Holy smokes, January LaVoy you ROCK! I don´t know how she did it but somehow the narrator gave her performance brilliance and clarity to shape each character only by giving her voice a different tune, style and accent is outstanding and made me speechless and happy.
Hideaway
by Nora Roberts Publisher Macmillan Audio on May 26, 2020
Narrator January LaVoy
Genre Contemporary Romance
Length 15 hours and 51 minutes
Source Purchased, Audible
Goodreads
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Caitlyn Sullivan had come from a long line of Hollywood royalty, stretching back to her Irish immigrant great-grandfather. At nine, she was already a star - yet still, an innocent child who loved to play hide and seek with her cousins at the family home in Big Sur. It was during one of those games that she disappeared. Some may have considered her a pampered princess, but Cate was in fact a smart, scrappy fighter, and she managed to escape her abductors. Dillon Cooper was shocked to find the bloodied, exhausted girl huddled in his house - but when the teenager and his family heard her story they provided refuge, reuniting her with her loved ones. Cate’s ordeal, though, was far from over. First came the discovery of a shocking betrayal that would send someone she’d trusted to prison. Then there were years spent away in western Ireland, peaceful and protected but with restlessness growing in her soul. Finally, she would return to Los Angeles, gathering the courage to act again and get past the trauma that had derailed her life. What she didn’t yet know was that two seeds had been planted that long-ago night - one of a great love, and one of a terrible vengeance…
Story
Caitlyn has gone through a nightmare and wants nothing more but to live her life as quietly and normally as possible. But the moment her mother is released from prison, everything changes. Because her mother wants the public to believe that she is a loving and caring mother who wants nothing more but to be reunited with her beloved daughter. A daughter she once used to get money from the family she had married into but hated more than anything.
Style
The audiobook is narrated by the incredible and fantastic January LaVoy. It is unbelievable how one single person can voice so many different figures and dialects while reading one novel. While listening to her fantastic talent, I was absolutely stunned how January LaVoy changed within seconds from one character to another in a dialogue or scene. A feast for the ears. The story itself seemed like a sideline, that´s how brilliant January LaVoy sounded.
To hear how the main figure is dealing with the kidnapping, how she moves on and does everything to live her life the way she wants, was simply wonderful.
Characters
The single figures are well created by Nora Roberts and come to life with the very talented voice the narrator has. January LaVoy gives each character the style, sound, and dialect they have, no matter if it is a male or female figure. Caitlyn and all the other characters seem to come out of real life. Good, money isn´t short within the Sullivan clan and they are as protective as one can be. And Caitlyn knows very well how to handle them without making them feel bad. I was very impressed by how the love and protection of a caring family are portrait here.
Conclusion
I started with this novel by listening to the audiobook. After some chapters, I moved on to the German print edition but kept listening to the audio too. Sometimes I love doing that. It makes the experience of discovering a new story more intense. At least for me. The way how the narrator used her voice to bring all the different characters to life and to give the reader a one-of-a-kind listening experience was just wonderful. Highly recommended to every Nora Roberts fan.
Happy listening
Nora Roberts
Nora Roberts, born in Silver Spring, Maryland, is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 200 novels. During the now-famous blizzard, she pulled out a pencil and notebook and began to write. It was there that a career was born. Several manuscripts and rejections later, her first book, Irish Thoroughbred, was published by Silhouette in 1981. Having spent her life surrounded by men, Ms. Roberts has a fairly good view of the workings of the male mind, which is a constant delight to her readers. It was, she’s been quoted as saying, a choice between figuring men out or running away screaming. Nora is a member of several writer’s groups and has won countless awards from her colleagues and the publishing industry. Recently The New Yorker called her “America’s favorite novelist.” She is also the author of the bestselling futuristic suspense series written under the pen name J. D. Robb. There are more than 500 million copies of her books in print.
January LaVoy
January LaVoy, born in Trumbull, Connecticut, is an American actress, most recognized as Noelle Ortiz on the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live. LaVoy made her Broadway debut in the Broadway premiere of the play Enron at The Broadhurst Theatre on April 27, 2010. She has appeared on and Off-Broadway, in regional theaters across the country, and guest-starred on several prime-time network series, including Elementary, Blue Bloods, and N0S4A2. She is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA and is a full-time faculty member in the Department of Theater and Dance at Emory University. January LaVoy is an Audiofile Magazine “Golden Voice” since May 2019. She has an extensive body of work in both narration and commercial voiceover. With hundreds of audiobook titles to her credit, she has received more than thirty Earphones Awards, eighteen Audie Award nominations (including seven wins), and was named Publishers Weekly's "Audiobook Narrator of the Year" for 2013. Her voice has been heard in national campaigns for dozens of products, and she shares a 2020 Grammy nomination with Meryl Streep and the cast of the Charlotte’s Web audiobook, in which she plays the title role of Charlotte.
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