Monica Burns (1)

Wow, wow, and just wow. I agreed to review an advance listening copy of Forever Mine because it sounded like a cute little time travel story. They can be fun if you don’t try to over-analyze the science of time travel, so I was expecting an exciting, slightly humorous story of a woman dropped into the wrong time, struggling to get back, with a little heat on the side. Monica Burns is a new-to-me author and since I love audiobooks this seemed like a good way to check her stories out. Listening while walking can be diverting.

Well, let me tell you, diverting is definitely not the right word. Mesmerizing, all-consuming, hypnotic, heartwarming, heartbreaking – those might be better words. Once I started listening, I really could not stop. I would have walked round the clock if I could have; as it was, I stayed up very late to finish this story. I couldn’t leave Victoria and Nicholas/Nick. I expected there to be a happy ending (realizing that even though there was a Nicholas and a Nick there was only one Victoria) but I couldn’t imagine how it might work out. And you know how you know in the logical part of your brain that you’ll be smiling at the end but your heart isn’t quite sure and you’re afraid to turn away because something unexpected and bad might happen. In the animated Beauty & the Beast I am always afraid that this one time the Beast will really die, and I was worried in that same way about Victoria and the N’s.

This is a fairy tale of love, with all the good and evil and happy and sad you would expect. Author Burns moves the story along smoothly and quickly, making it easy to follow the jumps back and forth between time and place. She’s created interesting characters with depth and personality, and just when you think you’ve figured everything out another surprise pops up.

The attraction between Victoria and Nick in the present day is immediate and intense. He is just swooping in for a big kiss that she is eagerly awaiting when the track lighting falls on her head. As she remains in the hospital in a coma always-logical Nick can’t figure out why it is impossible for him to leave her side. She looks just like the woman in the picture he is nearly (ha, ha Nick, it's more than nearly) obsessed with but she isn’t that woman from the past and he can’t be in love with someone he doesn’t even know. Or can he? The attraction between Nicholas and Victoria isn’t quite so instant. As far as he’s concerned she’s his horrible wife Vickie just up to more tricks. Around this version of Vickie, though, his feelings bounce like a rubber band: helplessly drawn to her and then repelled when he remembers their history and waits for this fake Vickie to revert to her true self. As for Victoria, this is frightening, fantastic and inconceivable. How did she get here and why can’t she remember? And when is she going back? She knows who she is and where she’s from and that she is NOT Vickie. But even with the blank space in her memory, she is inexplicably drawn to this cranky, uptight, heart throbbingly handsome guy against all logic, sense, and reason. So we know at once we’re off to a great start. Forever Mine is a wonderful story full of sweetness and fun and humor and danger and suspicion and intrigue and anger. With lots and lots and LOTS of heat and some very, very cuddly times. And love that really is forever.

This would be a great book to read, but as an audiobook it goes to another level; it is as if it was written to be read aloud. From a technical standpoint the audio is well produced, with good, clear sound and balanced levels. The dual narrators Stephanie Nemeth Parker and Zachary Johnson are just about perfect. I do love British accents but living in California by way of Chicago it is important that I be able to understand those gorgeous accents. And I can! The dialogue is crisp and clear, the emphasis always feels just right, dramatic but not distracting. I was drawn into the story and transported both to the 1897 countryside and the present-day hustle and bustle.

Thanks to home cooked books for providing an advance listening copy of Forever Mine via SoundCloud for my listening pleasure and honest review. I loved this story and can’t wait to listen to the next in the series. I recommend it without hesitation. All opinions are my own.… (plus d'informations)

This one is kind of hard for me to pin down. I suppose I liked the main characters. And it held my interest. I'm not sure the psychology for the healing process holds water, but, different things do work for different people, so it's possible I guess. Having the Domme be new at the position and the sub be interested, but also kind of resistant, made for an interesting dynamic. Most of the drama comes from the characters keeping secrets, which I'm not a huge fan of, but it didn't have me pulling out my hair or anything. So overall good.… (plus d'informations)

I'd actually read the second in this series beforehand, and enjoyed it. But this one was a miss for me. Part of it was a frustration with how much time they wasted. They'd been best friends since childhood, but a couple of dumb decisions later, and they missed out on even that friendship for 14 years(!), much less the happily wedded bliss they should have had. That's not romantic, that's just sad. And at every turn there's a path to perhaps get things back on track- but then they head off some other way instead. And because they're not even penpals during that time, there are large stretches of the book where they aren't even interacting with each other. Lame. There's like one chapter in the middle of the book about a secondary relationship, and I think I actually preferred it to the entirety of the main one. They had my respect and empathy so I cared more about their HEA. And lastly, I didn't like how this couple's reunion was handled. There's a time and place for bedroom games, but I don't think this was it. At all. It made it into playing mind games and throwing the other off balance, rather than sitting down to finally address some things, or having an emotional heart to heart, or some physical tenderness during this emotionally trying time, or anything one might expect in this scenario. If things go well then there will always be more time later to play around and experiment, etc. It made it seem like sex, and in particular the hero's fantasies, were the real priority and everything else could just be squeezed in in the gaps. So I didn't find the story romantic, and because the one real sex scene is that last one and I didn't like how it was handled, it didn't end up feeling particularly steamy to me either. I didn't hate it, but it was definitely a disappointment. Overall though, I disliked the characters' decisions but I didn't particularly dislike them. So it had potential, but just missed its mark.… (plus d'informations)