The Gravity Between Us

By: Kristen Zimmer

Narrated by: Amy Melissa Bentley, Rebecca Estrella

Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's Summary

At just 19, Kendall Bettencourt is Hollywood's hottest young starlet, with the world at her feet - but behind the glamour and designer dresses is a girl who longs for normal. Payton Taylor is Kendall's best friend since childhood and the one person who reminds her of who she really is. With her career taking off, Kendall moves Payton to LA to help keep her sane. But Payton is hiding a secret that could make everything 10 times worse. Because to her, Kendall is more than a best friend; she is the only girl that she has ever loved. Just as they need each other more than ever, they'll have to answer the question of where friendship stops and love begins - and find out whether the feelings they have can survive the mounting pressure of fame.

©2013 Kristen Zimmer (P)2015 Tantor

Good story...narrators detract

This is a good story, not incredibly deep, but entertaining. I enjoyed it, but wasn't completely drawn in, possibly because Hollywood glitz isn't my thing or maybe because the characters are so young. But I've read other books where the characters young and really liked them. The real distraction to the story, however, were the narrators. One sounded incredibly young (her teen-aged tendency to pronounce Peyton as Pay-un was irritating) and the other sounded way too mature, like she could be the other girl's mother. As the book is written in first person, switching back and forth between the characters, the narrators changed. It felt like a 13-year-old reading, then her mom reading. It really killed the chemistry between the characters.

Good Chapters in Search of a Book

It feels strange to say it but the first six hours of this story which passed at the pace of LA traffic was actually the high point. This, even though it included such highly questionable occurrences as Hollywood virgins. Then there were the all the cliches about the pseudo glitz and glamour of Hollywood, LA, the movie business, the paparazzi, agents, publicists and the partridge in the pear tree. Peyton's yearning for the girl she knows that she can't have is so close to my own experience that I had no problem trouble relating to her helplessness and despair.
No the really low point is Kendall; one of the two major characters in the book turns out to be a total chicken**** unworthy of the love continually offered to her by her childhood friend Peyton. It doesn't appear to be too realistic that anyone with as much going for them as Peyton would settle for the crumbs offered to her by Kendall for as long as she did. Love must be buttressed by respect to be real and it's hard to understand how Peyton would be able to respect her.
There is also the issue of the narrators; particularly the one doing the voice for Peyton. Both of them too often sound as if they're reading to a classroom full of third graders. However if you're a sucker for lesbian love stories you'll probably be able to find the high points in this one.

Good...

Good story...I actually read the book and then gave the audio book a try...I would have enjoyed it much more if they had stuck with one Narrator, preferably the woman who voiced Kendall! The woman who voiced Peyton was not good at all and really ruined it for me. I would give one Narrator a 5 and the other a 2!

Really bad narration. and slow story

this story was extremely slow and I did not find myself drawn in at all. also The narrator's Voice bothered me the entire time. It was just not enjoyable. Sorry.

A little too petulant

I really love this story but the person who was the voice of Payton was far too snarky and petulant while the voice of Kendall was smooth and channeled her energy. If you can get through the voice of Payton it’s a sweet story.

Love this genre of books!

Would you try another book from Kristen Zimmer and/or Amy Melissa Bentley and Rebecca Estrella ?

Not likely to read another Kristen Zimmer book. While I love this genre of books and I loved the storyline for “The Gravity Between Us” I didn’t feel the book was very well written and the narrators were not well suited.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Gravity Between Us?

When Kendall professed her love to Payton and outed herself to the world.

What didn’t you like about Amy Melissa Bentley and Rebecca Estrella ’s performance?

The performances while individually were good the two narrators were not suited to represent one another as young lovers. One voice being young and vibrant and the other being much more mature. It seemed like the two characters should have had a significant age gap between them.

Do you think The Gravity Between Us needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Not really, I believe the story ended where it should have.

AH-MAZE-ING

Best romance I've read (or rather heard) in a very long time!!! Amazing plot, Awe inspiring performance. It sucked me and I didn't want it to end!!

The Gravity Between Us

This book was amazing. Just enough details to relate you to the characters. It’s tasteful and not a soft porn like most Same sex novels. Great read and great audio!

Wow!

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. It was a great love story! Sometimes even when you love someone...you will sacrifice everything for them!

It was OK.

I didn't love this book. It was OK. Another "I'm in love with my best friend and don't know how to tell her" story. Some parts of this book was very similar to Camryn Eyde's The tricky series. I didn't research which book was written first, but the tricky series tell a better story after you get use to the narrator's voice.

The two narrators in The gravity between us contrasted dramatically with each other. One reviewer described the two voices as mom and daughter and I totally agree with that description. The older sounding mom voice probably would have suited the character Peyton better than the other character. Or perhaps having only one narrator would have been better for this book.

Nevertheless, thank you Ms. Zimmerman for your novel. Keep them coming.

Nice story, well told

I really enjoyed the kindle version of this book, so was familiar with the story before I bought the audio book. Although I enjoyed the story in this format and found the emotions and sentiment conveyed by the readers to really add an extra dimension to the story, the sound level when one person was reading was too quiet and led to me adjusting volume between readers, which was a little frustrating.

Would still recommend the story and book to others though.

Could be five stars

The novel is about friends from childhood. One an up and coming actress, the other talented student music composer. They are both attracted to each other, but the actress has not yet come to grips with the fact she is lesbian.

The story is very sweet and keeps you on the hook, for wanting their unacquainted love to come to tuition. I liked the characters in this, and they stuck in my head long after I finished reading it. The writing is great.

So why not five stars. The audio-book is narrated by two narrators. Both are okay, but the narrator changes when the point of view changes. This means depending on who the point of view is with the main characters end up their voices changing for their dialogue. And the narrators are very different. This might have worked if one of the narrators stuck to one characters dialogue.But actually it would have been better sticking with just one narrator using different voices, for the characters.

It's not too a big deal but it did distract for me staying in tune with the characters. I'm not sure if this comes across in the sample, but worth checking it. But I would still recommend it, or the book. Because I loved the story.

Anticlimactic

This is a good boook but I do wish they followed on more at the end about them reuniting and suchband the issues they faced. It felt anticlimactic like it ended just there. I would like if they had a sequel though

Best book to come along in ages~highly recommend

I've already relistened 3 times and will in time listen again..Slightly youth based but that doesn't mean any age can't enjoy it, it's dual charactered which helps with the humour, because you are hearing both sides of the thought process, and it's dual narrated quite lively...it's a light humorous book as opposed to a marathon. Sadly it ends rather abruptly so you don't know the outcome, leaving it open for a follow up, which I for one would buy immediately..

A gem of a book

This book is one of my favourites, it’s about friendship and love, and it’s a lovely story of two young ladies one of them is a famous actress and the other is a music student, who are best friends, finding out they have romantic feelings for each other, one of them has come to terms with her sexuality, and the other is just discovering her sexuality, it is really well written. I have listened to this book a lot and I still love it. I find myself rooting for them to get together which is always a good thing.

With this book you get to listen to both points of view which I really enjoyed; there are two narrators for this book so one chapter is from Payton’s point of view and it’s done in one narrators voice then its Kendall’s point of view in another chapter and this is done by the other narrators voice. I will say it would have been nice for them to have done it where Kendall’s voice is done in one of the narrators voice, then Payton’s voice is done by the other narrators voice. But both of these narrators did a good job, although I do think you could have had 1 of the narrators do the whole book and my favourite was Kendall’s chapter voice.

enjoyable queer romance

easy listening, enjoyed the two perspectives. Enjoyable queer romance. Felt like it was written for women, a pleasant listen

easy, sweet story with poor narration

this story is let down by the narration. at times it is impossible to distinguish who is saying what dialogue, particularly during Kendall's chapters as her narrator is really quite grating to listen to and her performance one dimensional. this is an easy and entertaining listen but a very mediocre audiobook

I read the book and found it thoroughly enjoyable e. Came back and listened to the audio version.,absolutely enjoyable great sto

Best romance I've read in a while.Highly recommend it.will get you hooked in the first few minutes

story was ok

ok not brilliant, wasn't keen on narraraters, but was used to my last audio book.