Review of ‘One Summer Night’ by Gerri Hill,
Audiobook narrated by Abby Craden
I’m happy to see that Gerri Hill is having all her back catalogue released in audiobook format and she has chosen Abby Craden as the narrator for most of them. ‘One Summer night’ is a romance written in 2004. Having recently read ‘Gillette Park’, I definitely prefer Ms. Hill’s mysteries to romances like this one.
After having her heart broken thanks to a cheating girlfriend, college professor Johanna Marshall has sworn off any serious relationships. But during the summer, after meeting gorgeous and irresistible Kelly Sambino, she indulges in a one night stand. Hoping to never see her back again, she soon finds out that Kelly is the college new literature professor. Jo is adamant to ignore her pull towards Kelly but their attraction is hard to resist. Will Kelly be able to convince Jo to give their relationship a chance?
It’s difficult to enjoy fully a character-driven book such as ‘One Summer Night’ when one of the leads is hard to like. This is the case of Johanna who has reasons to be guarded but whose extreme cautiousness starts to feel repetitive by the middle of the book. It’s hard to like her, to empathise with her and to not see her as a whinger. On the other hand, Kelly is exactly the opposite, open about her feelings and willing to give them a chance. At more or less the same time the reader starts to get tired of Jo’s hesitancy, we cannot help asking what Kelly sees in her. Not very conducive to romance.
What saved this book for me is that as usual, Ms. Hill builds fantastic chemistry between the leads, especially in their intimacy. However, the push and pull was, in my opinion, a bit overdone. Another saving grace was that the audiobook is read by Abby Craden. I never tire of saying that a narrator can make or break a book. I have yet to see a story that hasn’t been improved by Ms. Craden’s talent as a voice artist. However, she cannot do miracles and her rendition of Jo didn’t boost my opinion of the character. The story is quite emotional and as usual, Ms. Craden did a great performing job. Overall, a good lesbian no-strings romance audiobook. 4 stars.
This isn’t in my list of favourite books by Gerri Hill but as the audiobook is free with a Scribd subscription, it’s worth a try. Duration: 6 hours.
