A Barb the Zany Old Lady Audiobook Review: Dogwood Days & Spring Fever by Poppy Dennison ~ Audiobook narrated by Matt Armstrong

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5

This audiobook is a compilation of the two books of the Holly Creek series in one: Dogwood Days and Spring Fever. It is not labeled as an ongoing series, but it did end with a cliffhanger—a very unsettling cliffhanger—and I can’t describe how irritated that made me. There was no indication of that in the blurb, and I really dislike that more than I can even say in print.

Dogwood Days opens with Jefferson Lee Davis on the phone with his uncle in Holly Creek when he suddenly hears a crash and then nothing further. Jefferson Lee had badly wanted to make it on his own in the world of journalism in a prestigious job in a big city, but family comes first, so he rushes home to Holly Creek after notifying the town’s sheriff to check on what happened. Once he gets there, he finds out his uncle has been hospitalized with a concussion and broken leg, and then the next morning when he calls his supervisor, he learns that he’s been laid off. The job wasn’t all that great, but it was better than nothing. Now, he has to decide where to go and what to do after he’s done taking care of his incapacitated uncle.

Holly Creek has a lot of pretty sights, including a young, sexy gardener, who Jefferson Lee finds very attractive. But it doesn’t seem to be mutual, and it comes as a surprise when he slowly starts to become more than friends with the local sheriff, another good-looking man, and this one seems to find Jefferson Lee attractive. Out and proud, Sheriff Zane wants something more with Jefferson Lee, but he’s worried that the cute young man is only in town temporarily.

Fate has plans for the duo, however, and after a series of misadventures, Jefferson Lee finds a good reason to stay in Holly Creek and pursue a relationship with Zane.

In the second story, Spring Fever, after a series of mysterious phone calls and the arrival of yet another good-looking man to their town, Jefferson Lee and his best friend Clover manage to get hauled off to jail in the back of the police cruiser with a furious Zane driving.

Are his days with Zane numbered? Can he possibly find happiness with a man who keeps secrets? And who will the mystery man turn out to be?

This was one of those sweet, simple stories that would make a good beach read. I’d normally recommend it, however, I just can’t get past that cliffhanger, and I didn’t see any further stories linked to it, making me think Spring Fever is the end of the series. And then there’s the fact that the narrator, Matt Armstrong, was quite boring and gave Zane the voice of a fifty year old. And Jefferson Lee’s voice wasn’t much better. So no points for narration at all. If you want something southern and simple, with lots of small town gossip and politics, and not much more, you may like this one. But I’d recommend the e-book over the audio version.

The attractive cover by Alexandria Corza features a very cute, blond, young man leaning against a turquoise wood fence. Very bright and colorful, it’s easy to imagine the man is Jefferson Lee.

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Audiobook Details:

Audiobook
Published June 7th 2016 by Dreamspinner Press
ASINB01GP2ES1S
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesHolly Creek #1-2