Anonymous

Loved the Story-Not the Narration

Reviewed: 12-03-23

Tom Lake is a wonderful story of lives lived, choices made and not made. How incredulous Lara’s daughters are about her life before marriage and children. Also how naive and oh the assumptions they make! That they want to know EVERYTHING is endearing and funny at the same time.
I like Meryl Streep as an actress very much. Not so much as a narrator. Many scenes in the book are overacted, her voices very inconsistent and sometimes not believable, particularly with the daughters. The men are all the same voice. There is a bit of pretentiousness that comes through. I had to listen more to the words than to her in order to enjoy the book.

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Mispronunciations Abound

Reviewed: 10-07-23

First, the story has much potential. But Annie, the protagonist, seems a bit unrealistic and a bit whiny. Add to this a seemingly inexperienced narrator, who can’t pronounce Italian words well (pensione, pasta!!!!, buon giorno) and frustratingly even English words and you have a level of listening frustration that takes away from the story. She, like the character, is whiny with almost every character.

As I said, the story has potential with a few tweaks to Annie and even Cara.

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A Good Read

Reviewed: 04-09-23

A very interesting story with the background “character” being the harvesting of turpentine. Great character development overall and the convergence of the characters stories filled with a few twists and turns that kept me wondering and wanting to read!

My only complaint was the overuse of the word “said”. There are plenty of synonyms.

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Enjoyable Read

Reviewed: 04-04-23

I found myself caring more about the book as it went on. Part of it for me was the narrator. But also the feelings and thoughts of the young Estee were a bit unbelievable for me. 12 year olds of that time did not think like that. But once she grew into young womanhood I became more engaged. The balance of the generational stories was terrific.

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Delightful Hope-Filled Story

Reviewed: 03-22-23

Fiona’s books are always delightful. But, I especially liked this one. I loved the familial relationships in the village and how much they take care of one another. The characters were delightful.

I loved Sarah Zimmerman’s narration! I seldom give a 5 on Performance but this deserved it.

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1 person found this helpful

Simplistic, Repetitive Writing

Reviewed: 03-15-23

I really wanted to like this book. I loved Yellow Crocus. There are no contractions which is totally unrealistic. I felt I was being read to by the narrator as if I was a child listening to a teacher or parent reading a children’s book.
At least 1/3 could have been taken out of this book. Very disappointing.

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A Niche Story of WWI

Reviewed: 03-11-23

This was a fascinating read for me because of the little-known Chinese workers working for both England and France during the First World War—their contributions and their subsequent treatment post-war. But the surrounding story was nicely shaped and the characters were well-developed. A highly recommended read for me in historical fiction.

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Delightful

Reviewed: 03-06-23

Nice twists in the plot with a few giggles along the way. Performance was very good.

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Wanted to rate it higher

Reviewed: 09-21-21

I was a bit disappointed in the pronunciations by the narrator. Sometimes they were good and other times, even with words she pronounced well previously, were just off. It was a bit distracting.

While I liked the historical descriptions, the characters, and research that went into the book the author, it seems to me, arbitrarily places in the midst of this wonderful story love scenes that one would expect in a Fabio-covered romance novel. There is no real purpose to them in furthering the plot.

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A Miscast Narrator

Reviewed: 09-12-20

In general, I liked this book. Perhaps I would’ve liked it more if I had read it versus listening to it. I feel that the narrator was miscast in this case. While she had a lovely voice, her voice was that of an older woman and the women were all in their 20s. It became hard for me to picture the characters.

I also feel that the story was was very good all along but then I feel as if it just ended too abruptly. One minute they were still wondering what is happening and where the codicil is and who’s related to who and then all of a sudden it’s tied up in a neat package.

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