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A review by marbooks90
The Proposal by Katie Ashley
3.0
I'll be honest. The Proposition (and therefore, obviously, The Proposal) is a book I first read probably close to 10 years ago. I was in my early twenties and just fell in love with it for some reason. Because of this, it's a series I find myself circling around to every few years as a comfort read.
That being said, I've been trying to ease myself into audio books. I tried a book I'd never read before and it just didn't work so I decided to try listening to books I was familiar with to get a feel for them before moving on to new material. So, I just "reread" this by listening to the audio book. After rehashing the book, now into my thirties, I take some issues with it.
I still quite enjoyed the story. We're obviously picking up where we left off after the bomb at the end of The Proposition. Mistakes were made. In my review for The Proposition I note that I enjoy Aiden as a character and that while I used to like Emma as well, I found her more patronizing in this read through. The Proposal makes me change both those view points. I like Aiden less in this book. In the first book, he's a pretty chill guy but generally takes command and knows what he wants. Admittedly, he freaks out and loses sight of that at the end. We all read it, we know what happened. Then, he wants to win Emma back...and just sort of rolls over and waits. What happened to the guy that curated the entire plot of this book to get something he wanted (however selfish his intentions were) or the guy who hopped on a plane to be home for two days knowing he'd have to turn around and go back to where he came from for work just because he needed to see Emma? He makes it clear he wants her back but doesn't quite have the fire I would have expected.
As for Emma, I find her significantly more annoying in this book (not to mention hypocritical). She recognizes Aiden regrets his actions. Many people have told her as much and she's seen it for herself. I get he screwed up and she takes that indiscretion seriously but my LORD does she drag it out and, by doing so, basically goes down the same path Aiden did. It seemed out of character for her and it took WAY longer than it should have for her to realize she was doing to Aiden what he'd done to her.
For similar reasons on my review of The Proposition, I gave this a three mostly because of the bit of nostalgia I mention at the beginning of this review. I've long had a soft spot for these books and that made me more generous with my rating. I think if I'd read this for the first time now, I would probably have rated it a two to two point five.
Now, specifically speaking for the audio book aspect. I still feel like a male and female narration would have benefited the audio book. Justine O Keef was still just fine but I felt like the male voice was missing from the story. Similar to The Proposition, I took issue with a pronunciation that drove me batty (luckily it's only in the book once) but our girl Justine CANNOT pronounce the word boutonniere. I can't even try to phoneticize how she said it because it was just so WILDLY off base. I digress.
Also, my bigger beef with the narration was the accent for Pesh. I get it. The guy is of Indian descent. He was also born and raised in the US. I'm not saying that means there will be no accent simply based on his upbringing. But Justine leans SO HARD into the Indian accent for Pesh, it was cringe-worthy and embarrassing. Thank GOD Pesh doesn't have too much dialogue in this book or it would have been hard to listen to. I was nervous to start a listen of The Pairing knowing Justine was narrator of that as well. Luckily, so far, the accent is MUCH scaled back for Pesh, making it easier to listen to (until Dev makes his first appearance, then we're back to the yikes). I struggled with the narration more for this book mostly for this reason.
That being said, I've been trying to ease myself into audio books. I tried a book I'd never read before and it just didn't work so I decided to try listening to books I was familiar with to get a feel for them before moving on to new material. So, I just "reread" this by listening to the audio book. After rehashing the book, now into my thirties, I take some issues with it.
I still quite enjoyed the story. We're obviously picking up where we left off after the bomb at the end of The Proposition. Mistakes were made. In my review for The Proposition I note that I enjoy Aiden as a character and that while I used to like Emma as well, I found her more patronizing in this read through. The Proposal makes me change both those view points. I like Aiden less in this book. In the first book, he's a pretty chill guy but generally takes command and knows what he wants. Admittedly, he freaks out and loses sight of that at the end. We all read it, we know what happened. Then, he wants to win Emma back...and just sort of rolls over and waits. What happened to the guy that curated the entire plot of this book to get something he wanted (however selfish his intentions were) or the guy who hopped on a plane to be home for two days knowing he'd have to turn around and go back to where he came from for work just because he needed to see Emma? He makes it clear he wants her back but doesn't quite have the fire I would have expected.
As for Emma, I find her significantly more annoying in this book (not to mention hypocritical). She recognizes Aiden regrets his actions. Many people have told her as much and she's seen it for herself. I get he screwed up and she takes that indiscretion seriously but my LORD does she drag it out and, by doing so, basically goes down the same path Aiden did. It seemed out of character for her and it took WAY longer than it should have for her to realize she was doing to Aiden what he'd done to her.
For similar reasons on my review of The Proposition, I gave this a three mostly because of the bit of nostalgia I mention at the beginning of this review. I've long had a soft spot for these books and that made me more generous with my rating. I think if I'd read this for the first time now, I would probably have rated it a two to two point five.
Now, specifically speaking for the audio book aspect. I still feel like a male and female narration would have benefited the audio book. Justine O Keef was still just fine but I felt like the male voice was missing from the story. Similar to The Proposition, I took issue with a pronunciation that drove me batty (luckily it's only in the book once) but our girl Justine CANNOT pronounce the word boutonniere. I can't even try to phoneticize how she said it because it was just so WILDLY off base. I digress.
Also, my bigger beef with the narration was the accent for Pesh. I get it. The guy is of Indian descent. He was also born and raised in the US. I'm not saying that means there will be no accent simply based on his upbringing. But Justine leans SO HARD into the Indian accent for Pesh, it was cringe-worthy and embarrassing. Thank GOD Pesh doesn't have too much dialogue in this book or it would have been hard to listen to. I was nervous to start a listen of The Pairing knowing Justine was narrator of that as well. Luckily, so far, the accent is MUCH scaled back for Pesh, making it easier to listen to (until Dev makes his first appearance, then we're back to the yikes). I struggled with the narration more for this book mostly for this reason.