Narrated by Tatiana Sokolov

Ever since the first book of the Six Pack Ranch series, I’ve had a soft spot for Matt Coleman. He was with his girlfriend Helen for many years and did all the right things to try and make her happy. But she wanted different things than Matt and she dumped him and ran away to Calgary. He’s been miserable for nearly a year, beating himself up for not doing enough to make it work. In Rocky Mountain Desire, Matt gets his happy ending – with Helen’s younger sister, Hope.

That’s a tough sell usually; after all, Matt and Helen did have a pretty active sex life and sleeping with your sister’s ex? Well, ew. But, the book didn’t shy away from the truth and, fortunately for my listening comfort, Hope and Matt took their time before acting on their physical attraction. Once they did they certainly scorched up the sheets – the erotic romance tag is not a misnomer. But the first half at least of the story is pretty much sex free. Matt and Hope become friends first and they acknowledge the difficulties the past relationship could possibly have on their present one.  Rocky Mountain House is also a pretty small town and so no one holds it against either Matt or Hope when they get together. In the book, it is accepted as perfectly okay and in the context of the story, it actually is.

Matt is just gorgeous. He’s devoted, loyal and sexy as all get out. I don’t know what Helen’s problem was. Seriously. Hope is no dummy and, unlike her sister, she’s not going to squander all the goodness that is Matt Coleman.

I also appreciated (I can’t even tell you how much) that when I was half expecting/half worried the plot would go one way, it went the other instead. And when, at one point, Hope was being overly martyrish, Matt stood strong. They agree to talk and be honest and that’s what they do. WIN.

Matt and Hope are alike in their love and appreciation of family (even though Hope’s family life was not the ideal) and they love their town and want to build a future there.

There was a part of the storyline (regarding Helen) which ended on a slightly unsatisfactory note but it didn’t involve Hope and Matt directly and it’s possible it will be answered in a future book in the series.

The previous book I listened to was not a success. I’m putting that mildly. I had such a negative reaction to the narration it was like listening to fingernails down a blackboard. It made me very grumpy. So it was a delight to sink into the narration here. I enjoy Tanya Eby/Tatiana Sokolov’s voice very much. I find her tones soothing and pleasant on my ear. I actually paid attention to some other aspects of it this time – trying to work out if I had perhaps been too picky in my earlier listen of the other unnamed narration. Did Ms. Sokolov do the same thing but because I like her style I gave it a pass? I’m happy to report that no, she did not. The cadence, tone and affect were all right for the story. There weren’t oddly emphasised phrases or strange pauses that made no sense. Yes, there were one or two instances where the sentence hadn’t quite finished and the vocal fullstop appeared too early but they were errors rather than stylistic choices.

Matt’s Six Pack brothers do sound quite similar but I detected some subtle differences for Matt over his siblings and it was easy to distinguish him from that of the other main male character in the book, Clay Thompson. The Coleman brothers did appear in the story but not a lot. When they were present, between the dialogue tags and the small differences in the voices, I was easily able to keep track of who was who. The female characters were better distinguished again.

Honestly, the entire listening experience was such a pleasant, enjoyable experience, especially when compared to my previous listen, that I think my ears did the *happy sigh* thing the entire time.

It’s a great novella length audiobook. I recommend.

Kaetrin