WILD HORSE SPRINGS Ransom Canyon, Book 5

A surfeit of characters and plotlines waters down this audiobook, which contains three separate romance plots (midlife romance, teenage crush rekindled, hero with a tortured past) and a suspense subplot that feels thrown in as a way to tie all the characters together. Narrator Julia Gibson works hard to make all the characters sound distinct, but this results in some odd accents and speech patterns for a few characters that pull the listener out of the story. The audiobook would have benefited from more focus. Followers of the series will enjoy touching base with familiar characters, but new listeners may feel adrift at times. L.C.L. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2017]