Review: Audio Book Review
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 4, 2013
Time travel back to the 1980's and let Elaine Raco Chase be your guide. Meet Amanda, driven and accomplished businesswoman, with a flair for all things fashion.  Her long-term friend Lucas, now a lawyer and her `go to' for all questions of business has invited her down to his Texas home,  under the auspices of a vacation / decorating trip.While their relationship dances between `just friends' and perhaps more, other entrants to the game of romance dance about the edges, creating conflict and choices until ultimate decisions must be made.Again, Elaine has created a winner: from the overt feel of the 80's in reference and innocence, to the beautiful use of alliteration and description that enforce the visual imagery created, this story has so many elements to enjoy that choosing just one is near impossible.  As always, her dialogue is spot-on, banter is quick, sharp and realistic, with plenty of humor derived from words and situations .  The narration by Jill Arehart is pleasant and smooth, without creating distraction from the story, and enhancing the emotion through small timbre and pitch changes.  Her voice seems to delight in the luxe and verdant descriptions of fashion greats, and provides the simple note of tentative hesitation through the spotlighted descriptions that fit so well with the questioning nature of bot h Lucas and Amanda's reactions to one another as the romantic ante is increased.This is a description rich story, that allows the reader or listener to visualize each element, setting a scene beautifully, and again, presenting the hesitation as they slowly test the waters with one another's reactions.  Phrases like "the hand moved left" and "the eyes roamed" all reinforced their internal questions about moving the relationship onto another plane, and were particularly effective for Amanda in all of her encounters, as she is reticent and reserved, not willing to share herself or her heart with men.Secondary characters are a mixed bag: while I did not like Wade, and found him overbearing and arrogant, Kitty was truly a non-entity both to the story and in Lucas' estimation of her.  As a spotlight to the question of platonic or romantic, this story worked on all fronts, and was a wonderful listen for an afternoon, especially for those of us who remember the 80's.I received an audiobook copy from the author for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.