...or hasn't gone...in the last ten years since she left Burke at the altar. Since the notorious weekend, she has seen neither Burke (jilted groom) or Frank (best man and Burke's brother that she spent the weekend in Vegas with after the jilting) although neither has ever truly left her thoughts. Even though she hasn't seen them, she's still in the same place she always was. In fact, very little about her life has changed in 10 years. She's stuck in a rut which is made more obvious when the two guys come to town to help their grandmother close her life there.

There's another character to this story...Quinn's gay best friend, Glenn, who also grew up with the other three although he wasn't in their circle of friends then. He sees Quinn struggle and sets out to change her perspective with a 30 day challenge. Every day, he gives her an assignment to do something that isn't normal for her. He sees that she's stagnating and confused and wants to help shake things up for her.

This book isn't all that long...8 hours on audio, but it did go on for too long with the amount of story there. It got a bit old to listen to Quinn go on and on in her head about what happened with Burke and how she should have handled it all better back then. With two hours left on the audio, I actually considered DNF'ing it because I was getting so fed up with her. But I stuck with it and in the end, I was glad that I did.

There are no winners here because all three of these people are entwined in each other's lives and they are ALL very emotionally involved, regardless of the fact that it's been 10 years. I definitely had a favorite with who I thought Quinn should be with, but even with that, there really wasn't a bad choice here. In fact, even Quinn choosing neither guy would have been okay, too. NO SPOILERS HERE. The point of the story was that life moves on and she needed to move past that event in her life and find happiness in her choice...in whichever way possible.

Normally, I am a HUGE Orlagh Cassidy fan, but there were a few issues with her narration on this one. Toward the end of the book, the voices kept getting crossed and it was hard to tell who was speaking which lines. Even the main characters, especially Quinn got lost in the other voices in those final scenes which is really bad and distracting at those pivotal moments in the book.

Overall, I'm not sad that I took the time to listen to this one, but it definitely isn't one I would ever listen to again. Like I said, it was okay...and sometimes okay is good enough for a little escape.

Quinn Barton is perhaps the weakest, whiniest, most ridiculous character I have ever read. I have enjoyed so many of Beth Harbison's books, that this one was a real disappointment. On no planet would this brother vs. brother vs. female lead ever ring true or be accepted by any thinking reader. But it's the wishy washy back and forth that is really too much to take. If not for the wonderful voice of Orlagh Cassidy, this book would have been completely worthless.