Tough Love

By: Melanie A. Smith

Narrated by: Rachel Woods, Luke Parker

From award-winning and international best-selling author Melanie A. Smith comes a steamy stand-alone contemporary romance about life choices, love, and finding yourself in between.

Sometimes you need a bit of tough love to get where you’re supposed to be....

Mia Anderson has been living a life that was chosen for her. But her impending 30th birthday is the wake-up call she needed to stop wasting time on all the wrong pursuits. Just as she’s figuring out what she wants to do about it, her beloved grandmother falls ill and Mia drops everything to be with her. What she didn’t expect to find in her grandmother’s tiny mountain town is the courage to quit working for her father, supplied by a little tough love from her gran. Now faced with an uncertain future, the last thing on her mind is finding love.

Nate Edwards is living a solitary life deep in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. He’s content, or at least he thinks he is—until the granddaughter of a good friend shows up and he starts having feelings he thought he’d never have again. But Mia’s future isn’t in Alpine Ridge, so acting on it would lead to nothing but heartbreak. Still, their connection is undeniable and circumstances continue to push them together, despite their resistance. Will Mia stick to her decision to carve her own path? And if she does, will it be with Nate? Or is he doomed to an isolated life?

©2021 Melanie A. Smith (P)2022 Melanie A. Smith

awesome

Loved it !! this story. the narrator is so fantastic it's like your really there!! good overall

Great Read

I enjoyed this story. The characters wes good and well thought out. It was interesting and easy to listen to. I received it as a gift and this is my voluntaary review.

Great story

I absolutely loved that the dual narrators narrated not only their chapters, but that they voiced their characters in all the chapters. I really dislike hearing what I would normally consider a gruff, sexy male voice trying to sound like a female. Oftentimes, it’s downright distracting. But not with this audiobook!!!! The narration was perfect!
I also enjoyed the story itself. Grab was fabulous, and I really liked Nate. I was kept wondering until the very end as to what Nate was hiding from. Mia was more complicated. While I really liked her initially and it was so easy to sympathize with her about her parents, I cringed when she jumped to the wrong conclusion. And then ran away. And she did it again.
Overall, a great audiobook with fabulous narration and a very good story!

I received a complimentary copy of this audiobook and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Enjoyable Story and Enjoyable Narrators

The story is dual narration and dual POV, with all female characters/voices being voiced by the female narrator and same for the males. I thought they both did a good job with the characters and story.
I loved the meddling Granny!! This is one story where I actually don't mind that element being added. Dorothy was a breath of fresh air and handled what life threw at her with her spunk and I loved it! I also liked how Dorothy was a typical octogenarian, not one that still does fifty million things and maintains her health, but one that is old, and tired, and adorably meddling, and sick and trying to ease the burden for her grandchild.
I loved Mia's character development! She wasn't necessarily dealt a bad hand in life, she just needed a kick in the pants to figure out what she wanted, and maybe meet a handsome man in the process of figuring things out. Nate was more mysterious about his backstory and it was interesting to learn out that. I loved the chemistry between the two! Their scenes together were always entertaining and well written/narrated.
This story tackled some pretty heavy topics in a manner that I liked. Smith did an excellent job giving credence to both sides of the story without belittling either perspective.
The assumptions made by Mia multiple times in the story was a little annoying. It added unnecessary angst and was frustrating to me because it seemed a bit redundant. Though, sometimes Nate needed to pull his head out of his behind at times. This did detract from the enjoyment of the story.

All in all, it's a good listen, with good narrators, and a well written story!!

Fantastic Story & Narration🎧 Gripping & Heartfelt!

I loved everything about this book, from Melanie A. Smith’s writing style to the fabulous characters and storylines she created to the wonderful narrators who bring the characters and their story to life, from the pages to your ears. The story drew me in right from the start, grabbing my attentions and captivating it the entire time. The characters are realistic, easy to relate to and connect with, except for Mia’s parents, they were easy to care about too. Mia Anderson is a lawyer who works her butt off for her family’s law firm, both her mother and father are lawyers and they expected Mia to follow their footsteps, which she did. But she hates being a lawyer, and she has finally realized that she is just a puppet for her parents who pull her strings. After years of going without a vacation, she finally has five days off and sets off to Hawaii with her friend, only to get called back because her beloved Gran fell ill and her parents could not be bothered to stay with her. Mia, loves her Grandma but it pissed her off the way they went about things, making it all about them and not taking her or her Grandma into consideration. She was planning on quitting her job when she returned from vacation, but their antics confirmed she was doing the right thing by quitting. Nate Edwards, retired from the medical field, took a liking to Dorothy and they became friends, he also looked in on her regularly. Mia and Nate did not exactly hit it off when they first met, but circumstances were stressful for them. Her Grandma has ulterior motives, sees something in both Mia and Nate, two broken souls who would be perfect for each other if they only let themselves. This is a lovely and beautifully plotted romance novel, the story is beautifully plotted with drama, heartfelt emotions, emotions that pour off the pages and straight to your heart, and some steamy sexy times. Melanie A. Smith, thank you for another fabulously entertaining story and emotional rollercoaster ride.

🎧📚🎧 And for the fabulous narration, Rachel Woods and Luke Parker are talented narrators and versatile voice artists. They had a complete understanding of the characters they portrayed, gave each a voice that suited that characters, were believable in every role they played, sounding just as I pictured the characters to sound. They set the perfect tone for the story, captured all the characters’ emotions and projected them into his performance and had you feeling every single one. These entertaining storytellers are a pleasure to listen to. Thank you for this great listen.

Great read

This is a really sweet story with great characters and some steamy love scenes. Great read. I received a free copy and left my honest review

Tough Love

This one didn't do anything for me not my cup of tea it wasn't a terrible story just not my thing.

The narration was fine

Loved this story

Mia at 30 wasn't living the life she really wanted. she's a lawyer in her father's small practice . Burnt out after long hours working, she wants to walk away. Her parents are manipulative, disregarding her reasons why. Alienating her parents as they felt she abandoned them.
Nate Edwards left Los Angeles, to move the small town of Alpine Ridge. seeking , contentment in this quiet town.
When Mia's grandmother becomes ill, she dropped everything to be with her. Now her grandma is a wise, conniving woman, always putting in her two cents worth. By using her version of tough love, she secretly has a plan to put Nate and Mia together.
I thoroughly enjoyed lIstening to this amazing story.
Luke Parker and Rachel Woods narration is entertaining. They captured the spirit and emotions of every character.

Started well, finished poorly

Possible small spoilers:

This is a hard story to review. I loved a lot of it, but there is too much to hate. Mia is a wonderful granddaughter and Gran is the most precious person ever. She is loving and caring, even though she's unloved by her daughter, and the rest of the family is too terrified to show love to Gran and incur the wrath of the daughter. Nate is Gran's friend and confidante, a former doctor, Mia's age and totally unselfish. They form a bond and Gran appears to think they would make a wonderful couple. True to Gran's thoughts, Nate and Mia for a bond and much more than friendship. One night, at the end of a date, Mia wants nothing more than to be with Nate. After a passionate evening, she awakes and is pretty sure she was drunk. What? And if that's not bad enough, she accuses Nate of taking advantage of her "state" to have sex! This is a grown woman, lawyer, probably the dumbest smart woman ever, and she blames Nate and runs? TSTL! She did her best to redeem herself, but she had a lot to prove. But, no. Suddenly, after Gran dies, Mia "is sure" that the only reason Nate wants to be with her is because of a deal he had with Gran? Oh, and she takes off to find herself in France. Nate really had fallen in love with Mia and now there's no reason to stay, so he packs his things and leaves to get back to his old life. Realizing the small town life is what he wants, he's back to open the wellness center Gran had given him. Of course, Mia is back from France and decides that she's going to open a bakery...right next door to the center! Mia is still nasty to Nate, but tells him she doesn't deserve him. Oh, lordy! Nate deserves much better than that and I'm rather sad that they found a HEA.
Rachel Woods and Luke Parker did a wonderful job with the narration. The voice of Gran was by far the sweetest!

Tough Love

Great character builds and amazing story. This book has lots of emotions. Both low and high which created a great roller coaster effect. Both narrators did a fantastic job.