Lisa A Rodriguez

I can't take it anymore.....

Reviewed: 03-03-19

I love Alafair Burke's novels....the suspense, twists, and details keep me awake and entertained each day on my 50 mile each way commute to work and back.

But Samantha Kinkaid is supposed to be a NATIVE OREGONIAN. I usually love an Australian accent, and maybe I could have forgiven it if Betty Bobbit had bothered to look up how to correctly pronounce specific Oregonian terms and locations. It's very distracting!! The one that bugs me most is 'Willamette'. We moved to Oregon in 2000 from Southern CA and we, like Bobbit, pronounced it WillaMETTE. But as soon as we realized the correct pronunciation is Will-A-mette, we changed our ways. In fact I made a little poem to remind myself--- It's Will-A-mette, dammit! There are many, many references to the Willamette River in the Samantha Kinkaid books, and every time Betty says it, I cringe. There are other words too... like once she said 'fill-ett' and I didn't even understand at first until I figured out that she was saying fillet (like a fillet of salmon). I'm not sure if she also says Ore-GONE. But that's a notorious sign of a non-native.

The other part of the narration that bugged me was when she does Samantha's dad. She always has him laughing in a way that sounds like he's choking on food.

This is the first time I've written an Audible review, and I'm not trying to be mean or overly critical. Hopefully this review will be taken, if ever read by Betty Bobbit, as constructive criticism. Before recording, look up the pronunciations of local words.... especially if the main character is a native. None of this would have been relevant if Samantha had relocated from Perth, but she didn't.

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