Lovers Rock

Seven Jamaican Love Stories

By: Alexia Arthurs, Mateo Askaripour, Maisy Card, Kwame Dawes - author/editor, Diana McCaulay, Alecia McKenzie, Patricia Powell

Narrated by: Elle Cleviden, Roger Cross, Tamika Katon-Donegal, Jaime Lincoln Smith, Sundra Oakley

Seven literary love stories set in Jamaica and infused with the seductive beauty of the island.

Lovers Rock stars Jamaica: its language, its landscape, its vibe, its humor, its edge and its persistent, dogged beauty. These seven stories imagine strange, quirky, familiar and delicious encounters between people in search of romantic love in the twenty-first century. Featuring characters from of all walks of life, each story is connected by the unique vibe of Jamaican desire. Consider the tempo and swoop of Bob Marley’s "Stir It Up" for a taste of what this collection offers, a flavor that infuses these beautifully written love stories generated by some of Jamaica's most gifted literary writers working today. This is the perfect escape, a story whispered in your ear that transports you to places you've once visited and new vistas.

Lovers Rock was curated and edited by Emmy Award winning poet and writer, Kwame Dawes, in partnership with the esteemed Calabash International Literary Festival.

©2024 Calabash International (P)2024 Audible Originals, LLC.

Unexpected and yet soothing

It was like a homecoming. I started this collection with expectations, to be taken back home and be able to swim with my own memories triggered by the stories. At first I was disappointed that the characters were so different from me. This collection is a treasure, it’s soothing because I realized I didn’t want to be told a story about me. I needed to hear other people’s stories, the layers that each main character has, helped me to appreciate their journey as Jamaicans and mine.

Authentic

The authenticity of the description of the island, the people, and especially the food. Very nicely done.

Love the theme!

What fantastic stories all set in a place that encourages authenticity. The stories and characters draw you in.

Please use Jamaican voice actors and actress!!!!

The stories are captivating, but please respect the uniqueness of Jamaican patois and get actual Jamaican voice actors and actress'. The phony Jamaican accent ruins the story.

Cultural visibility

This book was refreshingly good. Thanks for the authenticity and fluidity of the stories. Each story was crafted intentionally and it shows, definitely would’ve loved a full length of the last story.

LOVE!

What a fantastic find this was! Each story was lush, sexy, romantic and well written. I loved that the island played an important character in each tale. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Wonderful

Wonderful emotional beautiful romantic fantastic fantasy spiritual memorable and lovable, there are good things about this book!

This was a true DELIGHT!!!

All the stories so relatable, with real grassroots characters and the life choices and consequences most of us face. Wonderful stories, beautifully narrated!!!!

I love a GOOD love story

This collection of love stories set in Jamaica was surprisingly satisfying. Every tale felt good to hear in a different way. It not often that I come across a book based on “real” Caribbean lives. The voice actors were great as well. I love it when authentic (voice) actors play Caribbean roles.

I love the concept

This was a fun listen. I’m pleased I ran into this project here on Audible. Great concept and I hope we’ll run into more Jamaican audiobook story collections like this. This is a love story collection and there are some really good ones here. As a Jamaican listener, I found some of the voices jarring, particularly when some of the readers attempted to speak Jamaican. Given the medium it took away from the color of the stories in my view, they could have been more enriched with some recognizable Jamaican voices and accents. This is my reason for not giving this audiobook a 5 all the way and so for me it feels like a 4.8.