Love & Other Great Expectations

By: Becky Dean

Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie

An American girl embarks on a competitive scavenger hunt in England—and along the way, meets up with a bookish British boy who might make the trip take some unexpected turns.

Britt Hanson has always preferred scoring goals on the soccer field to analyzing dusty old books. But when an injury ends her dream to play in college, she jumps at the chance to compete in a scavenger hunt in England that takes her to the locations of classic novels—the prize money would change her life!

Once in the UK she meets bookish and very British Luke Jackson. He can’t actually help her with any of the clues (against the rules), but something about Luke compels her to invite him to join her. She wouldn’t mind getting to know him—and listening to his accent.

To win, Britt must outsmart three competitors who aren’t afraid to play dirty while solving clues and traveling around the English countryside. Along the way, Britt learns that sometimes you have to follow the map and other times, you need to throw caution to the wind and see where the cobblestoned road leads you.

©2022 Becky Dean (P)2022 Listening Library

Critic reviews

A JLG selection!

“This smart and swoony debut is the perfect read for lovers of travel and British literature. Pack your bags and get ready to join the coolest scavenger hunt ever!”--Kristy Boyce, author of Hot British Boyfriend

"Take it from a romance-addicted Anglophile: Becky Dean’s Love & Other Great Expectations is a dessert to be devoured. Simply put, I adored it."--K.L. Walther, author of The Summer of Broken Rules

“With classic literary treasures on every page, this inspiring and heartfelt adventure is full of humorous witty banter, timely self-discovery, a rich complexity of friendships, and brave new beginnings. A delightful debut.”--Nova McBee, author of the Calculated series

"In Love & Other Great Expectations, Becky Dean delivers not only a swoon-worthy romance, but an adventure of self-discovery through classic British literature that will deeply satisfy every reader's heart."--Chelsea Bobulski, author of The Wood

LOVED IT :D

Man oh man, I really loved this book because I was looking for this idea for a while .. if you like "Love& Gelato" series you should really check out this book
the book follows Brittany, she was a soccer player but get her knees hurt and now she can't play again and she is very depressed about it because she can't afford college, and then a "unique" opportunity comes to her in a form of a scavenger hunt for a prize of 100 thousand dollars, the catch ? it's in the UK, and it's inspired by classic books which is not her string suit, but them she meets a nerdy cute British boy names Luke, and he decides to accompany her in a trip across UK to find those clues .. and both of them will get more than they bargained for ..
I absolutely loved everything about his book, it had adventure, travel, UK, and a very cute romance in there .. if you like traveling and UK as much as I do check out this book it's really good

Gets better and better to the end

This book has a more than satisfying ending with some plot points you won’t be able to guess.

Loved this book

Omg I loved this book so much it was sweet, heartfelt, funny and had me hooked right from the beginning.

Really fun!

A scavenger hunt, secrets, and love….what could be better? Fun light read & very enjoyable.

Wonderful debut!

I don’t read a ton of YA or romance, but this was a great entry into both genres! The story of Britt Hansen was thoroughly enjoyable, and I found her a believable, vulnerable heroine. Becky Dean is an amazingly skilled author, and I was constantly awed at how she captured details of Britain, making me wish to visit, and maybe follow the pilgrimage she spun to life. Would heartily recommend this YA romance to anyone who enjoys the genre or even British literature. It’s also exceptionally clean and wholesome. Five stars!

Excellent journey through England

I enjoyed this journey through the literature of England. Well written characters and a strong story kept me engaged and interested in what happened next.

Adorable, clean YA romance

This is a great story. I loved that the girl is not an awkward klutz, but an incredibly confident and funny athlete with trust issues. The British setting by an American author always makes me nervous, but the author does a great job of showing the UK from an outsider’s perspective with an eye for detail that shows she really did her research. And the literary themes are a really neat backdrop, as is the fact that characters actually help each other in various ways to see how they’re making mistakes and learn to fix them. The narrator isn’t my favorite. She tends to elide the letter L in the middle of a word in a way that I find irritating, although she does it less in this book than others I’ve heard her read. Her accent work was okay but not great. She kept it light enough that it didn’t grate. I did have to listen at 1.3 or 1.4x normal speed to keep it from feeling she was talking incredibly slowly.

Main character is too unlikable

I really wanted to like this book, and I think it has fun premise. However, I had to stop listening because the protagonist, Tiff, is so ungrateful, shallow and self-absorbed that I just could not get into the book.

Mediocre

This was a low to mid-teen book written about young adults. The characterizations were shallow. There was often much ado about nothing. Some of the language and behaviors were what you’d expect from a group of immature junior high students. The premise of the storyline was rather ridiculous. I had to set the narration at a higher speed to make the droning, slow voice remotely tolerable to listen too. Even at that it frequently lost my attention, but I really didn’t miss on anything that couldn’t be figured out quickly in this very predictable and silly story. I try to complete every audio book I start, but I almost didn’t make it through this one.