Hörbuch gelesen von Anna-Lena Zühlke
Herausgegeben von HarperAudio, October 2023
★★★
Camryn ist in Wishing Tree für ihre Schwestern—sie will nicht bleiben. River ist auch in Wishing Tree für ihre Schwester...und sie will bleiben, aber sie findet es schwer, einen Mann zu treffen. Und dann kommen zwei Männer, eins für Camryn und eins für River...
Das ist ein Brot-und-Butter Liebesgeschichte—nichts kompliziert. Camryn hat ihre Schwestern, die fünfzehnjährige Zwillinge sind, und River hat ihre überraschende Geschichte; der Mann für Camryn hat eine anstrengende Mutter (gute Absichten...aber...), und der Mann für River hat ein Geheimnis.
Die Figuren sind für mich nur okay—Camryn mag ich, aber River wurde ich gern schütteln. Sie hat diesen Typ nur seit ein paar Wochen getroffen, sie haben nur ein paar Dates gehabt, sie haben meistens über das Wetter gesprochen—und River denkt, dass er alle seine Geheimnisse ihr erzählen muss? (Und alle die andere Figuren stimmen zu...?) Nein. Das ist kein gesunder Anfang für eine Beziehung. (Und Jakes Mutter...oh lawdy. Run, Camryn! Run!)
Als Hörbuch war das gut gemacht: der Ton der Leserin ist ruhig und klar, und die Stimmen sind verschieden—ganz hilfreich! Manche Stimmen fand ich ein bisschen nervig (zu...gehaucht? schmollend?), aber das Buch war überhaupt ein gutes Hörerlebnis.
Mallerys Liebesgeschichten sind nicht wirklich mein Ding, aber sie sind ganz beliebt—ich bin sicher, dass diese Geschichte ein großes Publikum finden wird.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley. Deutsch ist nicht meine Muttersprache, und alle Fehler sind meine eigenen.
Published October 2022 via HQN
★★★
Camryn is in the sugar-sweet town of Wishing Tree for her sisters—she doesn't plan to stay. And River does plan to stay, but her shyness makes it hard for her to connect with people, at least romantically. But just around the corner is a man for each of them...
This is a bit of an odd choice for me. Susan Mallery actually wrote the first romance novel I can remember reading, when I was maybe 10, and although that particular book still entertains me it's not what I seek out. For Home Sweet Christmas, I picked up the German audiobook because it seemed like something I could handle (it was!), but I added the original English to the mix to make sure I wasn't missing too much: I listened to a few chapters of German at a time, then read the corresponding English chapters. (Can confirm: the translation is good, and I didn't need the double dose.)
Home Sweet Christmas is of course more modern, but it's still a bread-and-butter romance, nothing too complicated. Camryn is responsible for her 15-year-old sisters and reluctant to commit to anyone else in Wishing Tree; River has a slightly surprising history; Camryn's romantic interest has a well-intentioned but terrifyingly meddlesome mother (run, Camryn! run!); River's romantic interest has a secret.
There's not a ton of story, and the characters were for me merely okay. Camryn I like well enough, but I wanted to shake River—she takes the angle that if she's ready to bare her soul after a couple of dates, her lover needs to have the exact same timeline or it's a breach of trust. (It's wild to me that the other characters seem to agree, and to wave off her own enormous violation of his trust.) For a relationship built on conversations about how River doesn't like the cold (so deep!) and Dylan doesn't cheat (...reassuring?), it's a lot. Similarly, Helen's meddling goes quickly from 'quirky' to 'deeply inappropriate', and while the twins were fine, they often felt closer to 12 than to 15.
No regrets listening to the German version—I wouldn't bother two-timing with the English next time—but overall this is a 2.5 star book for me. Does what it set out to do but doesn't go beyond the basics.
German audiobook was thanks to the publisher via NetGalley; English original was powered by the magic of my local library.
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