Love Built to Last: Fireflies

Book 1

By: Lisa Ricard Claro

Narrated by: Pam Dougherty

Maddie Kinkaid believes her late husband, Jack, gives her advice on everything - from ordering a pizza to hiring a carpenter. When she finds Caleb Walker's business card on Jack's desk, she's convinced that he's the guy to remodel her kitchen.

He can't decide if she's worth the risk. Caleb is a single father, and protecting his young son means avoiding romantic entanglements. But there's heat in every kitchen, and sparks ignite between Caleb and Maddie - until disaster strikes. When Jack goes silent, it looks as if she and Caleb will never find their happily-ever-after. At least, not without a little help from Jack.

Love Built to Last began as the award-winning short story "Fireflies", and is now the first novel in the Fireflies series.

©2015 Lisa Ricard Claro (P)2017 Lisa Ricard Claro

Loved the story, loved the voice performance.

This book touched on all of my emotions. I cried and I laughed and I felt frustrated at times when Maddie and Caleb let things keep them apart. A book is a winner for me when it makes me feel all of these things so deeply.

There is an excellent and entertaining cast of secondary characters, including meddling, matchmaking families. Given that this is the first of three books in the Fireflies series, I expect we will be seeing more of them.

Pam Dougherty's voice performance was perfect for this story. I hope she does the narration for the next two books in this series.

Amazing

I loved this story and narration and can not wait to listen to the rest of the series!! Would recommend this to everyone!! I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review. The fact that I was gifted this book had no influence over my opinion of it.

Fantastic!!

I loved this romance! Maddie and Caleb's story touched my heart. Well developed characters, a strong single dad, a beautiful romance and fantastic narration - I couldn't ask for more! I loved this book so much and can't wait to listen to the next book in this series!

**I voluntarily listened to this audio book in exchange for an honest review**

Good Story!

I really enjoyed this story. The story is very sweet and wholesome. The narration was good and kept you entertained. This was my first book by this author but definitely won't be my last. I look forward to reading the other books in this series. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

A wonderful cozy love story

I don’t listen to a lot of romantic novels because I generally find them either extremely sappy or too explicit for my taste. This book was neither of those things. The characters were extremely likable, and their love story was extremely sweet without being cloying. There was just enough romantic detail without feeling like I was reading an x rated novel. I’d definitely recommend it!

Sweet book

I loved reading about Caleb and Maddie. This is a heart warming and heart breaking story all rolled into one. I’m really looking forward to the next book.

I enjoyed the narrators performance. She did a good job giving each character a different voice.

Beautiful Listen!

Wow!! What a beautiful story full! This book had so much going for it! Romance, Heartbreak, Healing, Second Chance at love and some Humor. I thought the book was very well written and I was so impressed by the narrator (Pam Dougherty). I love it when the narrator is able to perform various characters with distinguishable voices and put so many emotions into their performance. I thought the book had some very realistic and poignant scenes. The imagery of the fireflies was so cool how they were used. I do not write a synopsis of the book in my reviews, but rather my opinion of it. The author was new to me, while I have listened to the narrator before. I find both are very talented and will definitely look for more books by them. I received this book as a gift and have voluntarily written my review. I can't wait to listen to the next book in this series. This a standalone book and well worth a credit.

4.45/5 Southern Romance

Genre: Romance

Summary:

Four years after her husband’s death, Maddie Kincaid is still reeling, but she moves on enough to hire a carpenter. Enter perfect male specimen who’s sweet, good with his hands, and available.



Additional Comments:

- Content Warnings: Contains some casual cursing, some scenes that go a hair beyond sweet kissing but not quite to describing the deed, and at least one scene that semi-glorifies getting drunk to the point of senselessness. (That didn’t make sense to me given the characters past and more recent history with drunks…) All that said, it’s a relatively clean romance book.

- Contained some great bits of humor.

- Narration worked very well. Narrator had a great voice and distinguished the characters well.

- Main Characters 4/5: Maddie kind of ticked me off sometimes, just because of stupid assumptions she makes and conclusions she jumps to. My very limited time in the romance genre tells me that’s a normal trope though. Caleb’s perfect, so unrealistic but nice.

- Side Characters 4/5: TJ’s adorable but also perfect. The dog pirate is carefully flawed, ugly but lovable. Brenna is by far my favorite side character. At the point where I was wanting to slap the main character, she had some very choice words for her that satisfied that need. Jack’s lingering ghost (not literally; it’s not that kind of story; his presence) got tedious.

- Dialogue sounded realistic!

- Side characters had plenty of character to add flavor to the mix.

- Jack’s last message which I shall not reveal fit the story well, but is also unlikely to have happened. People might keep notes around, but they don’t obsess to this degree over a stranger.

- From the numerous references to the Braves, I’m guessing this is set in Georgia. So, I suppose the misguided baseball adoration can be forgiven.

Conclusion:

Highly recommended if you enjoy romance stories. Even if you don’t, you may like this sometimes overly sweet Southern tale of love.

*I received a free copy from the author or narrator. I’ve chosen to review. These are my honest thoughts.

Wonderful!

A sweet, feel good romance. I like a storyline that goes right where we are initially lead. And it does this without a lot of turmoil and breakups, get back together sessions. It is reminiscent, to me, of Susan Mallery's Fools Gold series and I loved those books! This book describes characters well, making you feel like you know them, and better yet, want to be around them. I looked forward to hearing about them more and loved every minute of the book. The narrator, Pam Dougherty, was great! I can't say enough. She understands all the nuances of the characters and relays them beautifully. She is awesome and I am so looking forward to the other two books in this series and anything else this author writes or Pam narrates.

An old-fashioned love story

I was given a free review copy of this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. Love Built to Last is a detail-oriented kind of story that's hard to find these days. The descriptions of everything: the furniture, the kitchen, the dog, the surrounding countryside, were all rich in vivid precision, so that as I listened I felt fully submersed in the setting. Maddie hasn't let go of her husband who died in a car crash four years ago, so when she finds herself falling for a widower with a young son who is remodeling her kitchen, she's not sure how to cope. There's a plethora of colorful secondary characters whom I'm sure populate the other books in the series, but this book can easily be read as a stand-alone, complete with a satisfying happily-ever-after. The story dragged on just a bit at times, and I got a little tired of waiting for Maddie to realize that life is for the living, but Caleb was a hero with patience and perseverance. A lovely visit to a setting where kindness and tranquility are part of life, not the exception.