The Attraction Distraction by Jenn McKinlay Series: A Museum of Literature Romance #2
Narrator: Sara Young
Published by JMO Ink on June 7, 2022
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Length: 3 hours and 20 minutes
Format: Audiobook ARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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From the New York Times bestselling author of Royal Valentine, a second novella in the Museum of Literature romcom series, in which the only thing standing between a single-minded Classics scholar and the literary discovery of a lifetime is her heart.
There is nothing Sarah Novak loves more than a literary adventure. When the director of the Museum of Literature sends Sarah to an uninhabited island in the Aegean Sea to look for a rare artifact from Ancient Greece, Sarah, an expert on the Classics, is all in.
One problem. Nine other scholars are also on the hunt for the artifact, one of whom is Irishman Liam Maguire, Sarah's ex and the man she beat out for the curator position at the museum seven years ago. Liam wants to form an alliance, but Sarah refuses. He broke her heart once before; she's not giving him the chance to do it again.
When a series of mysterious "accidents" befall the scholars one by one, Sarah is forced to rethink her position on her sworn enemy, particularly when Liam saves her life. She agrees to team up with the swoony Irishman, knowing full well that finding the treasure will likely cost her heart.
I try really hard to not spoil anything, but there’s a chance that some may feel that my review, albeit very vague, might include a small spoiler. Proceed with caution!
I was looking for a fun story to listen to while working on a crochet project, so I jumped on this one when I saw that the audiobook was available for review! I love books that feature some kind of travel, and since the synopsis mentioned a “literary discovery” I was very intrigued and excited to dive in. What I got was a melodramatic, far-fetched, ridiculous storyline. The plot is weak and silly, for lack of a better word. The characters had no substance or real personality. I had to look up their names because I couldn’t remember either of them. Their past break-up is brought up way too many times. We get it. lol. They broke up! The romance was unconvincing and uninteresting, but it was closed-door and sometimes that’s what I’m in the mood for (especially with audiobooks). The “literary discovery” requires the ability to suspend your disbelief and it’s so outlandish that the author has to come up with a special twist to cover it all up. The twist is just the ridiculous cherry on top of the ridiculous sundae. There’s a bit of suspense, but the kind that makes you roll your eyes. Really, The Attraction Distraction read like a parody of something I can’t quite put my finger on and the more I think about it the more annoyed I am I spent the time on it. LOL.
The narration was ok for the most part, except the reader pronounced “parquet” like par-ket, which is wrong. It should be pronounced par-kay. She also said “Mycenaean” like my-seen-ee-un, which is wrong. It’s pronounced my-suh-nee-uhn. I’m pretty sure the copy I received through Netgalley was the finished product but if not, I hope both of these mispronunciations were fixed before it hit retailers! All in all, I’m glad I didn’t pay for this and that it was a quick listen (I sped it up so it went faster than the roughly 3 hours it defaults at).