Rodeo Daddy

By: Soraya Lane

Narrated by: Jack Garrett

Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Rodeo champion Lark Anderson lived for the sound of crowds chanting his name. Now all he hears is a small voice saying, "daddy." A fall ended both his rodeo career and his marriage - leaving him a single dad. The town is suspicious of its new "celebrity" resident, and town darling Sophie Baxter has been nominated to keep an eye on the hot-tempered cowboy. But the sight of his strong arms hugging his daughter and tucking her in at night makes Sophie's heart ache with longing. Could this little family ever find a place in their hearts for her?

©2011 Soraya Lane (P)2013 Recorded Books

Not this iconic narrator's usual style.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A story with a driven plot, a female lead with a backbone, and a synopsis that indicated the story was set in New Zealand.

Would you ever listen to anything by Soraya Lane again?

While a future purchase by this author seems doubtful, I certainly wouldn't without thoroughly researching reviews.

How could the performance have been better?

As indicated above, there was no mention in the synopsis that this story takes place in New Zealand. So as settled into listening to one of my top favorite narrators tell me another rodeo/ranching/to die for cowboy story, I couldn't figure out why the local law sounded as though he an escapee from "The Dukes of Hazard" reruns and why the female lead was a contradiction. When the narrator expressed her thoughts she seemed intelligent enough, but the moment she opened her mouth she sounded like such a ninny that no self respecting honorable cowboy would want to tangle with. Her voice was nothing like what I've come to expect from Jack. It wasn't until Chapter 3 (if memory serves) that I discovered why the male lead & his daughter and Jack's natural voice as the story's narrator were the only "normal" sounding characters. Ah, maybe because they were Americans transplants living in New Freaking Zealand.

Shame on Audible's sample reading for not including some of the worst examples of dialect to come out of New Zealand. A featured element, that had I known ahead of time, I never would have purchased a book I couldn't finish.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Rodeo Daddy?

I don't feel I'm qualified to give an opinion because I couldn't finish the book. As much as it pains me to say this about a narrator I could listen to read from a phone book, "Jack, stay away from New Zealand. Stick with what we have come to expect and adore from you."