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Book Review of Riding Lessons (Annemarie Zimmer, Bk 1)

Riding Lessons (Annemarie Zimmer, Bk 1)
cheermom140 avatar reviewed on + 85 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2


This is a review of the audio version of this book originally published at Publisher's Weekly and I agree with it 100%. "When the main character in a novel is as annoying as a boil, an audio performer must be thrilled at the chance to portray someone who isn't particularly nice or competent. Maggi-Meg Reed's Annemarie shouts, cries, whines, cajoles and lies her way through escalating crises. Reed is superb. She does an equally adept rendering of the other characters, including Annemarie's mother, with her thick Austrian accent and tight-lipped stoic voice. Eve, Annemarie's daughter, is a perfectly petulant teenager, speaking to her mother in a strident and querulous tone. A local policewoman has such a perfect New Hampshire accent that one wonders why the other locals don't. Despite the unsympathetic Annemarie, Reed's stellar performance makes Gruen's 2004 debut novel hard to turn off."

Now my 2 cents - this audio book kept me coming back for more even though I was constantly yelling "I HATE ANNMARIE ZIMMER!" - the main character has so many flaws and is so unlikeable that it took the perfection of Maggi-Meg Reed's narration to keep me enthralled.

If you find yourself having a hard time reading the book, give the audio version a try. It's worth listening to.