THE WORST KIND OF WANT

Narrator Hillary Huber never gives into the temptation to soften the edges of Priscilla, a prickly 40-something producer. Listeners may initially feel impatient with Priscilla's focus on beauty, and her belief that women become less appealing as they age. Nonetheless, Huber never rushes Priscilla's more serious reveals as she paces the story to suit the growing tension. Priscilla has relationship challenges, and Huber creates vivid characterizations of her demanding mother and her controlling older boyfriend. When she travels to Italy to visit her niece, she finds herself unable to resist her attraction to a 17-year-old male family friend whom her niece also likes. Huber's facility with Italian words adds charm as she expresses the character's emotional fragility in this somewhat sensationalistic story. M.J. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2019]