Review of ‘Marriage of unconvenience’ by Chelsea M. Cameron, Audiobook narrated by Eliza Cooper

At the risk of repeating myself in a loop, I’m going to say it again. An audiobook can make or break a book. If it helps to make a story better, happy days, but it’s sad when it ruins it. I’m afraid there’s no polite way to put it here. ‘Marriage of unconvenience’ is an enjoyable story with an amateurish narration.

Lauren “Lo” Bowman is unemployed and drowning in debt but her luck is about to change when she inherits a big amount of money from her granny. The only problem is that the inheritance comes with the stipulation that she has to get married before she can collect it. Cara Simms, her best friend from childhood needs money to pay for grad school, so Lo has a brilliant idea: they should get fake married. The problem is that the fake marriage is starting to feel like the real thing but Lo cannot be falling for her straight best friend, can she?

Chelsea M. Cameron is a prolific writer, she mainly writes mainstream romance but she has a few f/f novels. I’ve seen good comments about this novel so I decided to give it a go. ‘Marriage of unconvenience’ is an enjoyable lesbian new adult romance story that hits the trope of best friends to lovers and ‘toaster oven’ all in one. Both characters are lovable and even though I wouldn’t say their chemistry is off the charts, their story is believable and fun. I think that an early twenties audience would really enjoy this book.

Unfortunately for me, I decided to listen to the audiobook instead of reading the novel. This was a close ‘did not finish’ for me. The only thing that kept me going was that the story is sweet, cute… and short-ish. Sadly, I don’t have many positive comments to make about Ms. Cooper’s narration. I’m surprised that it was deemed acceptable by the audiobook producer as the recording sounds amateurish. For example, there are technical issues in which you can distinctively hear sound changes that indicate those parts that were recorded at a later time. Regrettably, that’s not the only recording issue but I’ll spare you the details of the rest.

Ms. Cooper’s performance was also sub-par with breathing pauses cutting the middle of a sentence, emotions that contradict what the written text says, and forced performance of feelings. On the positive side, the voices of the main characters were distinctive enough to make it bearable to listen until the end. I’m sorry but I cannot recommend the audiobook but I think you’d find the novel enjoyable to read instead. Overall, 4 stars for the story, 2 stars for the narration. 3 stars.

Duration: 6 hrs and 20 mins