The cult classic movie Four Weddings and a Funeral recognizes the soul searching and conviviality that often surround life’s most important events, namely, weddings and funerals! In that spirit, here are new romance listens—four with wedding themes and one with a funeral.
Natalie Naudus uses a delightfully confidential tone to welcome listeners to a week of wedding festivities that romance novelist Kara Sullivan is forced to endure as she faces writer’s block. Into this hotbed of stress enters Kara’s old flame, Ryan. Naudus’s brisk delivery keeps the drama and humor on overload in TALK BOOKISH TO ME by Kate Bromley.
In BRIT VS. SCOT, Grey Dixon cannot stand by and watch while the love of his life, Jessica, might reunite with her unsuitable ex. Listeners will appreciate the hilarious set up (it’s Grey’s brother’s wedding, and he’s chosen to host it at a nudist locale), all courtesy of narrators Shane East, Stella Hunter, and Zachary Webber. East and Hunter play up the awkward nature of the couple’s wedding encounters for a fun romp.
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas . . . unless you got married there. Narrator Piper Goodeve chronicles Lily’s attempts to restart her life, beginning with finding her Vegas husband Ben in the small town of Minnow Bay so that she can end that relationship once and for all. Listeners will appreciate THE MATCHMAKERS OF MINNOW BAY for the sly humor Goodeve brings to her performance.
Unique character voices pepper Carmen Jewel Jones’s reading of A LOWCOUNTRY BRIDE by Preslaysa Williams. Maya leaves the high-pressure New York City bridal industry to take a job at an independently owned Black bridal shop in South Carolina. While Maya appreciates being closer to her father as he recovers from surgery, her move may be a fresh beginning in more ways than one. As Maya balances her own ambitions against the bridal shop owner’s reservations, Jones makes the love story real for listeners.
As promised, SATISFACTION GUARANTEED by Karelia Stetz-Waters begins with a funeral. The death of Cade Elgin’s aunt means that Cade has co-inherited a struggling adult toy store. Her new partner Selena Mathis is hard to resist, even if both women plan to focus on saving the business. Narrator Lori Prince's charming performance plays up the characters’ personalities as well as the risqué premise of the story. Her sarcastic drawl for Cade adds to the black humor that must surround such grave proceedings.
