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A review by ccgwalt
Lucky Break by A.M. Arthur
3.0
Story 3 stars C
4 stars for narration by Greg Boudreaux B
I've noticed a trend with this series, but I was hoping I was wrong. Each story seems to have gotten a little more melodramatic, and a little more sappy-sweet. The basic plot of Lucky Break is good, and the setting, a dude ranch in California, is unique enough to be an interesting change of pace from ball sports, military, or boardrooms.
The story is interesting and it mostly held my interest, with details of the daily running of a dude ranch and the interactions of the large cast of characters. The weakness here is a good plot that rambles around losing focus, and two protagonists that spend 95% of the book not being totally honest with each other. I personally don't see how one person could think they could build a life with another if they are unwilling to share the most formative events of their lives. This isn't so much a "big misunderstanding" trope as a "I have traumatic secrets I can't share" trope. Several of the books in the series have that same plot device, and I guess I'm tired of it. I was over the lack of transparency by the 60% mark, and still had about 4 hours to go on the audio. For most of the book I liked the characters, but by the end I honestly thought I'd be fine if they went their separate ways.
Greg Boudreaux is a favorite narrator of mine, but while I still enjoyed him on this book, it wasn't his strongest performance. His voice acting, the way he puts the emotions into his voice, is excellent as always, but he was less careful than usual keeping his character voices separate, an for the first time I had to back up at several spots to figure out who was speaking. I also have noticed that over the course of the series he has used the same, or very similar, character voices for several recurring characters, which adds to the confusion at times when there are group conversations,which happens often.
4 stars for narration by Greg Boudreaux B
I've noticed a trend with this series, but I was hoping I was wrong. Each story seems to have gotten a little more melodramatic, and a little more sappy-sweet. The basic plot of Lucky Break is good, and the setting, a dude ranch in California, is unique enough to be an interesting change of pace from ball sports, military, or boardrooms.
The story is interesting and it mostly held my interest, with details of the daily running of a dude ranch and the interactions of the large cast of characters. The weakness here is a good plot that rambles around losing focus, and two protagonists that spend 95% of the book not being totally honest with each other. I personally don't see how one person could think they could build a life with another if they are unwilling to share the most formative events of their lives. This isn't so much a "big misunderstanding" trope as a "I have traumatic secrets I can't share" trope. Several of the books in the series have that same plot device, and I guess I'm tired of it. I was over the lack of transparency by the 60% mark, and still had about 4 hours to go on the audio. For most of the book I liked the characters, but by the end I honestly thought I'd be fine if they went their separate ways.
Greg Boudreaux is a favorite narrator of mine, but while I still enjoyed him on this book, it wasn't his strongest performance. His voice acting, the way he puts the emotions into his voice, is excellent as always, but he was less careful than usual keeping his character voices separate, an for the first time I had to back up at several spots to figure out who was speaking. I also have noticed that over the course of the series he has used the same, or very similar, character voices for several recurring characters, which adds to the confusion at times when there are group conversations,which happens often.