Audiobook Review: Unbreak My Heart by Lauren Blakely, narrated by Joe Arden & Erin Mallon
Note: A review copy was provided by the author via InkSlinger PR.
“Come back to me,” I whisper.
“I'm already there.”
Some stories are meant to be narrated; some not so much. Lauren Blakely's books? Well, they definitely land in the former category. With her latest audiobook, not only does she offer up to listeners a tale of loss and trying to find direction in one's life, but she's also got two narrators--Joe Arden and Erin Mallon--who I believe were so perfectly suited for both the story and as partners that anyone else would have paled in comparison. Unbreak My Heart was already one of my favorite reads for 2018, but after having listened to the audiobook, it's one of my top listens too.
I mentioned this in my review for the ebook, and I'll go ahead and reiterate it for this audiobook review: the synopsis for Unbreak My Heart is just the tip of the iceberg. Yes, this is a second-chance love story, and a unique one at that, but it's also a story about how the main character, twenty-five-year-old law school graduate Andrew Peterson, is at a point in his life where he's confronted by his feelings of being alone as well as being lonely. What leads him to this particular crossroads isn't mentioned in the official synopsis, but I dare say that is just as important as Andrew rekindling a relationship with the true love of his life, twenty-five-year-old Holland St. James.
So that this review doesn't sound overly vague, let me highlight certain details about the story so that anyone who has yet to listen to the audiobook has a basic idea of what's at play. Andrew's life has been in limbo over the past few months, and the arrival of a letter from Japan as well as the appearance of Holland lead him to come to a decision: he needs to go to Japan and spend time searching for the answers that he needs in order to hopefully move forward. Holland, who considers Japan more of her home than their home state of California, is by his side, but what happens when Andrew is done unearthing the information that he's looking for? At the end of the day, as much as these two have loved each other, distance continues to remain the greatest hindrance to being together.
Lauren Blakely has yet to disappoint, and the fact that Andrew's story is such a change of pace for the author after her run of romantic comedies made it all the more a story that I desperately needed to listen to. Of course, because I had already read the ebook, there weren't any real surprises story-wise. However, can I just say that I was left undoubtedly impressed by the narration of Joe Arden and Erin Mallon? This is my second listen for Arden and my third for Mallon, and maybe it was because this was the first time I had heard them together on one audiobook, but they've both now earned spots on my list of go-to narrators. Erin Mallon did an awesome job giving voice to Holland, and Joe Arden? He truly was Andrew Peterson, and because this was really Andrew's story to tell, responsibility lay heavily on Arden and he met it stupendously well indeed. Five-plus stars go to Unbreak My Heart. ♥
PS: This audiobook includes a bonus listen in the form of The Start of Us, which is the prologue novella of Lauren Blakely's No Regrets series. The novella audio is available as an individual purchase, having been released in June of this year, while audiobooks for the full-length stories were released back in 2014. I've had the ebooks for both the novella and the first novel, and getting to listen to the audiobook for the prologue has definitely piqued my curiosity and I do believe the time has come for me to get on with the rest of the series. The Start of Us was narrated by Joe Arden and Erin Mallon while The Thrill of It; Every Second With You were both narrated by Mallon. ♥
Date Listened to: 15 August 2018
I mentioned this in my review for the ebook, and I'll go ahead and reiterate it for this audiobook review: the synopsis for Unbreak My Heart is just the tip of the iceberg. Yes, this is a second-chance love story, and a unique one at that, but it's also a story about how the main character, twenty-five-year-old law school graduate Andrew Peterson, is at a point in his life where he's confronted by his feelings of being alone as well as being lonely. What leads him to this particular crossroads isn't mentioned in the official synopsis, but I dare say that is just as important as Andrew rekindling a relationship with the true love of his life, twenty-five-year-old Holland St. James.
So that this review doesn't sound overly vague, let me highlight certain details about the story so that anyone who has yet to listen to the audiobook has a basic idea of what's at play. Andrew's life has been in limbo over the past few months, and the arrival of a letter from Japan as well as the appearance of Holland lead him to come to a decision: he needs to go to Japan and spend time searching for the answers that he needs in order to hopefully move forward. Holland, who considers Japan more of her home than their home state of California, is by his side, but what happens when Andrew is done unearthing the information that he's looking for? At the end of the day, as much as these two have loved each other, distance continues to remain the greatest hindrance to being together.
Lauren Blakely has yet to disappoint, and the fact that Andrew's story is such a change of pace for the author after her run of romantic comedies made it all the more a story that I desperately needed to listen to. Of course, because I had already read the ebook, there weren't any real surprises story-wise. However, can I just say that I was left undoubtedly impressed by the narration of Joe Arden and Erin Mallon? This is my second listen for Arden and my third for Mallon, and maybe it was because this was the first time I had heard them together on one audiobook, but they've both now earned spots on my list of go-to narrators. Erin Mallon did an awesome job giving voice to Holland, and Joe Arden? He truly was Andrew Peterson, and because this was really Andrew's story to tell, responsibility lay heavily on Arden and he met it stupendously well indeed. Five-plus stars go to Unbreak My Heart. ♥
PS: This audiobook includes a bonus listen in the form of The Start of Us, which is the prologue novella of Lauren Blakely's No Regrets series. The novella audio is available as an individual purchase, having been released in June of this year, while audiobooks for the full-length stories were released back in 2014. I've had the ebooks for both the novella and the first novel, and getting to listen to the audiobook for the prologue has definitely piqued my curiosity and I do believe the time has come for me to get on with the rest of the series. The Start of Us was narrated by Joe Arden and Erin Mallon while The Thrill of It; Every Second With You were both narrated by Mallon. ♥
Date Listened to: 15 August 2018
Learn more about Lauren Blakely.
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