It’s harder today with ebooks but in my days of cruising the aisles of the library I always though that an author with a whole shelf of books had to write good enough books to fill that shelf. In the event I needed a book and my go-to authors were either out or didn’t have anything new, volume of volumes gave me a signal on who to try. This strategy paid off with authors like Clive Cussler and Brad Thor.
We were facing a round trip car ride of about 7 hours each way, and I was looking for an audio book to pass the time. I had a few options in mind, including Outlander, but none were currently available from the library. I sorted the available options by popularity and saw a few by Elin Hilderbrand, who I had seen previously on other book lists and forums. I picked The Rumor because it was available and was not part of a series.
I wanted to think that this was not really my kind of book and that it was compromise since Karen and I would be listening to it together but I was wrong. The book was light and flowy with snappy writing and interesting but not deep characters. Since we were listening instead of reading the unique character names were a big plus. The story was more soap opera than literature and was a super fun listen that helped passed the time. I give this audio book a strong recommend. I intend to read another from this author, and if the next one is a similar experience I intend to give Elin Hilderbrand a strong recommendation too.
NOTE: I read all the big books in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, and many of the side books. Tied with Harry Potter for the best series I ever read. Outlander will get a post of its own sometime.