Narrated by Maggie Wheeler

Trying a new narrator with a favorite author’s book is a chancy proposition for me and one I don’t often pursue without a lot of assurances from my romance audio friends. But when Brenda uncovered the little known fact that Maggie Wheeler is none other than Chandler’s obnoxious girlfriend, Janice, from Friends, I had to give it a try! An acting background says a lot about a narrator’s potential.

Knowing I was unlikely to find pure Linda Howard with Linda Jones co-authoring this tale, I approached Running Wild with an open mind hoping for simply a good book with a decent narration. Much to my delight, both the content and performance exceeded my expectations and I found myself listening at every opportunity and consuming the entire audio in less than three days. That’s a lot of listening for me.

Carlin Reed is in one tough fix. She dated psycho Brad only twice before deciding he wasn’t for her. But psycho that he was, Brad couldn’t accept her rejection and badgered her for more attention – breaking into her place, rearranging her clothes (according to the ones he liked best), and stalking her. When she moves to another city to escape his attention, he follows and kills one of her co-workers believing her to be Carlin. She takes off running, hiding her identity, and performing the most menial of jobs to earn a little money before moving on again.

Zeke Decker is one fine rancher – probably one of the most competent as well as sexy contemporary ranch owners I’ve seen in romance audio. He works as hard as the ranch hands on his big spread in Wyoming and relies heavily on Libby, his cook and housekeeper of many years. When Libby informs Zeke that she’s finally moving on, he’s beside himself. Who is going to cook those much-needed three meals a day for his hard working men? Although I found this first scene a little off putting in audio, it was only because it was all so new to me. I didn’t know what to expect of Maggie Wheeler and detected a whining note to Zeke’s voice. Not to worry – Zeke is not a whiner (nor does he sound like one) and within only minutes, I was sailing along.

Carlin hits the town of Battle Ridge with no intention of staying but before the end of the day, she’s working part time at the local diner. Cat, the owner (and cousin of Zeke), understands something serious is going on in Carlin’s life and agrees to pay her in cash. Ms. Wheeler sets Carlin apart with a Texas accent that effectively differentiates her character without sounding over-the-top Texan (thank you!).

Zeke and Carlin are immediately drawn to each other but neither is about to admit it to the other. He’s determined to not hire an attractive woman of a certain age although he is desperate for a cook. There are just too many potential problems where his men are concerned. And Carlin overhears Zeke talking negatively to Cat about her. The conflict feels somewhat manufactured but it works effectively towards Zeke’s eventual decision to hire Carlin. She must live at the isolated ranch which provides a good temporary hiding place from Brad.

Clear differentiation of characters is a must for me to make an audio recommendation and Maggie Wheeler definitely delivers on that score. Her voice is naturally deep so she doesn’t have to reach for her male characterizations. Rather than a change in pitch, her variations come in the form of accents or cadence and she does it well.  The voices of her characters flow naturally with no guessing games as to who is speaking. Her depiction of Zeke was especially swoon-worthy complete with attitude, authoritativeness, or even gentleness when appropriate. And Ms. Wheeler knows how to inject that hero-required sexiness into Zeke’s words as well as the authors’ descriptions of him entering a room or walking away.

For the first half of Running Wild, Carlin, while being a basically decent character, was a bit too crabby for my tastes and it was here that I particularly missed the pure Linda Howard as she generally writes highly likable heroines. I found the need to repeatedly remind myself that Carlin has a reason for her extreme caution/actions. Still, I wanted to say, “Let up on the guy” or “How can you talk to your boss like that?” Fortunately Ms. Wheeler manages to keep the bitch factor at bay while allowing the listener to occasionally hear a teasing tone in Carlin’s voice that gradually changes to fondness and admiration for Zeke. In the end, it worked…which surprised me. And the credit goes to the narrator’s interpretation of Carlin’s character.

I did spend some time trying to separate the Howard from the Jones and, other than Carlin’s crossness, I can’t say I was all that successful. Zeke is definitely a Howard hero although he’s more considerate than most. Is that the result of the evolution of the romance genre or Jones’ influence? Hard to say.

Maggie Wheeler’s narration is not perfect and it’s obvious she has room to grow but her understanding of romance along with the ease in distinguishing one character from another places her firmly on my “buy again” list.

Lea Hensley

Narration: B+

Book Content: A-

Steam Factor: Glad I had my ear buds in

Violence: Minimal

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Random House