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Showing posts with label Emma Galvin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Emma Galvin. Show all posts

Monday, May 11, 2015

Audiobook Review: A Beautiful Wedding by Jamie McGuire, Narrated by Emma Galvin and Zachary Webber


A Beautiful Wedding is a short novella in the Beautiful series by Jamie McGuire. This one needs to be read after Beautiful Disaster, and shouldn't be read as a standalone. I was curious to learn about what had made Abby decide to propose to Travis, and how everything went down. The ending of Beautiful Disaster felt a bit rushed, so I really wanted to know more. I am sad to say that this story was not at all what I had been hoping for, and it honestly changed my opinion on pretty much everything regarding this series. 

I have had some issues with Abby from the start, but she really lost me here. While I loved Travis more than ever, I felt like Abby did some horrible things in this book. I loved that Travis and Abby got married, and I was so glad to see that Abby was finally coming around after everything that had happened. But once her reasons for getting married were revealed in this novella, I honestly began to question everything. I could no longer believe that she truly loved Travis and that she was marrying him because she wanted to be with him. I also felt like it was ridiculous to start their married life off with him never finding out the truth about it all. She should have talked to Travis, and they should have dealt with things together. Travis on the other hand was so freaking sweet, and he always says the most perfect things to Abby. His love for her had never been more clear, and it was obvious that he only loved her more and more. His being so great and never finding out the truth is what really broke my heart. He deserved better, and it killed me to see this crap happen to him. 

I honestly wish that I never knew Abby's reasons for getting married. I think it really killed what I had loved about these two. While there were some great moments in this book and I liked Abby and Travis before, I really felt like all the good was destroyed by this. The fact that it never came out and that nothing ever happened in regards to Travis and the fire just felt unrealistic and it really turned me off to this series. I have no idea why Jamie McGuire decided to go this route with these characters, but I just felt like she did a huge disservice to them and the entire journey that these two had gone through. If I was rating this book based on the story alone, I would give it two stars. I was just disappointed with the story itself. But the narrators were really great and I loved their voices which is why I decided to give this audiobook three stars instead of two. I thought that Emma Galvin did a great job with Beautiful Disaster, and I was excited to hear more from her. She did a great job again with this story, and I really do think that she was the perfect choice for Abby. Zachary Webber did great with Travis's character and I thought that he was also the right choice for this story. He brother Travis to life and was so clear and easy to listen to. He really brought out the emotions and feelings of what Travis was going through, and I would love to hear more from him as well. I will absolutely listen to more from each of these narrators in the future, and they are among my favorites that I have listened to.

**Audiobook Provided by Publisher**

Purchase: | Audiobook | Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depository | 







Saturday, May 2, 2015

Audiobook Review: Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire, Narrated by Emma Galvin


Beautiful Disaster is one of those books that I feel like everyone has read at this point, and I am so late to the party. I have heard so many good things about this book that I knew I had to read it. So when I got the chance to listen to the audiobook, I was really excited to finally find out what everyone had been talking about. I have to say this one left me with mixed feelings, and I am still trying to figure out exactly what I am thinking about it. While I liked parts a lot, there were also other things that really did not work for me.

Abby Abernathy needed to escape her life, so she and her best friend headed to Eastern University to put some distance between herself and her past. When she finds herself face to face with the school's playboy, she immediately puts him in his place. Though she is attracted to Travis Maddox, she knows she needs to avoid him. But Travis is determined to win Abby over, and the two begin to form a friendship. As they get closer, both of the feelings start to change though neither of them are willing to admit it to the other. When Travis and Abby make a bet about the outcome of one of his fights, Abby ends up losing and must spend a month with Travis. Will their new circumstances show them that they belong together, or will it all end in disaster? 

Both of these characters frustrated me at times, Abby more so than Travis. Travis had been used to going through women, and made no apologies for who he was. But he started to change when he met Abby. I liked how he was with her, and I thought that she brought out the best in him. There were a few times that I really thought that Travis screwed up, but he also did some really sweet and thoughtful things as well. Abby ran hot and cold, and I felt like she gave Travis a lot of mixed signals. I didn't like her dating Parker, and I also didn't like that though she wasn't with Travis she would get mad about him being with others. It was okay for her to date others, but he wasn't supposed to? If she wanted him, she should have been honest rather than just get mad about things that she didn't have a right to be mad about. I did think that they had a great friendship and connection though, and their chemistry and attraction was never a problem. These two were great together, I just felt like the way they got there wasn't the best. 

I have to say that I think it was Abby and the way she acted that drove me crazy the most. She made some bad choices and I felt like she overreacted on more than one occasion. While I liked her with Travis, I wanted them to talk more and learn to communicate better. These two were both young, and I think that was a lot of the problem. But I wish that a few things that happened went differently. While I didn't love everything about this story, I did like the book and there were a lot of really entertaining parts. I just think that this story suffered a bit from the immaturity of the characters, and the angst and back and forth got to be a bit much. I liked Emma Galvin's narration though, and I thought that she did a great job of bringing Jamie McGuire's story to life. Emma was clear and easy to understand, and I thought her voice fit perfectly with Abby's character. It was age appropriate and wasn't annoying to me. I felt like she did a really great job of differentiating between characters so that you always knew who it was in the story, and the voices sounded normal. Sometimes when a single narrator tries to do different voices it can come off as strange and that wasn't the case here at all. I will definitely listen to more by Emma Galvin in the future.

**Audiobook Provided by Publisher**

Purchase: | Audiobook | Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depository | iTunes |