The Best of Adam Sharp

March 6, 2017
In Simsion’s third novel (after The Rosie Effect), an email from an old flame, Angelina Brown, spurs British computer guy Adam Sharp to reassess what he wants from life. Though their affair was short-lived and over two decades before, Adam still believes Angelina is his soul mate. He’s been involved with Claire for decades, but their relationship is mostly practical, and a business deal might require her to move from England to the U.S. Email flirtations with Angelina escalate into Skype conversations and culminate in an invitation to join Angelina and her affable husband, Charlie, at their vacation house in France. At this point, Sharp’s book takes an unexpected turn. What seems like a run-of-the-mill chick-lit tale about “the one that got away” becomes a complicated exploration of marriage, what it means to love someone, and how life gets in the way. Adam propels himself into this situation assuming he knows how things are going to play out. Charlie turns out to be more than his amiable, accommodating first impression would indicate, and Angelina shows facets of herself that are a touch more complicated than the girl-of-Adam’s-dreams trope. The contrast almost makes this feel like two different novels. The story winds down with a great passive-aggressive song trivia contest, and Simsion delivers an ending that feels hard-won and true, though readers will have to tough out getting there with a little patience.

Here we have a wistful audiobook about a musician who had his chance at the top, gave it up, and is now living a good life in an English town. And then the woman who offered him the chance at stardom comes back into his life. What fun. Narrator David Barker has a deep, English-accented voice that's, well, full of wist. He paces the audiobook superbly and dabbles in some character voices that move the story along. Barker is eminently understandable, and he pronounces every word clearly. But it's the wistfulness that slightly gets in the way. Just when Barker becomes more enthusiastic, he slides back into a slower pace. A little more consistent energy would make this audiobook even better than it is. R.I.G. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

May 15, 2017

Simsion (The Rosie Project) here tells the story of Adam, a part-time musician who 20-plus years ago fell in love and then walked away. Now, the pair reunite and have to decide if they want to take a second chance. Typically this type of story is told from the woman's perspective; hearing the story from Adam's point of view saves it from being a run-of-the-mill tale. There is a quite unbelievable love triangle in the last half of the book, but it is not enough to make listeners walk away. Another interesting element addresses the relationship we have with music and how songs and lyrics are such powerful reminders of various times in our lives. David Barker provides excellent narration with Australian, New Zealand, and British accents. VERDICT Overall, a thought-provoking story, for fans of Fredrik Backman or Ann Patchett. ["A bittersweet read for fans of Simsion's previous works": LJ 2/15/17 review of the St. Martin's hc.]--Donna Bachowski, Orange Cty. Lib. Syst., Orlando, FL

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