An unrefreshing brew

Prefer your romances to be different? To take you down roads less travelled? If you do, don't bother with this novel. It's pleasant enough but predictable and lacking in credible drama. Equally, it's hard to care very much about either Bri or Rob when they come off the page as thinly-disguised stock characters. This is a pity as Rob's Britishness could've been a source of difference or tension. A proper point of interest.

I know when a book isn't making a good impression on me. It gets put aside on a regular basis and I don't look forward to continuing the story. Indeed, this one was only completed by virtue of the fast forward button. Disappointing.

An OK story can be rescued by a great narrator. This one was trashed by Iggy Toma's appalling English accent. Granted, the author did little work to place Rob somewhere definite in the UK but it doesn't excuse Toma wandering through first mock-Cockney, then what he imagined to be a nasal upper-class accent in search of the character's voice.

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Oh Iggy, accents just aren't your thing...

What disappointed you about Daily Grind?

So, I have listened to and enjoyed a number of audiobooks narrated by Iggy Toma and was looking forward to listening to this one. Everything was going so well for the first few minutes (he has a great tone to his voice and a dry delivery that works so well for Brian's POV)... and then Rob came into the story. Oh dear.

To say that Toma's attempt at an English (sorry, Briddish) accent was bad is a major understatement. It veered from posh RP Home Counties to "cor blimey, Mary Poppins" cockney to East Coast American to Australian within each utterance. The man is supposed to come from a working-class background from a small mining town near Leeds - so why does he sound like Bertie Wooster trying to imitate Dick van Dyke's Bert the chimney sweep?

What possessed this poor man to suggest that he could "do" an English accent? Did he even bother to read the book first and listen to an actual Yorkshire accent? Or any English accent?

And before you think I am just being petty or a snob... the problem is that he is so uncomfortable attempting the accent that everything the character says sounds awkward, with strange intonation and a slightly creepy Hannibal Lecter breathiness. The characterisation is completely wrong for a down-to-earth northerner with Rob's back story. Honestly, this narration would be a hundred times better if Iggy Toma just gave up on the Briddish and did his own accent for every character.

What other book might you compare Daily Grind to, and why?

If you have read the other (better) books in the series then you will probably find this ok. It is not as good but there are enjoyable cameos from other characters from earlier books. And lots of coffee. They make coffee, drink coffee, sell coffee, agonise over finding decent staff to make the coffee and then drink some more coffee.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

In every way. I cringed every time Rob spoke.

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Anna Zabo is a very talented writer and this book is surely just a slightly weaker episode in an excellent series. The story is fine - I just found it difficult to care that much about the problems of finding good baristas for a small coffee shop (the only real conflict in the midst of a nice, mundane love story).

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