Audio Book Review: A Risk Worth Taking by Robin Pilcher

ISBN: 978-0312945626
Publisher: Macmillan Audio (unabridged version)
Read By: John Lee
First Line: The alarm clock went off, as it had for the past fourteen months, at seven o'clock.
One Word Review: Vapid

Publisher's Summary:
After the dot-com bubble burst, Dan Porter is laid off from his job and must decide what is truly important. His wife of twenty years, Jackie, a beautiful and successful managing director at a clothing designer shop, no longer connects with him. His teenagers, Josh, Nina, and Millie, are distant and confusing. Jackie is tempted by the attentions of a younger man at her office, and thanks to an opportunity suggested by a magazine article, Dan finds himself contemplating a drastic change in his life.

If I'm being honest, I will say that I went into this book as one should never do - with expectations based on the work of another author. I have read and loved almost all of Rosamunde Pilcher's novels, and dearly wish she'd written more. When I discovered, several years back, that her son was also a writer, I was optimistic that perhaps he had inherited his mother's lovely style. Why did it take me so long to actually read one of his books, you may wonder. Well, it's mostly because I was afraid of this very thing - that I would, probably unfairly, compare his writing to his mother's and find it lacking.

Here's what I think. If you are looking for a substitute for Rosamunde Pilcher, this isn't it - not that it should be. An author should be allowed to stand on their own. I get that. But, I do miss her wonderful stories set in beautiful places and filled with endearing characters. Ok, so back to ROBIN (this is about him, after all, I should give him a fair shake). The thing is, though, I'm not sure I really got the story he was telling. It just didn't connect. I found the characters to be a little flat, the story to be largely unbelievable, and the setting to be fairly non-existent. Am I basing my opinion on an unflattering comparison to another's work? I don't know. Here's what I do know. I probably wouldn't have even picked the book up had it not had the name Pilcher attached. So, perhaps it's not so unfair.

If you think you might like the book, you can buy it on Amazon.
To hear a sample of the audiobook or purchase this book in audio format, you can do so on Audible.com

Rating on the book itself: 2 out of 5 stars
Rating on the audio aspect: 3 out of 5 stars