Review of Mine by Kim Hartfield, Audiobook narrated by Violet Woods

This is the second book I listen to in a relatively short period that begins with a city girl needing a change in life, applying to work on a farm and unexpectedly finding love. The first one was Must Love Chicken by Jea Hawkins. That’s where the similarities stop though. Mine feels like Must Love Chickens for adults (with a goat instead of chickens).

After something she’s not ready to talk about happened to her, Cherry left her city, her boyfriend, her family, everything really, to volunteer for three months on a small isolated farm in Idaho. The first few days are harder than she imagined, especially since the farmer, Margo, seems terse and unfriendly. Still, Cherry soon realises that she craves Margo’s approval. Margo’s attitude quickly softens and when she learns her temporary boss is a lesbian and into BDSM, a whole new world of possibilities opens up to Cherry, who until now thought she was straight and into vanilla sex and suddenly finds herself desperate to submit to a woman.

This book is very sexy long before there’s any sex happening. Cherry’s journey, her impatience, the anticipation, the precautions Margo takes with her before anything happens, to make sure she knows what she’s signing up for and that she really wants it… Every step is sexier than the previous one.

The story is (mainly) told in first person from Cherry’s point of view, so we experience the way she changes from within, how she goes from an oblivious city girl with a secret to this curious and open young woman. We also see Margo through her eyes, get to understand her through Cherry’s thoughts.

Audiobook lovers often say that a good narration can make an okay book better and that bad narration can ruin a fantastic book. It’s not that Violet Woods’ narration of Mine is bad exactly but there’s an undeniable pace issue and the oddest pauses, as well as repeated sentences which is a real shame because Violet Woods’ voices are good and it wouldn’t take much for the narration itself to be. I really liked the story and got invested in the characters from the start so decided not to allow these flaws to bother me too much. I’ll be honest, if the audiobook had been longer, I probably wouldn’t have made the effort, but I figured that I could deal with the glitches for six hours or so. I adjusted the speed a little – which I never do – and after a while, got so lost in the two women’s relationship that I didn’t care as much. I got jarred out of the story a few times by repeated sentences or long blanks but by then I was hooked.

I hate to write this but this story deserved better. I think this is Ms. Woods’ first audiobook so I hope in future narrations she finds a way to fix what mostly amounts to technical problems.

A copy of this audiobook was provided to LeZReviewBooks by the author for an honest review.