Possessing Morgan is the first Blaze I listened to with my new Audible 12 month Blaze subscription. Blazes are about 6 hours on audio, not mentally demanding, and are perfect for taking the boredom out of repetitive tasks like exercising, cleaning, or commuting.
The narrator, Sandra Caldwell, was pretty bad. Maybe the worst audio narrator I have ever heard, actually. You know when children read aloud to their classrooms … and they don’t know how to read ahead mentally to determine where the emphasis should be in a sentence and how the flow should go? This narrator was that bad. Sometimes she would even pause in the middle of a word, as in “Are you walk. … Ing away, Morgan?”
Yesterday, I reviewed a book that I didn’t personally enjoy, but would recommend. This book is the opposite: I liked it, but I am not sure I can really recommend it, and not just because of the bum narrator.
Morgan is a repo woman, who enjoys the thrill of repossessing cars. As a teen, Morgan actually stole cars and ended up in juvie. She chalks that up to being under the thrall of an older boyfriend, and vows never to depend on a man again.
She’s had a fan girl crush on playboy Kingston “Mac” McRae for years, fed by consumption of tabloid magazines that print salacious stories about him, as well as her own nonexistent love life. When she gets the chance to repo one of his fancy cars at his estate, she hopes for just a glimpse of him. Morgan gets a lot more than that when he spies her from his window and runs out to stop her. One look at her Daisy Duke shorts and flaming red hair (a kind of distracting uniform, not her personal choice of attire), and Mac is interested. Heat flares instantly between them.
It so happens that Mac has been troubled by a stalker of late, and he suspects the stalker has been messing with his payments to creditors like the car dealer. Mac convinces Morgan to come inside while his security team works things out. They get to know each other in the Biblical sense, Morgan telling herself it’s a meaningless one afternoon stand. But Mac is instantly smitten and convinces her to stick around for the weekend.
The stalker angle is significant, and consumes the plot. (I found myself secretly hoping Morgan was the stalker, with a split personality disorder. That would have been super cool, but perhaps a bit off target for a Harlequin Blaze.) There isn’t much internal conflict, except for Morgan occasionally reminding herself she will never fit in to Mac’s life and that she can’t rely on a man. It should be totally ridiculous that Mac gets so involved with Morgan so fast, on the day before his sister’s wedding, and while a stalker is invading his life in terrifying ways. Talk about distractions! Not to mention the tryst he has with Morgan in the coat room during his sister’s wedding reception. All class, that guy. (Actually, in some ways, the conflict WAS the fact that there was no conflict, that they fell for each other so fast.)
And yet … I was truly entertained by Possessing Morgan. There was no sexual tension, and Mac and Morgan fell into love as easily as they fell into bed. But I enjoyed the writing, and Morgan and Mac were both likable, interesting characters. The stalker plot made sense, the secondary characters were well drawn, and neither Mac nor Morgan ever did anything unforgivably stupid. I enjoyed it, and I will look for more titles by this author.
@ Jessica.
Did the sex scenes squick you out?
I only ask because I’ve seen a few posts around the traps lately on audiobooks with comments along the lines of the listeners not wanting to listen to hotter sex scenes and steering clear of certain audiobooks for that reason. I have listened to the Outlander series and the Lord John books which have some, I guess, hotter sex scenes, but I suppose the most “purple” were the first 2 of Stephanie Laurens’ Black Cobra quartet books – I found the sex scenes sniggeringly funny and kind of embarassing – not because I was embarassed, but hearing the words aloud, it made the words that much more cheesy to me. I know Ellora’s Cave have just started to release audio books but I don’t think I’m interested in that.
Anyway, Blaze is known for its “heat” so I wondered what you thought….
@Kaetrin: No, actually, they don’t bother me anymore. And this Blaze was fairly tame compared to some others I have read. Intimate scenes not too many, too long, or too graphic.
I think if they are well written, they work on audio, and if they aren’t .. they don’t. Cheesy is cheesy, whether on the page or in audio.
Plus, the nice thing about audio is that you can tune out if necessary. It’s the audio form of skimming.
Hi Jessica, thanks for taking the time to post this review. I haven’t heard the audio yet and I admit while I write I think only of the written word. From my mind to yours via a page or screen.
As a reader, I think I’m with Kaetrin though. Sex is so intimate (in life, in fiction) that hearing some aloud may not provide the experience it would written.
I’m very pleased Possessing Morgan entertained you!
Nice site…and your reviews are very thoughtful.
@Bonnie Edwards: Thanks for stopping by. I really liked Possessing Morgan, as I mentioned.
I love listening to audiobooks, even those with more explicit scenes, but the narrator does have an effect on the experience. Some narrators, like the women who narrate Susan Elizabeth Phillips (the late, the wonderful, Anna Fields) and Sarah Mayberry (Gabra Zackman), are phenomenal, really adding a new dimension to the experience.
Unfortunately, my opinion on the narrator for Possessing Morgan is one of my rare bad experiences. Hopefully you will win the narrator lotto next time around!