Irish Holiday

A Raven Hill Farm Mystery

De: Jane E. Drew

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Quinn is in the middle of a midlife crisis. Forty-six, divorced, and having recently walked away from her practice as a psychologist, she fears her best years are behind her. Fiona, Quinn's best friend since childhood, has a plan to get her out of her rut — a trip to Ireland! Quinn loves everything about Ireland: the people, the culture, the scenery and especially a little town called Ballyfrannen. On a whim, she decides to move there, and Fiona is eager to do the same. At first, things seem to be working out perfectly. They find a charming little stone cottage to buy and set about renovating it. Unfortunately, Quinn has a massive crush on the building contractor they hire to do the work. She feels like a tongue-tied schoolgirl whenever he's around. But then, love has never gone smoothly for Quinn. A visit from Quinn's former husband only complicates her life further. Missing her work as a psychologist and desperately needing a distraction, Quinn volunteers a few hours a week at the local mental health clinic. Soon things take a dark turn. It sure seems like someone is trying to kill her. Quinn is not about to let anyone spoil her hard won new life, though. Surrounded by her new friends, Fiona, and a menagerie of animals, Quinn sets out to find some answers. She's in way over her head, though, as she uncovers, one by one, the dark secrets of this bucolic little town.

How fake the voice inflection was

I hated the virtual voice feature. It made the experience harder to get into and believe.

might have loved the story.

I discovered I HATE virtual voice.
if you like being read to by a bored, non-emotional, humorless second grade teacher's aide, Virtual Voice is for you.
one of the things I love about Narrator Performances, is that they are just that. Performances. Humor, drama, various character voices, dialects and inflections all shine through. For example, the Irish natives should have ACCENTS.
So disappointing. A good narrator, or duet performance makes or breaks an Audio book. Virtual Voice narration will cause the book to flop in ratings.
I might have loved the story, had I been able to continue it once they reached Ireland. I just couldn't stand it that a fantastic narrator lost this gig in favor of a computer voice.
shame on you.

Nice light read, a cozy mystery

Some parts of the story moved fast and others slow but overall it was a pleasant listen. The narration was pretty good for being automated; it pronounces well but is limited on expressiveness. I would listen to this author and to automated narration again.

loved the story

didn't care for the ai narrative, it was very hard to follow who was speaking.

Terrible AI voiceover

The story was excellent with good character development but the AI attempt at audio recording was terrible. The cadence was monotonous and boring. The attempts at inflection were repetitive and became annoying after chapter 2. I will carefully screen audiobooks in the future and decline to select those with AI performance.