Talk of the Town

By: Jennifer Bardsley

Narrated by: Amy Landon, Scott Merriman, Tamika Katon-Donegal

Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

In this lighthearted romance filled with small-town humor and high jinks, an unsuspecting real estate agent becomes the wildest dream come true for all the single moms—except the one he wants.

They’re coworkers, friends, and confidants, but Peter Marshal has always pined for a little something more with Noelle Walters. As a widow and a single mom, Noelle prefers to play it safe, and falling for Peter was never part of the plan.

Then again, neither of their plans accounted for the well-meaning but meddling actions of Peter’s sister, who offers him up as their town’s most eligible bachelor in the local moms’ Facebook group. He’s none the wiser about the source of this sudden surge in attention, but he only has eyes for Noelle. And from where she’s standing on the sidelines of Peter’s popularity, it’s getting harder to pretend that she doesn’t see what everyone else sees in her best friend.

With all eyes on them, will Peter and Noelle finally see beyond the hurdles to the happily ever after that’s been there all along?

©2023 Jennifer Bardsley (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Jennifer Bardsley delivers small-town sweetness cooked to utter perfection!”—Rebecca Yarros, New York Times bestselling author of Fourth Wing

“In Talk of the Town, author Jennifer Bardsley weaves intricate relationships, complex backgrounds, and tangled drama for the characters of an entire town! This novel is brimming with believability and suffused in sweetness.”—Alli Frank + Asha Youmans, authors of The Better Half

“Jennifer Bardsley brings her trademark realistic sweetness to her latest, Talk of the Town. Peter and Noelle are characters to root for, especially as they grow and change to earn their happily ever after.”—Eden Appiah-Kubi, author of The Bennet Women

Too boring

The romance part was cute but everything else was boring. A lot of the dialogue was unnecessary and very boring. The narration was was good in some places and bad and other places.

wow

it was something to think about. love the chats, as that's what the world has come to. Great to see

This was really Fun.

After seing this book on my library and knowing i didnt get it, i talked to my wife and she told me, she had read it and that it was a "sweet" story... i was about to remove it and thought that i needed something light... my last book was 36 hous long and it was tense. I am pleased to say that although this is not my type of genre i completely enjoyed it it was lite, extremely funny, in some instances it hit home, since i come from a small town and many of the characters reminded me of people i know. the readers did a great job too. I recomend it. this is coming from a military history , science fiction, StarTrek, spy thriller and avid steven king fan.

it was an easy story

it was an easy story to listen to. the primary female narrator was not my favorite. overall it was okay

loved it

I really enjoyed reading this author.  I look forward to reading more books by this author in the near future.

A good distraction

I read this in between sci-fi obsession. It was nice clean romance to pass time with.

Hard to finish

I finish a story even if it’s not good.
Tried to like this but the characters were awful for the most part.
Storyline was just ok.

Not much to it

This book just misses the mark for me. The plot was boring and I agree with the other commenters that it did seem a bit preachy at points. I also felt like there were so many loose threads that never got tied up. Luckily, the audiobook was included on KU, which I appreciate.

Poorly written, preachy book with awful narration

This is supposed to be a light-hearted romance, but instead the writer spends a majority of the book preaching her various options at us. Even when I agreed with a few of those opinions, it was still irritating. The narrator who read the Facebook group’s posts in overly exaggerated accents was offensive and tacky.

Did not finish

I hate to leave a bad review, but I couldn’t get past the mean girl mentality of the Facebook Mom’s group, especially Peter’s sister. It ruined what could have been a good story.