Review of Finding Home by Eliza Lentzski, Audiobook narrated by Angela Dawe

Slowly but surely, the Winter Jacket series is being released on audio, luckily all (so far) narrated by the fantastic Angela Dawe. Just her rendition of Hunter’s voice makes this series worth listening to.

Elle and Hunter have been together for a while now. Their relationship held on despite pressure from family and professional life. But when Elle gets a tempting job offer that forces her to move to LA, will her relationship with Hunter survive the long-distance?

This is book 3 of the Winter Jacket series which is formed by Hunter (book 0), Winter Jacket (book 1), New Beginnings (book 2), Finding Home (book 3), and All In (book 4). I keep on repeating myself but it’s worth mentioning it here again: it’s really hard to maintain the same level of interest throughout a romance series once the main couple is established and still very much in love. But somehow Ms. Lentzski pulls it off, every single book.

The source of tension in this installment is the long-distance relationship. Sometimes these types of stories are hard to write because, by definition, the main leads are physically separated from each other and the romance suffers. Even though the mains stay away for a good while, the author makes this distance work to propel the plot forward. I’m going to summarise it in a short sentence: the longing is heartbreaking. At times, this book breaks your heart into pieces and you just have to trust that the author is going to put it all back again. Eventually. In a painstakingly slow manner.

These books are all about the characters’ journeys and for most of this series, Elle has more trials and tribulations than Hunter. It’s understandable as the series (except for Book 0) is written from Elle’s point of view. Hunter is usually this almost perfect angel with unending patience and an extraordinary ability to put up with Elle’s immaturity despite she’s 21 and Elle more than a decade her senior. But in Finding Home, Hunter’s ideal image begins to crumble and she starts to act her own age. I’m glad that the author decided to make Hunter flawed, contradictory, and second-guessing her decisions. Her flaws make her even more perfect, if that makes sense, and enrich the story.

Angela Dawe did another extraordinary job with this audiobook and took this already excellent book to another level. Her performance of the feelings is so raw, so heartbreaking, so convincing that it’s inevitable not to feel the same. As I said at the beginning, her rendition of Hunter is fantastic. I started listening for that but stayed for the rest. Absolutely worth it. Can’t wait for the final book. 5 stars.

Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins