The Lost Art: A Romantic Comedy

By: Jennifer Griffith

Narrated by: Natalie Duke

Dowdy art exhibit coordinator Ava Young is happy with her man suits and sensible clogs. She likes the way they clip-clop on the museum's tile floor. But they don't win her any lovelorn looks from her office crush. In fact the handsome new guy calls her "sir" when they first meet. Oh well. She's always known the only way a guy would take a second look at her was if she was the only person in the room. And on fire.

After her workplace crush devastates her by, frankly, calling her something super-duper mean, Ava is ready to make some drastic changes inside and out, even if it means giving up chocolate or taking hilariously out-of-date but strangely wise-sounding advice on femininity from a 1959 book on How to Snare a Modern Man.

Either way, she'd better hurry because when a priceless art exhibit gets a theft threat on Ava's watch, a billionaire bachelor and a handsome FBI agent will be taking a good, long look at the art.

And at Ava.

©2014, 2015 Jennifer Griffith (P)2015 Jennifer Griffith

Blah!

OK story ruined by periodically turning a reasonably intelligent heroine into a moron to further the plot.

It had so much promise!

I was so pleased with this book. Good plotting, good mystery, good characters...reasonable suspension of disbelief. Then it totally slid off the road. Heroine turned TSTL. Ploy went OTT. It could have been so good.

Simply sweet.

I agree with the reviewer who related this book to a Hudson/Day comedy from a previous generation. It was clearly that sweet, simply that cute. Yes a book from 1959 was the driving force for the heroines story, but it goes well beyond that.

This is very clean, very sweet, a bit of a mystery, a bit of a fantasy and a bit of a comedy.

Excellent narration!

I enjoyed it.

Decent rom com

This makes no bones about its characters or a set of fairly outrageous premises. If you liked Day and Hudson a generation ago, you'll like it.
The narrator needs to SLOW DOWN, though. In places it sounds like an adolescent girl racing through a script.

Rabid Reader

Good clean fun! Laugh out loud heroine, and an adorable hero! I want to read all of her books now!

Pleasant Suprise

Where does The Lost Art: A Romantic Comedy rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It is definitely at the top for it's genre. I am more of a sci-fi/fantasy fan but decided to branch out a little. It didn't take long to get pulled into the story.

What did you like best about this story?

Probably the characters. They aren't all exactly what they seem and it keeps the story interesting.

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

She did an awesome job with the narration. Having a good reader always brings the story to life in a way that i just don't get reading it myself.

Clean but oh so shallow

I appreciated the fact that the story was clean, but the characters were so shallow with no depth at all. I also had a hard time imagining that the story was real. I was painfully aware the whole time that the characters were made up.

Classic Jennifer Griffith quirkiness!

This was one of the first Jennifer Griffith books that I ever read (listened to) and I love her quirky sense of humor! The ‘no chocolate=bigger bust’ was so goofy! The whole book is filled with chuckle-worthy moments.

The book is clean romance, so if it’s steam and details you want, this isn’t for you.

Another reviewer compared it to a Doris Day/Rock Hudson film and that’s really astute because it perfectly fits the overall character of the novel. Even the protaginist’s names: Ava and Kellen sound like movie stars from the Golden Age.

I thought the narrator did a great job! Her voice actually changes as Ava does! And she delivers the humor with great timing.

Eyeroll

Not a romcom, I don't think I laughed once. Really cheesy and inconsistent plot details. Not a book for the avid 'romance' category readers. Only a few lukewarm make out sessions, some of the YA books I have read have been steamier!

Entertaining but could have been better.

Story idea was good, but execution could have been better. Also, my #1 complaint in many books in the Audible library is the poor skills of the narrators and the lack of any editorial oversight. In this books, the reader is unfamiliar with many words and phrases, including “coup de grace”, “coup d’etat” and phalanx.

I might give this author another try, but will be sure to avoid the narrator.