Narrated by Cristina Panfilio

Suddenly Single is book four in Julia London’s Lake Haven series. I have enjoyed all of the books and I love Cristina Panfilio’s narration (that she is attached to a project is enough in itself to have me wanting to listen) so I was really excited when I stumbled across this one at Audible.

This book is one for all those listeners
who love a curmugeonly hero. Edan Mackenzie is the innkeeper and owner of the
Cassian Inn in Lake Haven. The inn is on the unfashionable south side of the
lake; the wealthy folks from New York tend to stay at the fancier resort in
East Beach.

Edan’s fiancé left him three months earlier
to go back to Scotland (from where they both hail) and he’s been moping ever
since. He has a plan; he will close the inn, sell up and return to Scotland to
win Audra back. He has two final bookings and that will be his final commitment
to guests, then he’s gone.

Then Jenny Turner arrives. She doesn’t have a booking. She ignores the
giant “closed” sign on the door and breezes on in. And she talks. And talks and
talks and talks. The woman doesn’t stop talking. Edan is a man of few words.
Jenny more than makes up for this however.

Jenny is at loose ends. Her father has a
new girlfriend and doesn’t need her to look after him anymore (he has
Parkinson’s Disease). Jenny was travelling with a loser and when said loser
cheated on her, she dumped him. Now she’s stranded in Lake Haven. It’s late at
night, she has no car and there is no public transport. If she can’t sweet talk
Edan into letting her a room, she will have to sleep on the bench outside the
inn.

Jenny’s father is wealthy. She is fortunate
to have had the privilege of being able to take her time to work out what she
wants to do with her life even though she’s 29. That’s not to say she hasn’t
tried. She just hasn’t found anything that’s stuck yet. She’s not lazy and,
even though appearances might say otherwise, she’s not actually flighty. She’s
just looking for ‘her niche’.

Jenny finds herself drawn to Edan, to the
Cassian Inn and to Lake Haven. She begins to feel at home. Like, maybe she’s
finally found the place for her, the person for her. But Edan is leaving.
Right?

I was uncomfortable about some of the
representation of hoarding (Jenny’s father) in the book but otherwise, enjoyed Suddenly Single very much. Jenny is a
whirlwind. She’s funny and kind and self-deprecating – and extremely talkative.
She is not a fan of silence and tends to fill it any way she can. Folks warm to
Jenny quickly – she fits just about anywhere, with her friendly charm and easy
small talk (as this is a skill I do not share, I kind of envy Jenny).

It’s not a wonder Edan is bowled over by
her. Suddenly, he’s rethinking all his plans.

There is a kinda-sorta vaguely croaky/husky
quality to Cristina Panfilio’s voice that I just love to listen to and she
completely delivers with the characterisation of Jenny. The timing of her
sentences, the tone and the vibe are so completely on point.

However, I have to say that Scottish
accents aren’t exactly Ms. Panfilio’s forte. I could hear her concentrating on getting the accent right. There was a
deliberateness to most every word Edan or any of the other three or so Scottish
characters in the book said. It wasn’t a terrible Scottish accent but it was
really not great either. I got used to it and my sense was that deliberate
concentration on the accent eased off later in the book so that Edan’s
character shone through a little more.

I’m not convinced that modern Scottish
people actually say “bonny lass” unironically and I also don’t think “dinna”
and “doona” are commonly used – they’d seem more fitting in a historical novel
rather than a contemporary. But Jenny was so much fun I could overlook those
small issues. While not my favourite instalment in the Lake Haven series, it
nevertheless did not disappoint.