Bluegrass State of Mind

Bluegrass, Book 1

By: Kathleen Brooks

Narrated by: Eric Dove

See where the USA Today best-selling Author Kathleen Brooks began!

This is the first book in Kathleen Brooks' Best-Selling Bluegrass Series.

McKenna Mason, a New York City attorney with a love of all things Prada, is on the run from a group of powerful, dangerous men. McKenna turns to a teenage crush, Will Ashton, for help in starting a new life in beautiful horse country. She finds that Will is now a handsome, successful race horse farm owner. As the old flame is ignited, complications are aplenty in the form of a nasty ex-wife, an ex-boyfriend intent on killing her, and a feisty race horse who refuses to race without a kiss. Can Will and McKenna cross the finish line together, and more importantly, alive?

©2011 Kathleen Brooks (P)2013 Kathleen Brooks

Fantastic book

Would you consider the audio edition of Bluegrass State of Mind to be better than the print version?

I enjoyed both equally. I love reading but it is just as good having it read to me:)

What did you like best about this story?

I like the storyline and the interaction between the characters

What about Eric Dove’s performance did you like?

I just love his voice :)

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Oh yes, I could have listened to it forever :)

Omg

The book is fantastic on its own. Kathleen Brooks is a genius. I absolutely love it. Eric Dove is 👍. I love his voice. He does a wonderful job with the characters voices and gets their personality straight on. He really brings the story to life.

Awesome start to an amazing series

I love this book. It has opened the door to this amazing town and people. This is my 3rd time listening to it and I have read it at least that many times.

Hate Cliff-hangers!

The book was a little cheesy with loose threads left hanging. Not enough of the story left for a second book, unless it would be the prodical friend's return & her adventures.

Light Country Read, Read on to See If You'll Like

What other book might you compare Bluegrass State of Mind to and why?

It kind of reminds me of Nora Roberts' Inn at Boonsboro series. With a little of the TV show The Hart of Dixie.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I listened to it periodically throughout the day.

Any additional comments?

OK so here are the major points to this story:

1) No hot steamy sex scenes. This is a good old fashioned Kentucky love story, with little old ladies smacking brooms at the H/h for getting too "fresh".

2) It is a very light romance. So no deep connections going on. What I like to read/ listen to between heavy stories, to cleanse the palette. Lol, I think someone compared it to the Andy Griffith show, and I think that is a perfect comparison!

3) I read a lot of reviewers complaining about the narrator speed reading through the whole story. Well I use the audible app on my android phone. So I set the app to play at .5x and found it to be just the right speed. In fact I loved the narrators voice. It was slightly gruff and I liked his country accent. Although I will say I found some of his female voices hilarious. I found myself busting out laughing at certain points. I'm pretty easy going about this but it may irritate some people. So if your one of them you may want to just skip the audio version for the regular book.

4) As for the plot it was a little all over the place at points. There where a few detours from the main stream of the story but since I was just along for the ride I didn't mind so much. You can expect some light violence (I'll get to next), government and corporate corruption, big cities and small towns, vandalism, crazy ex's, horse races, FBI, and a Sultan in nowhere Kentucky. If you like realistic stories stay far away from this! But that said, I really enjoyed the crazy quirky characters. They where very entertaining and kept the story enjoyable and worth the read. I have a feeling the next books will smooth out the information overload. They are available now by the way. Which is good because you're left wanting to know about the h's friend. Not quite a cliffhanger but almost.

5) There are two rape scenes (if I'm not mistaken they don't go "all the way"). They are one right after the other. They aren't really graffic and don't last long but they are there. If you are sensitive to such things you may want to be careful about this book. I would also not recommend letting little kids listen in! This book isn't quite a thriller but there are light shadows of it in there amid the fluff.

Overall I enjoyed the listen a lot. I had been waffling over getting it for a while and I'm glad I did. At the discounted whispersync price it makes it a very reasonable buy. I've already downloaded the next one in the series and have started listening. I think I'll enjoy it a little more then this one.

Bluegrass State of Mind

I was very impressed with how well the narrator did the different accents and voices. The story was full of suspense, humor, and romance, which is what I love. Kenna and Will's story is beautiful and I can't wait to see what happens in the book.

Suspenseful story and very likeable characters

Very likeable Characters and great storyline, fits in very well with the crazy country and government we are currently dealing with.

Disappointing Story - Fair Narration

Bluegrass State of Mind is a really great title, but the story was disappointing. The reviews, for the most part were quite positive, which leaves me to question the reading experience of some of the reviewers. More often than not, the reviews are most helpful when making a decision to buy, so I was surprised by this listen.

Do some of you remember The Wonderful World of Disney, where the narrator was needed to tell the story because their audience was comprised primarily of children? That seemed to be this author's style of writing for Bluegrass. The characters and plot could have been amazing, should have been amazing, but they weren't. I think that there was background information overload...too much explanation and background information narrated instead of the story being developed and told by the characters themselves.

Eric Dove has a wonderful voice, and a good southern accent, although he seems to race through his narration. A great narrator lends his or her voice to the characters and brings the author's words to life for their audience. Tempo is as important as inflection.

I would not listen to Bluegrass State of Mind again, and would not be able to recommend it as credit worthy. ;(

Sappy and Full of Cliches

What did you like best about Bluegrass State of Mind? What did you like least?

The cultural and societal aspects saved the story. The characters are extremely shallow and unidimensional.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

There really were no surprises - the plots and outcomes were obvious and expected throughout the story.Writing style, character development and vocabulary were lacking and uninteresting.

What does Eric Dove bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Great accents on the characters.

Loved this Audiobook!

Fantastic audiobook! I loved this book and have read it many times but it is a whole different experience to have it read to you! The narrator was great! It wasn't read too slow so you never lost interest! I will be purchasing the next in the Bluegrass Series and hope that Kathleen one day has the Bluegrass Brothers Series recorded for audiobook too!