The Deep Well of Love and Murder

The Love and Murder Series, Book 5

By: Brenda Whiteside

Narrated by: Holly Holt

After an abusive childhood and a bad marriage, Laura Katz finally finds a home, stability...and possibly love. But her blissful refuge as nanny on the Meadowlark Ranch, miles from Flagstaff, shatters when her ex is released from prison, determined to reclaim her.

Randy Silva, the ranch’s foreman, has dreams of his own ranch, but a nasty land grab is underway. Stakes are high, as the attacks on Randy and his ranch draw blood. While the vengeful ex-husband stalks Laura, a mob-backed land developer teams with a desperate gambler. Randy can’t be sure where the next attack will come from - or who will be caught in the crossfire.

©2018 Brenda Whiteside (P)2020 Brenda Whiteside

DNF for poor recording

This is only the 2nd time I’m ever returning an audiobook. I like this series & this author. I’ve consistently enjoyed & recommended her books & audios. However - This needs to be sent back to production/editing. There are major issues with repeated phrases, stopping & restarting, sniffing, etc. It’s like some of the files were submitted unedited. I get that it happens every once in a while - but especially track 5 is a disaster and that’s where I quit.

Interesting story. Not a fan of the recording.

Narrator did an okay job; a little bland sounding and the characters didn’t have distinct enough voices, but she still gave a good performance. She has a nice tone to her voice. Unfortunately, the quality of the editing wasn’t very good. There was some repeated phrases, a couple weird background noises, and the narrator left in some of her mistakes; mainly around the end of chapter 6 and chapter 7.

This story has lots of characters, and the POV’s changing multiple times within a chapter, so I didn’t quite enjoy the listening experience. I’d recommend reading the story rather than listening.

As for the story, it’s an entertaining premise. Laura has a stalker ex-husband that just got out of jail, so she’s starting over in a new town. Unfortunately, her ex isn’t ready to give her up. Randy is a rancher that has some devious land developer trying to buy up land; bad things start happening on his ranch, so there’s some mystery there. Laura and Randy start to grow closer romantically, but both have some hang ups; he lost a wife and she has her crazy ex to deal with. I liked the small town setting; interesting characters. I liked both Laura and Randy; some good passion between them. There’s some good suspense too. The story does move a bit slowly in the beginning and the flow is off with the abrupt POV changes, but I enjoyed the story. I’m going to go with a 3 rating. I’d like to give it another read through that isn’t the audio version, so I could get a better feel for the story.

Laura wake up

The poor efforts of the law enforcement made it look like they were corrupt or inept at best. They drug their feet with every incident and clue. Smh.
Laura's hesitance with Randy was frustrating and her not reporting her ex to cops in the beginning was stupidity at its best. Laura the martyr was a joke. Wise up girl and stop trying to be ultruistic, it just showed her stupidy. Laura the loser needs everyone's help because she's a lost cause. Smh.I voluntarily listened to a free copy of this and am giving an honest review. The narrator was okay but chapter 6 was frustrtrating with multiple repeated phrases that were distracting to me. Needed better editing.

Enthralling story of love and healing

Life was never easy for Laura. An abuse filled childhood followed by a marriage that should have never happened left scars, insecurities, and damage. Randy, a neighboring ranch Forman and rancher has his hands full with a land grabbing developer and his band of merry miscreants. Add Laura’s recently released felonious ex-husband into the mix and things just got a whole lot worse, for everyone. This is an extremely well written, magnificently narrated story of love, healing, and learning to trust that will have you on the edge of your seat.

Kept me intrigued....

Very enjoyable book. Hard working hero meets woman with a load of baggage. Plenty of action and drama. You will stay interested to the end.