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

Booking Through Thursday: Flavor

Today's Topic: Favorite Authors...

Think about your favorite authors, your favorite books . . . what is it about them that makes you love them above all the other authors you’ve read? The stories? The characters? The way they appear to relish the taste of words on the tongue? The way they’re unafraid to show the nitty-gritty of life? How they sweep you off to a new, distant place? What is it about those books and authors that makes them resonate with you in ways that other, perfectly good books and authors do not?

Trying to narrow down favorite authors is always difficult for me. I have quite a few, and it's not like they're all within the same genre or even several from two or three genres. They're rather all over the map categorically speaking, and it makes it more difficult to pinpoint the quality that draws me to them.

I would have to say my top favorite books are the Harry Potters (more especially books 3-5) and Inkheart. These I think I like for generally the same reasons - escape. Rowling and Funke have, with these novels, created amazing worlds that are as real to me as my own living room. To be able to walk down Diagon Alley or share a story with Meggie and Mo - these are my people, my places, everything I love about reading is contained in these books. I could read and reread and reread them and never tire of the way I feel each time I turn the pages. There is definitely something magical going on.

Then there are authors like Michael Crichton and John Grisham - neither of which I've read lately, but both of which I still count among my favorites. For me, their talent lies in realism. Where The Goblet of Fire gets me with its fantasticalness (totally made up that word), books like The Firm and even Jurassic Park are so well thought out and explained, that you don't even question the plausibility of the plot. Dinosaurs created from DNA extracted from a mosquito? Sounds good to me.

And then there are others like Rosamunde Pilcher, who's been with me for a while, and Nicholas Sparks, who's a relatively new friend. Both of these authors tug at my heart a little bit, make me cry, and give me hope all at the same time.

I could go on and on...but I think the answer really is that each of the authors I count among my favorites are brilliant at creating life on the pages of their books, characters that breathe, cities I want to visit, and stories I want to hear over and over again. And I am so grateful that they've found their place in the world of literature.

So who makes you swoon?