By Jennifer Cruise
Narration by Angela Dawe
Brilliance Audio – Unabridged – 5 hours
Story – 3 Heart Review
Narration – 4 Heart Review
Dennie Banks is an investigative reporter chasing down the biggest story of her career. Alec Prentice is a government agent working undercover to catch an elusive grifter. When they meet by accident, it's a case of mistaken identities at first sight. What they don't mistake is the instant attraction they have for each other, an attraction they'll do everything in their power to resist – because Dennie thinks that Alec is running interference for her interview subject, and Alec suspects that Dennie is linked to his swindler. As the confusion grows, so do their feelings for each other, and what begins as a romantic comedy of errors may just end in the love affair of a lifetime.
Jennifer Cruise says at the beginning of this story that this is the only screwball comedy she's ever written and I think she should write more! It still has her signature voice and wit all over it, but it is slightly different than her other books. That's one of the reasons I gave this a 3 Heart Review for the story. The story works so well – really it does, but because of it being a comedy of errors, one of the “rules” of romances is not to let the conflict be something that if the couple just sat down to talk it would all be worked out. There is definitely an aspect of that to this story as it's a case of mistaken identity. I wanted Dennie and Alec to have that talk to discover this long before they did – but again this is part of writing this type of story and I'm just not used to it.
The narrator Angela Dawe has done other stories I've listened to and yet her voice really does change based on the tone of the story. From book to book she constantly seems to take on the characters and transform her voice.
She is great at hitting just the right inflection to make you feel the story is flowing in the same way it would be in your head if you were reading. She also does the male voices in a way that doesn't annoy or take time getting used to. Each of her characters is distinctive and she even changes the cadance of her speech to match the personality of the character. She's very good and I usually enjoy her performances. She brings the books and characters to life in a a way that doesn't make you feel like you could have imagined it any better.
I really enjoyed this audio book and hope that one day Jennifer will attempt to write another screwball comedy. If you don’t mind the whole “just have a conversation with each other” aspect to the story, then I think you’ll love this one.
