The Mistletoe Matchmaker

 The Mistletoe Matchmaker by Felicity Hayes-McCoy

Cassie Fitzgerald's grandparents visit her family in Canada, and Cassie goes back to Ireland with them. Meeting family members and making new friends in Finfarran, she gets involved in community work, joins a group at the library, and starts seeing a man who seems genuinely interested in her. The romance is only a small part of the plot, which mainly focuses on relationships between family and friends. There are enough of them that I needed a list to sort them out, but once I figured out who belonged to who it was easier to keep them straight.

The audio book was narrated by an Irish woman whose lovely lilting accent was positively addictive. She made the characters identifiable by the tone she used for each of them but unfortunately the voice she gave the Canadian girl just sounded weird to this Canadian. The 'r' sound was quite comical and the overall effect was unlike any accent I've ever heard, in Canada or anywhere. The reading of the female character's lines made them sometimes sound a bit silly, an impression I probably wouldn't have gotten from the written book. It made Cassie hard to relate to - or even like - but those musical Irish accents and a fairly good story kept me listening to the end. Still, I wish I'd read it instead of listening.

The story isn't terribly Christmasy and the title is questionable, but the characters come across as authentic for the most part and the plot is more complex than would have I expected. Though part of a series, I found it stood on its own quite well. It was good light reading. Or listening - I'm never sure it's ok to call it reading. 

When you've listened to a book, do you consider yourself to have read it?