My Heart to Touch

S.B. Alexander

Feb 2021 · A Maxwell Family Saga Book 1 · Raven Wing Publishing · Narrated by Heather Downey and Parker Douglass

About this audiobook

The shy ones are diamonds in the rough.

QUINN THOMPSON

When I walk into a room, the popular kids whisper about me. I don’t own designer clothes or name-brand shoes. I don’t wear low-cut shirts or tons of makeup either. I’m as plain Jane as a girl can get. I live on a farm, where the uniform of the day is boots, jeans, and a T-shirt unless it’s winter; then I trade my T-shirts for heavy sweaters and a parka. Baggy is my style.

But I’m considered one of the nerds in school for reasons besides my wardrobe. I have my nose in books while the popular girls have their noses up jocks’ butts. I do everything I can to avoid the in crowd at Kensington High—until a new boy waltzes in. He’s tall like my brothers, handsome like Zach Efron, and disrupts my belief that boys only want one thing. My only problem is he’ll never notice me, not if my arch-nemesis has any say.

MAIKEN MAXWELL

Basketball has been my life until my dad died. I’m trying not to get depressed, but it’s hard to breathe sometimes. He’ll never cheer from the stands at any of my basketball games or shout at me to shoot that three-pointer. I promised him I would step up if anything happened to him, and now it’s time to be the man of the house.

Only I’m torn between playing for the Kensington High basketball team and finding a job—until the girl with butterscotch hair snags my attention. She’s pretty, quirky, and her presence takes my mind off my troubles. Above all else, she makes me feel things that I’ve never felt before. In my mind, girls are just a distraction. They’re nice to look at, they talk too much, and they’re extremely pushy. Yet Quinn Thompson might change my opinion that all girls are created equal.

Ratings and reviews

I loved this book when I read it, but listening to it on audio was even better!!! As a person who listens to a lot of audiobooks, I hear a lot of narrators good and bad. The narrators, Heather Downey and Parker Douglass were FANTASTIC!! They sounded the right age and their variation in character’s voices was phenomenal!! I pictured everything perfectly from the authors descriptions and the narrators way of expressing those descriptions, whether it was feelings, scenes, or places. I thoroughly enjoyed this! The characters are so well written, and you can’t help but really like the two main characters. She wrote in the perfect “mean” characters! If I could have reached into my kindle and slapped them, I definitely would have!! The parents, the siblings, everyone was so interesting. Then seeing Kade Maxwell so involved, i kept thinking what a great dad he’s going to be! We even had a few scenes with Lacey! The pace moved right along, i never found myself getting bored. Just the opposite, I didn’t want to put it down, especially once i really got into the story. I think the overall plot was very relatable to young adults that age. The shyness, dealing with loss, bullying, pressure in school, etc. I loved the original Maxwell series and I look forward to reading more about their cousins!!

I love a dual narrative, especially when the narration is done with two narrators. Let me just say that I really like this series. Quinn and Maiken are high school sophomores and are both coming to grips with their new reality in their own way. They also venture into the realm of high school dating, which comes with its own unique challenges. Throw in some external jealously, over-protective brothers and things really get interesting for them. This was a fun listen. I definitely recommend the audiobook. Just wanted to note that this ends in a cliffhanger and is the first book of the series that follows high school students throughout HS.

I previously read the ebook version of My Heart to Touch and enjoyed it immensely. When asked to review the audiobook, I thought it might be boring, but I was amazed about how much I had forgotten. I was delighted to revisit Quinn and Maiken and remember those first moments when they started falling in love. It’s such a sweet love story and well done by the two voices representing the two main characters. The audiobook truly brings another dimension to the story. I am looking forward to listening to the next book in this series.