Fantastic narration; characters fought attraction

“Homecoming” is a very well-written and wonderfully-narrated story of two women who spent far too long working hard at not being in a relationship (again).

I really enjoyed the many very fun silly and often snarky observations and comments from both MC POVs.

”If I hadn’t been there to give her a ride, she probably would have ended up sitting on her suitcase on the side of the road. Maybe playing a lonely tune on a guitar, or making friends with cute forest animals” - Joan

MC Scarlett is likable, but her choices confused me, starting with her moving back to her hometown after her business and her relationship failed in NYC. Why? No…not why did she experience problems in NYC, but why return home? She doesn’t move back in with her parents; they’re not even in town as far as I could tell. She doesn’t seem to have a single friend in her hometown, except for her one-time friend and high school lover MC Joan, whom she doesn’t want to bump into, much less spend time with.

There is smoldering attraction between our MCs, but Joan continues to deny to herself and to Scarlett that she’s a lesbian. Joan constantly pushes Scarlett away, and doesn’t even want to be seen in public with her, for fear the community will label Joan as lesbian…or even as a pedophile. Really? Really?

Yes, MC Joan was difficult to identify with. Desperate to be “normal”, she spent high school being as girly, i.e. non-butch, as she could, and desperately hid her lesbian relationship with Scarlett from her peers, from her father…and as much as she could…from herself. She coldly dumped MC Joan when Joan went off to college, maintained her facade of “the ideal doe-eyed apple pie baking country girl image” for herself and everyone around her. She married Brad, who was attracted to her fake image as his own personal rebellion from his wealthy parents. They tried and failed to have children, and eventually he recognized that Joan didn’t really love him so he found another woman to marry moments after divorcing Joan. Joan spends nearly the entire book denying her obvious attraction to Scarlett. I can understand teenage angst and confusion over sexual identity, but it was frustrating spending so much time with someone hidden deep in the closet, and unaware of the acceptance of lesbians in her own small community.

Despite being pushed away by Joan, Scarlett continues to pine for her. Eventually, her gay best friend Timothy arrives from NYC to chastise her for pining for a long-ago high school girlfriend who doesn’t want to have a relationship with her. He drags Scarlett to a lesbian bar, where everyone wants to be Scarlett’s new best friend. Timothy is an enjoyable character, though he is rather an over-the-top portrayal of a gay man…dashing fashion etc.

Well, as the weeks pass, Joan finally questions whether she wants to live her life pretending to be happy, but finds that Scarlett is now dating someone else instead of waiting for her. I liked her girlfriend Alice very much, and actually wouldn’t have minded if Scarlett and Alice had found happiness together. But, this is Scarlett and Joan’s story, and our MCs finally realize that while they may or may not be soul mates, they stop fighting their mutual attraction and decide to take “baby steps” into a future together, and we have a HFN ending.

This is my tirst time listening to a book narrated by Amy Deuchler; I’m happy to report that she was terrific, and I very much look forward to listening to her narrate additional books in genres I enjoy! Her narrative voices and performance really enhanced “Homecoming”.

I rate the audio narration as 5*, the writing as 4.5*, but the story and the characters as 3*. Overall, I rate “Homecoming” as 4* - recommended.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

My rating and my review was not in anyway affected by my having been provided a review copy.

3 people found this helpful

Homecoming

The story and the characters were enjoyable. The narrator did a fine job of differentiating between the characters. In my opinion, the only negative aspect was the dialogue of the gay male character. It was cliched and stereotypical. Otherwise, I enjoyed the book and would like to hear more from these authors and this narrator.

This audiobook was provided to me at no charge, and my review is given voluntarily.

1 person found this helpful

No cupcakes for you

Spoiler warning.

The narrator uses a softer voice for scarlet and a deeper voice for joan. The novel alternates between both love interests' perspectives, but the primary focus is on Scarlet.

Unfortunately, scarlet wasn't the character I could relate to. She's pretty self centered and somewhat spoiled. After losing the love of her life in college, she easily moves on. After her business adventure busts, she moves back to her hometown. (Not sure why since her parents don't live there and she repeatedly says she doesn't know anyone).

I like joan better. Unlike Scarlet, joan seems to be "going with the flow" of her life, working to support her father and marrying a man she doesn't love just so she won't be alone. She's always there to help even though she wants nothing to do with her. She agrees to be friends despite their past breakup. She also plays mentor/substitute-parents to one of the local girls she coaches. I enjoyed listening to her coping with her struggles and finally choosing to make her life her own. I did have two problems with joan. The first is that she ghosted scarlet in the first place. WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THAT? The second is that after scarlet drunk-calls joan, joan will later drunk-visit scarlet.

There are a few stereotypes like flannel, religion, and the gay best friend with fashion sense. They're used lightly in jest, and they're not *too* overdone. Honestly I'm surprised scarlet bought a toyota instead of a subaru. When scarlet gets into a car accident, I was worried someone was gonna die. But it all ends on a happy note.

I was hoping to have more time with the two together. It feels like a good chunk of the time they're either fighting or not together, right up until the end.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

1 person found this helpful

GOOD BOOK!

I enjoyed this book however, I would have probably gotten more enjoyment if this book gave me more on Scarlett and Joan being together. The narration was good and kept you entertained. This was my first book by this author but definitely will not be my last. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

1 person found this helpful

Amazing story

I enjoyed everything about this book! The story was wonderful and the narration she was spot on and fit the storyline. A perfect love story I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily provided this review.

1 person found this helpful

Not Easy Coming Back Home

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

I love romance stories like Homecoming, while at the same time getting frustrated with them. This book does an excellent job of going back and forth between the 2 primary characters, Scarlett and Joan. The frustration comes in by being able to see how much they should be together but also seeing how overthinking and fear get in the way. A majority of the book is spent seeing the difficulty Scarlett has with coming back home from the big city while Joan struggles with her feelings and what is "normal". By the end, you just want them to get together.

Amy Deuchler does an excellent job of narration of the different voices, making it easy to tell whose point of view you are listening to. There were some struggles listening to the few men parts that required a deeper voice, but they did not distract from the story at all. Overall, it is a very loving story. If you are looking for super hot sex scenes, you will be disappointed, but the realism of the love story makes this a good audiobook to listen to.

1 person found this helpful

Ended abruptly

90% of the book was the build up to their past relationship. 5% was some fillers of other people. The last 5% was them finally sleeping together and not really discussing anything or giving the reader anything to look forward to. Most of the book was will they won’t they and ending was very anti climatic. Very disappointed, I wasted a whole credit on this. I just wish they would’ve had a few more chapters of them together. Then the book would’ve been perfect.

1 person found this helpful

Captivating!

I really liked this story. Real situations, raw emotions, and just the right amount of angst. The narration was excellent!

Have Patience

Is the facts of love. Not your run of the mill girl goes home finds old flame and falls back into love again. I love the separate angst of how or will they or won't they get together.

What a great story!

I really liked the writing style of the authors, and I'll be sure to get more books from them.

The characters felt real, with the small and big mistakes we all made through our lives.

Joan struggle is terrible because she has convinced herself that there is only a way to survive, and that way is to be 'normal'. And 'normal' is such an unachievable goal... She made compromises: not too fem, so people will trust her with their cars; not too butch, so she can keep her image as a straight woman. Hell! She even married to keep that image!

Scarlet, OTOH, is out and proud, but financially broken, and was dumped by her girlfriend, so she had to come back home to that little, small town at the left of nowhere and forget her dreams of a cupcake shop and accept a job in a hardware store.

Joan and Scarlet dated in secret during high-school, but when Scarlett left for college, Joan refused to go with her and broke Scarlett's heart. And now, they live really close, and things are... strange.

The funny and snark inner dialogues were a big part of my enjoyment, and I love Scarlett's friend (sorry, I forgot his name. Timmy? Tommy?) who is a great secondary character.

And Amy Deuchler does a truly superb job with the narration.