Narrated by Jennifer O’Donnell

First off, given that I generally only review romance, I think it worth noting that Julianne MacLean’s Color of Heaven series is really more women’s fiction than romance. All that said, there is definitely an element of romance sprinkled towards the end of this story for the romance enthusiast which also happens to go along perfectly with this novel’s main focus – familial love and the power of hope.

With that said, I found The Color of Hope to be an interesting, engaging, and somewhat unique story that challenged me to debate a number of moral dilemmas and existential theories. Unfortunately, given that the blurb is rather vague about the detailed, multi-pronged plot, I am pretty limited in what I can say, other than this book centers around two main female characters and their interrelated journey of self-discovery.

Diana, a divorce attorney, has led a privileged life. Raised by a wealthy senator and his loving wife, Diana has been exposed to all the finer things in life and benefited from those advantages.  She now lives with a well-known sports agent, and is sure her life is headed towards marriage and children.

Nadia, on the other hand, has led a completely different life. Raised by blue-collar parents who divorced when she was young, she has had the ill fortune of having to learn how to get by with minimal help and resources.  At one point, she and her mother were so down on their luck that they had to live out of their car.

What do these two women have in common?  How will their lives intersect?  Moreover, how can two such different individuals provide hope to one another?

This was my first experience with Jennifer O’Donnell, and overall I was quite happy with her performance. Although she doesn’t imbue her characters with an overwhelming amount of distinctness, you can, for the most part, distinguish the characters who are involved in any particular scene.  Additionally, she imparted a deeper vocal quality to her male roles and more appropriate feminine tones for the females, so that that they sounded true to their gender.

Ms. O’Donnell also manages to convey the vast number of emotions experienced in this book without sounding over the top. She instead maintains a very believable nature, which adds to the effect of the particular scene being enacted. Additionally, she keenly varies the cadence of her speech to suit the mood of the chapter and specific individuals involved. I also enjoyed being able to sense the particular tone of the passage by the speed of her delivery. All in all, I would be pleased to listen to more of Ms. O’Donnell’s performances in the future.

The Color of Hope was an interesting and pleasing change of pace for me. Providing lots of room for thought and deliberation as to deep concepts that I would otherwise likely not find the time to ponder, I appreciated the thoughtful excursion this story provided. Moreover, Ms. O’Donnell’s skilled narration made the experience an especially pleasant one.

BJ

Narration:  B+

Book Content:  B+

Steam Factor:  You can play it out loud

Violence:  None

Genre:  General Fiction with Contemporary Romance

Publisher:  Julianne MacLean

The Color of Hope was provided to AudioGals by the author for review.