Audiobook Review – Fall From India Place by Samantha Young

Fall From India Place by Samantha Young

Audiobook Review. Part of an interrelated standalone series.
Adult Contemporary (though this one felt more NA)

I am a HUGE fan of the On Dublin Street series by Samantha Young. I fell behind on my reading and never got around to reading the copy of Fall From India Place on my Kindle. So when I was looking for an audiobook, I grabbed it, forgetting to listen to the sample. I just didn’t expect the narrator to be a young lady with a Scottish accent! Once I got over that (which was actually really cool), I found her to be a bit too slow in her pace, and tried to speed it up, but it didn’t quite work. Some may love the slightly slower pace, and I got used to it, but to me it made a slightly slow book even slower.

In this case it is difficult for me to separate the audiobook from the story. The narrator was just so sad all of the time. And yes, Hannah (the character) was too, but it was kind of sad and depressing to listen to, despite my enjoying the accent.

Hannah is Ellie’s little sister. A character who was nerdy and happy in previous books if I remember correctly. Fall From India Place skips 5 years into the future from the last ODS book, and a lot has changed. Hannah fell in love, lost her virginity, and had her heart broken by Marco D’Allesandro 5 years earlier. She is now a teacher, and after finding an old photo of Marco 5 years after she last saw him, she can’t stop thinking of him. Sadly pining for him….his departure from Scotland 5 years earlier was something she had yet to get over.

I’d felt lost for a long time after he left. It had taken a while to find my strength and independence again. It had meant hardening my heart and creating little locked doors in my soul so that only the people I trusted implicitly could ever make it inside to touch it.”

There was a very slow ramp-up to the meat of the story. A lot was shown in flashback, and Samantha took her time unveiling the whole situation. But without giving too much away, Marco comes back. And when he sees Hannah again, he wants her back.

 

But it isn’t so easy for Hannah. His leaving truly broke her.

Should it be this hard, though, Marco?”…..Should it hurt this much?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what the rules are.”

He works so hard to convince her…

I’m your best friend. You’ve just forgotten. My fault, I know. I can help you remember.”

But some things just couldn’t be forgotten, and Hannah was not just going to give in.

Why did you really ask me to meet you tonight, Marco?”

“Because, when I’m with you it feels like everything’s going to be okay. I can’t explain it.”

I enjoyed the story, will definitely continue with the series, but this was the weakest so far for me.

Likes:

• Visiting with all of the previous ODS characters.
• Seeing Cole as a grown-up, and I loved his and Hannah’s friendship.
• The kids!!!! (I don’t want to spoil one of the best lines.)
• I liked the teaching moments, and how Hannah helped the adults in her literacy class.
• Having a young narrator with a Scottish accent was a great touch.

Dislikes:

• It was a very slow moving, slow building, slow revealing story compared to others in the series.
• Hannah just pissed me off. I did not like the way she handled things and blamed Marco for things beyond his control.

Audiobook comments:

Chloe Lynn had a great Scottish accent and did the male voice very well.  I wanted to speed it up because she was a bit too slow, but my app sped it up a bit too much, so I stuck it out with the slow. She was very sad and soft spoken, which, although Hannah is sad, was way too sad sounding to me. I loved the idea of a young Scottish narrator, but I would have liked her to speak a little peppier.

Rating: Story: 4 stars, Audio: 3.5 stars, Heat 3.5 

Story:

Audio:

Heat:

I never look at other reviews before I post mine. But in this case I took a peek. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t basing my opinions just on the narrator and that I was able to separate it enough to have a true opinion of the story. Many of the reviews I saw said the same thing, that the book was a little slower paced, that we lost the happy Hannah, and that she was a little too stubborn. I enjoyed Fall from India Place, but it just wasn’t my favorite of the series.

Purchase Fall from India Place

Amazon | Audible | BN.com 

 

 Click covers to go to Amazon. Most can stand alone.

See the full reading order with links to my reviews plus links to a ton of male POV Bonus scenes here.

.