Jamie Heinlein narrator for Jen Lancaster's, If You Were Here

If You Were Here

By Jen Lancaster

Narrated By Jamie Heinlein

Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins

Penguin Audio

Jen Lancaster Author  

Jamie Heinlein Narrator

As a narrator Jamie Heinlein is very good. She expresses the personality of the characters and has a clear voice. She does sound a bit youngish for this particular book. Mac the husband is forty years old so Mia has to be in her thirties. Jamie Heinlein gives the impression that Mia and Mac are a young couple because of her youthful voice. Jamie Heinlein does a good job mimicking the foreign accents. She does a decent job for the male characters. The downside is she sounds like a teenager but she would be excellent narrator for The Carrie Diaries, by Candace Bushnell or If I Told You I Loved You, I'd Have to Kill You, by Ally Carter.

If You Were Here is about a couple living in a nice house in a not so nice neighborhood. Their landlady is a crazy trust fund baby that blew most her money up her nose. She manages to clean up her act after her family demands she support herself. Therefore a house as an investment property looked like an easy job. Between the erratic landlady and near criminal neighbors Mia and Mac her husband, set out to buy their own house. They quickly recognize that finding a house they can afford in a 'good' neighborhood is not going to be easy.

Much of the book is about the houses they look at and the problems they encounter. They decide to look for a fixer upper in a good area. They find and buy huge house that turns into the money pit. The second half of the book is about the trials they have with their new snooty neighbors who are loaded with complaints as soon as Mia and Mac move in. The house has many problems and all of them expensive to repair. There are a lot of good one liners and laughable events, more so if you've ever gone through the process of buying a house and love to watch HGTV.

I'd only rate this book a three star because much of it sounds patched together. It goes on and on into boredom with the repair problems. In the end it lacks any real substance. I stuck with it mainly because she does have some clever and funny one liners and situations.