Cherish Hard

Sweet story with great narration

I adored this book. The main female character, Ísa, is kind and gentle-hearted which is a great amount of love to give, despite never being shown love and attention by her two estranged parents. Instead, she grew up to be the rock for her younger siblings but at the cost of never feeling like the priority to anyone. The main male character, Sailor, is a charming and determined man who saw Ísa when they were younger and it was love at first sight. Both characters are romantics who fall deeply for each other. Add in some quirky supporting characters, such as a best friend who is trying to please her Indian parents by entering into an arranged marriage, or a little sister full of fire who does not let the loss of her legs the defining moment in your life; you have a sweet story full of characters that you care about and want all of them to succeed, be happy, and find their own Happily Ever After.

Listen to a sample of this book before purchasing to see if you like the narrator's voice. It took some getting used to; being that the heroine of the book has an Icelandic accent and the remainder of the characters are New Zealand accents. The narrator flawlessly could move from one accent to the other and deliver both the dialogue and inner thoughts of the character without any confusion. I will certainly listen to more books narrated by Justine O. Keef.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

“not a normal Singh book, try the sample first”

Let me start by saying what a huge fan I am of Nalini Singh. However, this one is nothing like her others. I’ve read & listened twice to each of her Psy/Changeling & Guild Hunter series, loved them. This one was honestly a little boring, no intrigue or excitement. No description of the country except the camping trip. I enjoyed the international characters & I even somewhat enjoyed the narration. The chapter titles threw me each time, I’m sure it would have been funny if I was reading it. I almost stopped twice but didn’t have another book downloaded so I continued. Can’t recommend except that you must try the sample first to get a little idea of where she went here.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

and easy slightly slow listen

I'd say this book was okay. Not much angst. Great hero okay heroin. I wasn't thoroughly caught up in the book. I wouldn't say it was not bad it was just a little slow and different.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

SADLY I JUST COULDN’T FINISH IT

I was so looking forward to this new series as I’m a huge fan of all things Nalini Singh but sadly this wasn’t for me and I only made it to chapter 16 because I just couldn’t take the choppy chapters, the internal monologues and the strange accents any longer. I lost interest in the characters and their storyline. I didn’t know if the characters were British, Australian or what.. it was actually set in New Zealand but the higher inflection at the end of sentences was annoying.

Worth a credit? Now I totally lack the skills necessary to write a Novella let alone a nine and a half hour book.. and maybe the storyline could be redeemed by a different style of narration.. but it is what it is.. and that sadly is a NO not, IMO, a creditworthy book. Maybe you’ll love it, maybe you’ll persevere where I wimped out or maybe you’ll think it’s worth a credit.. but I recommend you listen to the sample first.

4 of 6 people found this review helpful

worst Nalini Singh book

Big fan of the author, but this is terrible. Reminds me of an old school harlequin with characters I don't like. I have forced myself to listen to 19 chapters, waiting for the good stuff but I now believe there is no good stuff coming. The narrator tries to affect a British accent but it doesn't work and the cadence is weird.

Just ok

Both of the characters were too needy for me and the narrator's voices were annoying. I struggled to complete this book.

loved it.

Loved the book and the reading was just right. What a wonderful way to spend a few hours.

Narration almost killed it

Why on earth this narrator would be chosen to read this book with this accent is beyond me. I almost didn’t finish but went back and gritted my teeth throughout.

A sweet story without a lot of drama or suspense - it just ambles along.

very sweetly emotionally intelligent

Read this after the Rock Kiss series, as it relates to Sailor Bishop, brother to Gabriel Bishop from book 2.
Charming and funny, we get to enjoy Sailor and Isa’s unconventional meeting and courtship.
If you want your sweetness with emotional intelligence, then this book is for you.
Keef does a very good job with narration.
Recommend!

Love the book, but the accents are beyond horrid

I love Nalini Singh, i liked this book a lot but the performance was almost unbearable. I am Australian and the accents which i am sure were meant to be Kiwi accents, were so bad it was almost unbearable. They were not new Zealand accents, sometimes it sounded like a bad Aussie accent, sometimes Indian, but always completely cringe worth. I am sorry, i have liked all of Justine's other narrations but this one..yikes.