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Dear Aaron  By  cover art

Dear Aaron

By: Mariana Zapata
Narrated by: Callie Dalton,Teddy Hamilton
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Publisher's summary

Some days, all you need is a message from a stranger.

Ruby Santos knew exactly what she was getting herself into when she signed up to write a soldier overseas. The guidelines were simple: one letter or email a week for the length of his or her deployment. Care packages were optional.

Been there, done that. She thought she knew what to expect.

What she didn't count on was falling in love with the guy.

©2017 Mariana Zapata (P)2017 Mariana Zapata
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: Romance

What listeners say about Dear Aaron

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    1 out of 5 stars

If I Could Give this Zero Stars I would

This is a great book - if your a 10 year old.

Actually, I think that when I was 10, I would still think it was excruciating. There were so many elements that went in to making this book excruciating but to save you the long read, I'll mention only my top three.

1. The Crybaby

The number one most painful issue I had was the main character "Ruby". We have to like our lead right? No such luck here. Unless you like a grown woman crying like a baby at the bus stop cause she thinks her friend isn't meeting her. "Ruby" was the constantly whiny, wimpy, self pitying, self-loathing. I think I counted about 1 zillion times she said "sorry". "Sorry, I shouldn't have said that. Sorry, you might not want to answer that". "Sorry Aaron, I'm such a looser". "Sorry Aaron, I'm such an idiot". "Sorry Aaron, why am I so stupid". "Why, why, why do I do this all the time! I'm such an idiot". "This always happens to me, why don't I never learn!!". And can you guess what Aaron's says back to her in response? You guessed it "You're not stupid" OVER AND OVER AND OVER again! In real life he would have said, "Forget this chick, she got a problem". I mean, I've never been painfully embarrassed by the lack of confidence and self loathing for a fictional character before, but if she were my friend I would sit her down and seriously tell her to seek professional help. And if that didn't work, I'd end the friendship. I mean who needs a woman constantly talking about what a looser she is in almost EVERY sentence?

2. Beyond Repetitious.

Spoiler - (I'll try to not give everything away) (but then again, I would STRONGLY recommend you not buy this so I'll be doing you a favour)

In the middle of the book, Aaron asks Ruby to meet live in person, and yes, we were all waiting for that moment and saw it coming, so you can imagine my irritation when the entire chapter, and I not exaggerating here, has her saying "What??!!! Noooo what if you don't like me?", "What? Noooo...why?", "What nooo, I can't, I just can't" And Aaron repeating the same answers. An ENTIRE CHAPTER!

I was on vacation taking an 8 hour train trip when listening to this chapter and it so repetitive, I decided to amuse myself by seeing if I could have a chat with a fellow traveller and and still make no progress on Ruby and Aarons conversation. And guess what? An hour later after, having the volume very low in the background I turned it up to hear the exact same conversation! Ugh! " Noooo, Aaron, but why should I come???" I wanted to much myself in the face!

3. The Change In Narrative (which I usually like, but it soooo didn't work here)

The only reason why I continued listening to this book was because even though it started out slow, it was somewhat entertaining and did keep my attention. It began with letters and emails back and forth and the readers did a fantastic job with their acting and had wonderful voices. I'm sure they wanted to cringe with the challenge of reading such a poorly written book but they did their best with the worst material they probably ever had. And as soon as the narrative style switched half way to another point of view, dropping the letters, to Rubys POV, it went down hill. And fast.

Ok, I know I said 3, but I'll add one more issue that went into making this an excruciating read.

4. What's So Freaking Funny?

Ruby is supposed to be HILARIOUS! Aaron constantly comments on how much she makes him laugh but she says NOTHING funny. The writer continuously mentions how Aaron purses his lips and tries to hold back fits of laughter and I'm like - "but there isn't even a joke here. I don't get it." I even rewound a couple of times to see if I missed the joke. But there wasn't a joke or even a quirky funniness to her character. Nutin' ya'll.

So there you have it.

Yesterday, whilst walking down the street and listening to this book I noticed my eye rolls occurred every 5 minutes - the book was actually getting worse, so I threw in the towel and gave up. No one can say I didn't try.

Honestly, how do books like this get published? Didn't this writer have an editor? What a painfully horrible novel.

Don't waste your money friends.

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35 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Two thumbs up 👍👍

I already loved this book, however, the way it was brought to live by the narrators made that love enter a new dimension.

Their voices became Ruby and Aaron and they fit the personalities of the characters to a T.

Two thumbs up to Mariana Zapata, Callie Dalton and Ted Hamilton for a job well done.

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30 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Mixed feelings

I loved the narrators but this is where good or even great narrators can't help a book that I struggled to get through. Everyone raved about this book but apparently, I'm in the minority because I couldn't stomach it. This book is mainly told through email/letters and then later told through texts. For me, it was kind of awkward. It lagged in places where it should have sped up and in places where it should have lagged it sped right through to almost an ADHD pace. I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that the author who wrote The Wall of Winnipeg and Me - wrote this book. It almost seemed unbelievable! I loved that book and I guess my bar was set really high, so for this to be so different just made me sad. I love Teddy Hamilton and he really was the saving grace on this. I don't think I want to keep this because it was that bad for me. I will still keep my copy of The Wall of Winnipeg and Me though because that will always be my fave.

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Really Good

The only thing I didn’t like was that the first few hours of the book you listen to two different voices. One male, one female. Then the story transitions (without giving anything away) and the girl does both the male and female voice. I really enjoyed having the male character with a male voice, not the female trying to be male. Especially once you get used to the male characters voice.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful premise

Narrators were perfect for this very believable story
Mariana did it again!

JB Naples FL

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Love love love

I couldn't wait for this audible to come out and I wasn't disappointed! I love Callie Dalton, didn't know as much abt Teddy. I was excited to see how this was going to sound and flow because of the format. Gotta say it sounds great! Only part is I wish there was a little more Teddy in this. Such as, if he could have read some of Aaron's dialogue that would have been perfection to me also even if he would have read some of the back and forth abt Ruby's virginity as well, but Callie always handles everything well.Over all I love it I am a Mariana Zapata fan, she's the only author I follow. Also Callie Dalton always one of my favs now Teddy! Great job guys! Well worth the wait! I will be re-reading and listening! If you want a great story funny slow burn this is perfect for you! Mariana is alway A one click buy so glad Callie is her go to!! BUY THIS BOOK AND AUDIBLE

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Predictable, uneventful, boring

Your average feel good love story with no structure. No climatic events or anything to look forward to other than them finally meeting. Which takes 17 chapters of POV emails to get to.

Their characters are immature and mimic a high school relationship. Constant bad jokes and pet names with no actual chemistry. I seriously cringed at least once per chapter.

The narration was great. The storyline had potential but fell short unfortunately.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Format Was Not For Me

I listened to roughly 2 hours of Dear Aaron and then the format of writing started to drive me crazy and I had to turn it off. It was fine to listen to the email exchanges initially, but then I found myself getting annoyed or zoning out and then I just thought to myself "How much longer do I have to listen to these emails?!" It made me feel like I was reading through someone's emails - sometimes it was interesting but most times I just didn't care to hear about every mundane detail of their lives.

The main reason I purchased the book was because I love Teddy Hamilton's voice and narration style but unfortunately it wasn't enough to keep me interested this time. I will be asking for my credit back.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

loved this performance of this story

i always love Callie's narrations, but this one might be my favorite since it also included Teddy, who was perfect for "Aaron". Great story as always by the Slow Burn Queen, Mariana Zapata!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

pretty cute!

I love Mariana's books. this one was pretty good. though the ending left me wanting. Aaron and Ruby's charactors were awesome and watching them grow into their relationship over email and letters was great. but I felt the ending was rushed. so that was why I only have it 4*. the narrators were awesome.

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3 people found this helpful