Somebody to Love

By: Kristan Higgins

Narrated by: Justine Eyre

Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's Summary

After her father loses the family fortune in an insider-trading scheme, single mom Parker Welles is faced with some hard decisions. First order of business: go to Gideon's Cove, Maine, to sell the only thing she now owns-a decrepit house in need of some serious flipping. When her father's wingman, James Cahill, asks to go with her, she's not thrilled . . . even if he is fairly gorgeous and knows his way around a toolbox.

Having to fend for herself financially for the first time in her life, Parker signs on as a florist's assistant and starts to find out who she really is. Maybe James isn't the glib lawyer she always thought he was. And maybe the house isn't the only thing that needs a little TLC.

©2012 Kristan Higgins (P)2012 Tantor

Great story and horrific narration.

I picked this title because I had just listened to Higgins' Catch of the Day, and truly enjoyed it. I should have given the excerpt a careful listen, but I didn't. Xe Sands, who narrated Catch of the Day, would have been a much better choice. Eyre's voice would be appropriate for some work, but I felt like I was listening to a 75 year old with a warbley voice, and could not take it. Of course, it could just be me and some people might love Eyre's voice with this novel, but I felt like I was listening to a great grandmother instead of a 35 year old woman. I bought the ebook instead, and am much happier for having done so.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

pretty good...predictable....narration awful

For this one I had to speed up the narration speed due to the whine and nasal performance. Story is ok, very predictable.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Too many Big Misunderstandings

Would you try another book from Kristan Higgins and/or Justine Eyre?

Yes, although I do not like Justine Eyre; she is affected and does not read men's voices well.

What could Kristan Higgins have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Enough with the misunderstandings! I really disliked the heroine; she was very self-satisfied and judgmental, and apparently not very smart or thoughtful. She never thought deeply about her relationships with either parent or the hero, when any idiot could have been able to tell that he liked her, and had for a long time. Neither the hero nor the heroine had much of a personality and it wasn't clear why they would like each other let along fall in love. And then after a summer's worth of not seeing each other, there is a Big Misunderstanding that would take two minutes to figure out and talk about, but no, the heroine storms out and the hero has to grovel yet again. I am very tired of romance authors putting the hero in the wrong in such petty ways and having the heroine acting so wounded and superior when she is being at least as bad as the hero is.

Any additional comments?

This was easily the worst Kristan Higgins book I have read; she is a fairly good romance author, although her characters are not particularly deep. In this book all of the characters are flat and stereotypical. She especially does a job on rich people; wealth doesn't make people stupid or evil unless they were already.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

This is a lovely, passionate, interesting story

I really enjoyed this story. It wasn't rushed and didn't seem slow to me. It has that lovely build of passion instead of immediate gratification. I enjoyed Catch of the Day also....this seemed a little more indepth story to me. All the characters were interesting.
Narration is personal, and this is not a narrator I love to listen to but it is tollerable.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Loved every bit!

The story was intricate and interesting, yet also fun and light. I got invested with the characters and it's a great listen if you liked Catch of the Day!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Exceptional!

Honest, 3 dimensional characters, the story was both gritty and sweet. One of the best books I've listened to. I've listened to it twice already.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Feel Good Story

I liked this book, it was fun and romantic with a good strong male, who slowly wears away into Parker's heart. Lovely feel good story .Narration well it grew on me...

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

You have to Love thing 1

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Actually, I did like this book. A little better editing and this would be a great listen. I disagree with other reviewers,but I purchased for $4.95 so it was worth the price for a good inventive story. The liked the humor, including the holy rollers. I did not think it was over done. With all the FSOG material, which has been over done, I wanted a lighter story line and got it with the Holy rollers.

Would you recommend Somebody to Love to your friends? Why or why not?

I have been on a LOL roll, and finding these stories are not easy. Rachel Gibson is my current new author as I ran out of Julie James/Karen White. I tried The Best Man, and the reader ruined the dialogue for me. That story fell flat. I decide to try a few chapters to see if this reader did a better job on this story and I was very surprised how well she did.

What does Justine Eyre bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I gave Ms Eyre a very bad review on G.A.Akin, Jacquelyn Frank and Larissa Ione Supernatural mixed stories. I take it back, big time. After I listened to this book, I went back and listed to the book I had stopped. What a great 2nd round try. I realized, if you are not in the mood, stop, because YOU may not be in the mood at the time. Since we can not change our ratings, I tend to add/change my opinion when a new review op comes up on the reader. (JE reading of G.A. Akin, is great, now that I have my mind in the right place.)
Sorry Ms Eyre for jumping the gun. My apologies.

Do you think Somebody to Love needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Not sure on this question. Carrying humor in a core romance is not ez. It is hard to have
a happy ending without first having some drama. This was a sequel to Maggie story and I have not listen to that one as it has mixed reviews.

Any additional comments?

Since I have hundreds to listen, I think I will wait before buying Maggie story. I have a lot of Jill Shavis stories to listen before I tackle more of KH stories. I do not like amy rubinate as a reader, the best man, so NO to those books read by her.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great Story, Wrong Narrator

This was a good story, Like one of the other reviewers, I love Thing 1. I enjoyed all the characters.

I have said it more than one time, the narrator can make a book. JE was not right for this story, especially after listening to the narrator in the first story. JE would be better on other books.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Perfect Storm of Awful all-around!

The writing in the story is very weak, trite and silly. I listened to the whole book, and I'm really not sure why or how I did it. The reason must be I really liked James as a character and wanted to see if he got his happy ending. I am ambivalent about Parker....I didn't really dislike her but I didn't really like her either. The whole overdone sentimentality of what a great mom she is, the sad melancholy of her estrangement from her father (IMO) was sappy, unconvincing, and just not written well. For me, there were at least two elements of creepy factor in the writing...her whole relationship with Ethan (child's father) and his wife..oh, sure they're all buddy-buddy and best friends. To me it was weird and a bit "incestuous" rather than heartwarming. And, once Parker meets Vin, the conversations with her and about her sexual exploits were just gross. Horrible overuse and repetition of "ladyland" (ugh, really?), heck yeah, crickey, bugger and damn. The prevalence and overuse of these phrases was annoying and lacking in imagination. Yeah, as other reviewers have mentioned, the whole idea of the Holy Rollers characters was overdone and non-credible. I did like the other characters she met in Gideon's Cove.. (but going back to the gross-factor) the open conversations about other people's sexuality (I.E. Shantal and her "history" with James) was downright cringe-worthy. Speaking of cringe-worthy, the narration was awful. The "transition" passages between characters, and Parker herself, sound Okay, but just barely. Then when you get to any of the others characters, (mostly the male ones but some females, particularly Vin) the unaccomplished Maine and East Coast accents were awful...just deplorable! Another narrator could have done much better. I say this with no disrespect to Ms. Eyre, as I actually did like her doing the Archangel's Guild stories well enough. I did kind of like the ending, and though it was a bit cute even if somewhat rushed, considering the characters are "estranged". See, once again poor, poor writing. Sorry, I cannot really recommend this book, especially not as an audio listen.

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

I enjoyed this book, a great story about finding love in unexpected places and a mum trying to find her way after her world gets tipped up. I loved that it enabled me to find out what has happened after 'The next best thing' and 'catch of the day'. With an update on all the previous characters like Lucy, Ethan, Maggie and Malone. Definitely a good read that I will read again and recommend. xxx