Curves for Days

Narrators Paul Bellantoni and Michelle Price strike the right note in Moher’s mostly delightful debut. Recent lottery winner Rose leaves her home in Indiana and ends up in Galway, NC. There, she makes new friends and meets Angus, a gruff army veteran who becomes her contractor when she buys a home. Because of the havoc caused by her windfall, Rose keeps her earnings secret while using them to accomplish good deeds around town. When Angus slowly begins to fall for Rose, she doesn’t notice at first because her self-esteem is in tatters, following a past traumatic experience. Once they do get together, Rose worries that everything will change if her secret gets out. Price vocalizes Rose as a determined person who has suffered in the past but is embracing a new, confident self. Rose’s sunny demeanor balances out Angus’s surliness. At times, Bellantoni’s Angus, who also works as a counselor for other veterans, sounds 10 years older, perhaps because Angus has seen some things during the war. The audiobook is excellent until the third act, when Angus’s characterization sours and hinders the rest of the story.