Desert Desperate

By: Dana Mentink

Narrated by: Sage Brighten

Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

The Arizona desert is lovely in August.

If you're a cactus.

If you're not green and prickly, it's like standing in the bottom of a volcano hoping your SPF 15 will do the trick. So how does Simone Greevey, a 20-something e-zine editor from San Francisco wind up wearing a duck costume in sweltering Seepwillow, Arizona? In Desert Desperate, Simone loses her job and her fiancé in one fell swoop and runs to the arms of her eccentric aunt, owner of the Ruddy Duck trailer park, a hundred miles from nowhere.

There she meets Chaz Tagliola, a guy who doesn't know Jimmy Choo from Jiminy Cricket, a man with a passion for God, and the one thing Simone has tried to forget about for the decade since her father's death. Before her suitcase is unpacked, Simone's aunt disappears, leaving Chaz and Simone to lead a five-day junior high school Bible study camp. Bug lightings? Hot dog roasts? Cactus jam recipes? It's a whole new world for a San Francisco girl. Throw in a mysterious park tenant and a breathtaking natural discovery and the stage is set for Simone to learn a divine lesson that will rock her world in a big way.

©2015 Dana Mentink (P)2016 Dana Mentink

Narrator nailed it!

Would you consider the audio edition of Desert Desperate to be better than the print version?

I didn't read the print version. How does one compare any way?? It is a personal preference to read or to listen to a book. So glad I chose to listen to this one though as the narrator nailed each character. I feel sure this book by this narrator is more fun to listen to than to read.

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

The narrator Sage Brighten gave a believable personality to each character. I know when a narrator is really good when I get caught up in the story and characters and hear each one individually and not just the voice of the narrator.

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

Yes! And I almost did, but one has to sleep.

Any additional comments?

Would highly recommend this book to young (teen/YA) and old. Good, fun and laugh out loud parts.

Easy read, and fun!

The main character has a wonderful sense of humor. My only complaint is that I couldn't always tell whether CeCe was actually saying words out loud or thinking them. That being said this my first Dana Mentink book and the first time I heard the narrator, Sage Brighten.
Good story..

City girl meets desert trailer park...

Oh, boy! What a cute story! I laughed. I shook my head. And just plain enjoyed this audiobook. While I'm more familiar with Dana Mentink's romantic suspense novels I have read some of her rom-coms, of which Desert Desperate is a charming addition. The heroine is what we'd call today a hot mess. She gets dumped by her fiance in front of a Sunday school classroom full of pre-schoolers and loses her dream job to a friend, so she heads to Arizona...in the middle of summer...to stay in a trailer park. What else could go wrong? Well, before she can find faith, find herself, and find romance, pretty much everything goes...duh-uh-duh...south. And that's where all the fun comes in!

As I mentioned I listened to this book in audio. The sound and production were good. The narrator was pretty good, she didn't always hit the emotional inflections spot on but I did think her voice was an excellent match for Simone. And, hey, if you can narrate a book that, unabridged, comes in at just under 12 hours you deserve some kudos.

Anyway...Don't forget the moral that can be taken from this zany tale, you should never head to the desert without an umbrella, oh, and SPF 15 just ain't gonna cut it...

(I received a copy of this book from the author/publisher. All opinions are entirely my own.)