From the author:
The Dundee series is a small town contemporary romance series consisting of eight full-length books and a novella to cap it off at the end. Because these are older books, the first connected books Brenda ever wrote, the covers have been updated and so have some of the titles. [For some reason, the audiobooks have not been updated.] Currently, the series goes like this:
OLD TITLE => NEW TITLE
https://amzn.to/47e4iLf
A Baby of Her Own => That One Night
A Husband of Her Own => Falling for You
A Family of Her Own => First Love Second Chance
A Home of Her Own => Say You Love Me
Stranger in Town => Meant for You
Big Girls Don’t Cry => Finding You
The Other Woman => Just the Two of Us
Coulda Been a Cowboy => The More I Love You
A Dundee Christmas as the novella that ends it all (Kindle only)
This series became an experiment, of sorts, in my ability to listen to audiobooks. I found them all on Hoopla, a library app, so they were all free (my favorite kind of books!) Interestingly, they all had different narrators, so that was another test for me. There are many devoted audiobook readers who stick with specific narrators and will read anything they narrate. I get that, some are definitely better than others, but in this series, I pretty much liked them all, other than the last book, which was read by a man. He wasn’t great but I still managed to listen to it and not have my mind wander off. It is also the weakest story (other than the novella at the end,) so that didn’t help either.
Because this series is so old, originally published from 2002-2007, there are some things that really jumped out at me, like some of the characters smoked and they weren’t bad guys, which is a thing now; generally, anytime a character smokes in a movie or book or whatever, that hints at some negativity about that character, but not here. There were other things that I wished had also been updated, like a woman who has to lose ten pounds before the guy realizes he likes her, and in an early book, calling a guy in a wheelchair a cripple. That was tough to listen to, but I persevered and the fifth book actually featured that guy, who was no longer called that, thank goodness.
All in all, I really enjoyed this series and listened to the whole thing. I even found the final novella, A Dundee Christmas, also available on Hoopla but as an ebook. As usual with novellas, I didn’t love it and it didn’t tie up the series at all. In fact, Amazon calls it a short story, and as far as I’m concerned, it was a weak link if anything, to the series.
Book 1: A Baby of Her Own
Carly Robins (Narrator)
What Delaney wants is a baby. A baby of her own. At 30 she longs to break away from the constraints of her life, longs to reach out for her heart’s desire. She’d prefer marriage as well, but there’s no man in Dundee, Idaho, she’s interested in marrying.
Then one winter night, she and her best friend, Rebecca, go to Boise with the intent of finding a man for Delaney. She meets a handsome stranger named Conner, a man who might be able to provide her with the solution she needs – and the baby she wants!
Afterward, she thinks she must have been out of her mind. But it’s too late. Because she’s pregnant. And because the stranger isn’t a stranger anymore. Conner Armstrong is now living on a ranch just outside Dundee.
Book 2: A Husband of Her Own
Amy McFadden (Narrator)
Rebecca Wells desperately wants to overcome her reputation. She’s finally trying to put an end to her 24-year rivalry with the perfect Josh Hill, a rivalry that began when she was a kid and the Hills moved in across the street. Great looking, popular, a successful horse rancher, Josh is Dundee’s golden boy – and the son her father always wanted. But even when her father insists they call a truce, it’s hard for Rebecca to drop her resentment of Josh. She refuses to acknowledge that she feels more for him than she’s ever let on. The man she loves to hate is also the man she’d hate to love!
Book 3: A Family of Her Own
Andi Arndt (Narrator)
Pregnant…and alone?
When Katie Rogers returns to Dundee, Idaho, it’s not because she wants to. It’s because she’s disillusioned, broke – and pregnant. She was going to make something of her life in the big city. Instead she’s paying a high price for trusting the wrong man.
Booker Robinson is the man she didn’t trust, the man she’d left behind in Dundee…and the first person she sees when she comes back. But despite Booker’s notorious past, he now has a successful business and a home of his own.
He’s also spent two years getting over Katie. She’s the last person he wants to see. But when her parents refuse to take her in, she doesn’t have anywhere else to go, and Booker soon finds himself with a roommate – one who needs a father for her baby….
Katie’s vowed she’ll never trust the wrong man again. But sometimes a man isn’t everything he seems. And sometimes he’s more….
Book 4: A Home of Her Own
Rachel Fulginiti (Narrator)
When Lucky Caldwell was 10, her mother, Red – the best-known hooker in Dundee, Idaho – married Morris Caldwell, a wealthy and much older man. It didn’t last, of course, but Morris’ kindness was the highlight of Lucky’s life.
Mike Hill, Morris’ grandson, doesn’t feel too well disposed toward Red or her kids. He believes they alienated Morris from his family. Even Morris’ Victorian mansion, on the property next to the Hill ranch, wasn’t inherited by one of his grandchildren. Instead the house went to Lucky, who left it sitting empty for years.
Now that Red and Morris are both dead, Lucky has finally come back to Dundee. She plans to restore the derelict place – and to look for her real father, who has to be one of three men named in her mother’s diary.
That means Mike has a new neighbor. One he doesn’t want to like….
Book 5: Stranger in Town
Molly Elston (Narrator)
Old grudges become new loves in this enchanting contemporary romance
The car accident was Hannah Price’s fault—a tragic mistake that changed Gabe Holbrook’s life forever, destroying everything he’d been or ever wanted to be.
He was a man who’d had it all. Intelligent, handsome, talented, rich, he’d been one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Now he’s come home to Dundee, the small town where he was raised, but he’s a stranger to the people who once knew him. He’s bitter and withdrawn and entirely focused on recovering. But thanks to Hannah Price, there are some things that can’t be fixed.
Hannah has been struggling to recover from that fateful night, too. Unlike Gabe, she sustained only minor injuries. But she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to forgive herself for what happened. Especially when Gabe becomes her son’s football coach, and she begins to fall in love with the man she nearly destroyed…
Book 6: Big Girls Don’t Cry
Amy Rubinate (Narrator)
Sometimes Mr. Right couldn’t be more wrong…
Thanks to a devastating revelation about her husband, Reenie Holbrook’s once-perfect marriage is over. For 11 years she had the life she wanted – and now it’s gone.
Sometimes Mr. Wrong couldn’t be more right…
Reenie decides that the first step in recovering from her ordeal is to find work; after all, she has three young children to support. She’s thrilled when she lands a job at Dundee High teaching history – until Isaac Russell, the man who triggered the unraveling of her marriage, accepts a temporary position teaching science. Then she’s tempted to quit. Reenie doesn’t care if the whole town admires Isaac…and she won’t admit that secretly she admires him, too. She doesn’t want to see him or his sister in her town.
Book 7: The Other Woman
Tara Sands (Narrator)
A second chance doesn’t mean second best!
Elizabeth O’Connell has survived one of the worst betrayals a wife can imagine. Finding out that she wasn’t the only woman in her husband’s life meant the end of her marriage and a year of personal hell. Now she’s focusing on her new business and raising her two kids.
Carter Hudson isn’t part of her plan. When he’s introduced to Liz by well-meaning friends, her dislike is instant. But as she spends time with him, Liz realizes she likes having Carter in her life. More than likes it. However, Carter has secrets in his past that he can’t seem to escape, secrets that apparently involve a woman. Liz is sure of one thing: She’ll never be the other woman again!
Book 8: Coulda Been a Cowboy
Adam Verner (Narrator)
Grandpa Garnier used to say love is like a bucking bronco. It takes guts and determination to hang on, but it’s worth the ride.
If only Grandpa was around now to help Tyson Garnier out of this mess. The famous pro football player is suddenly saddled with a very public scandal – and an illegitimate child. Tyson needs a good nanny now if he’s going to salvage his career. And plain, no-nonsense Dakota Brown is the ideal candidate.
Dakota doesn’t care for football – or for a man who doesn’t seem to want his own son. But she needs this job, and that precious little baby needs her.
Dakota isn’t Tyson’s kind of woman. But the more he sees of her – and the more he sees of his son – the harder he wants to hang on.
A Dundee Christmas: A Holiday Romance (Kindle)
For the first time as a stand-alone ebook!
Down on her luck, Cierra Santos is seeking refuge in the small town of Dundee during a snowstorm when she is taken in by a man who helps her discover a new sense of home. But Ken Holbrook provides more than safety and comfort because, with him, she also finds love.
9/2024 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
Dundee, Idaho Series by Brenda Novak. Harlequin Audio. 2202-2007.
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