source: Audible membership audio book
title: The Life She Wants
author: Robyn Carr
published: September 27, 2016
genre: contemporary romance
length: 11h 20m
pages: 352
narrator: Therese Plummer
trigger warning: domestic violence/suicide/attempted suicide
romance level: slow burn romance with a few tender love scenes, pretty mild.
rated: 3 out of 5 stars
about:
In the aftermath of her financier husband’s suicide, Emma Shay Compton’s dream life is shattered. Richard Compton stole his clients’ life savings to fund a lavish life in New York City and, although she was never involved in the business, Emma bears the burden of her husband’s crimes. She is left with nothing.
Only one friend stands by her, a friend she’s known since high school, who encourages her to come home to Sonoma County. But starting over isn’t easy, and Sonoma is full of unhappy memories, too. And people she’d rather not face, especially Riley Kerrigan.
Riley and Emma were like sisters—until Riley betrayed Emma, ending their friendship. Emma left town, planning to never look back. Now, trying to stand on her own two feet, Emma can’t escape her husband’s reputation and is forced to turn to the last person she thought she’d ever ask for help—her former best friend. It’s an uneasy reunion as both women face the mistakes they’ve made over the years. Only if they find a way to forgive each other—and themselves—can each of them find the life she wants.
my thoughts:
Sigh, The Life She Wants by Robyn Carr. Where do I begin? At the beginning of course. This was my first Audible listen and I chose it because of the pretty cover and the synopsis caught my eye too. This is my first time reading this author and she has an extensive book list and although this was not a favorite book, I would read her again.
The Life She Wants is a story about second chances, starting over and friendship. 35-year-old Emma Shay Compton’s life has been upended when her husband Richard commits suicide after being arrested for financial fraud. She was used to living in luxury in NYC and now all that is gone. Richard’s money was confiscated by the feds. Now that Richard was caught stealing his client’s life savings, Emma can’t find work in her field of interior design because she’s seen as guilty by association.
Emma heads back her hometown in Sonoma County to start over. She hasn’t been back home in 15 years. She had a falling out with her best friend Riley and her ex-boyfriend so she’s hesitant to see them again. Spoiler alert, she does see Riley and a big part of the story is about whether or not these two former bff’s can reconcile.
While I enjoyed this one, some of the storyline got old pretty quick and Emma herself annoyed me. She was financially struggling yet when an old lawyer friend of her father’s suggests she look into her dad’s will and her inheritance, she refuses. She may be entitled to a very large sum of money, yet Emma adamantly refuses to find out more. Meanwhile she’s working a burger joint for $3.76 an hour and barely getting by. She’s even on welfare! Why would she not immediately look into her inheritance?
Emma’s ex-husband Richard is really awful and like a cardboard cutout of a sleazy conman. I would have rather he’d been more multifaceted than this over-the-top evil guy. It seemed like he was written this way to make Emma seem like a saint.
With so much drama and plot twists towards the latter half of the story, I felt like the book lost its focus. There is some romance sprinkled in as well and I’d rate it as PG13 with a nice dose of cheesy dialogue. You get the HEA with a cherry on top and even with the qualms I had with this one, I still finished listening and it’s given me something to blog about so there’s that. The narrator Therese Plummer did a great job, it seems she narrates most of Robyn Carr’s books. Have you read Robyn Carr? Can you suggest one?
about the author:
Robyn Carr is a RITA® Award-winning, eleven-time #1 New York Times bestselling author of over sixty novels, including the critically acclaimed Virgin River series and Sullivan’s Crossing series. Robyn’s new women’s fiction novel, THE FRIENDSHIP CLUB, will be released in January 2024. The new hit Sullivan’s Crossing TV series (season 1) inspired by Robyn’s book series was released in the USA in the fall of 2023! Plus, season 5 of the worldwide fan-favorite Virgin River TV Series is now streaming on Netflix (July 2023) with two holiday episodes coming November 30, 2023. Both TV series have been renewed for another season!
Robyn is a recipient of the Romance Writers of America Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award 2016, and in 2017, VIRGIN RIVER was named one of the HarperCollins 200 Iconic Books of the past 200 years. Robyn currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. You can visit Robyn Carr’s website at https://www.robyncarr.com/
Disclaimer: This review is my honest opinion. I did not receive any kind of compensation for reading and reviewing this book. I am under no obligation to write a positive review. I listened to The Life She Wants by Robyn Carr through an Audible membership.
the bookworm 
I’ve only read the first book in the Virgin River series. I also watched an episode of the show. Too dramatic for me. The tv show was more so than the book. I don’t know, just seemed like needless drama.
Anne
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That’s exactly it, unnecessary drama. I have a second review by this author coming up this week, it was more of the same lol. I heard about Virgin River series books and show, I don’t think I’ll watch or read those.
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Oh, goodness, I would’ve been checking on that inheritance ASAP! I’ve read several of Carr’s books, and listened to the first four of Virgin River on audio. I think Therese Plummer narrated them too. All were very good!
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I wanted to yell when she was refusing to know more about that inheritance lol. Therese Plummer does a great job at narrating.
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