The Break-Up Agency

By: Sheila McClure

Narrated by: Imogen Church

Falling in love can be complicated—especially when you’ve already broken up.

Ellie Shaw loves love. Unfortunately, she’s also an expert in break-ups. When a friend needs help with her ‘too nice to dump’ boyfriend, Ellie agrees to help. What she doesn’t expect is for American Dan to be kind, caring, to love dogs and look like a Disney hero. In other words, completely too good to be true.

She lets him down with grace and, encouraged by her friends, sets up Softer Landings, offering kinder, gentler break-ups.

A year later American Dan reappears in her life. With a new girlfriend. One who also decides he’s not the one for her.

The team hatch a plan to let Dan down easy, but while Ellie attempts to lead him gently away, real sparks start to fly. There’s just one big problem she can’t ignore. Can Ellie reveal that their romance is the result of an elaborate con without it feeling like a huge betrayal? Or is she about to star in the most awful dumping of all time?

©2022 Sheila McClure (P)2022 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

More than romance fluff

This is only the second book I’ve listened to by McClure (haven’t started any under her other pseudonyms), but she’s one that I will seek out.

The Good:
McClure has a voice with a balance of irony and earnestness that makes her inviting. She’s authentic with independent thought and thankfully not an AI bot-type regurgitating the trite twaddle that permeates much of the Audible romance genre. There is an emotional soul to her characters. I have cried, laughed, and genuinely related to the characters.

Imogen Church paced the book aptly. Ellie, Thea, and Simon were three dimensional, often deliriously silly, and relatable. If any character was British, I wanted to meet them. The narrative voice was similar to that of the flawless Emma Thompson in Stranger than Fiction. I love that flattened, ironic read!

The not so good:
Sometimes there are moments where some text seems slightly redundant. While I’m behind character development, it should not get in the way of storytelling. I also _really_ think that an inclusion of sex would benefit McClure’s writing. While she references sexual longing, and remotely references sexual activity, there’s no actual scenes here. And to truly give her characters a soul, she needs to use their fun, sexy bits.

Church’s American accents are at best annoying, and at worst, judgmental. American Dan is a southern ophthalmologist, but sounds like a southern bumpkin. She’s missed the mark in a way that skews the character. He sounds like a dope that would be less romantic than what’s written. (For any Brits who want to hear an array of fantastic, sexy southern male voices, seek Amanda Ronconi’s narration of most of Molly Harper’s oeuvre.) As an American, it reminded me a little too much of what some Brits think of many Americans - bumbling, ignorant trash. While we might be that on occasion, that’s not what these characters are.

Overall, though, I am looking forward to more from McClure, and would listen to any Church narration of Brit characters.

loved it

I really enjoyed reading this author.  I look forward to reading more books by this author in the near future.

Great story, great characters & great dog!

I loved this story. It shows what can happen when you and others are not transparent. I just wanted to reach in and shake the characters to speak up.

a tough call

I liked the story. it was a fun premise. I like Imogen Church as a narrator. I did NOT like Imogen Church for this story. It was way over the top to the point where I almost couldn't listen.

FANTASTIC!

This is a fantastic, engaging story! I love the way that Sheila writes. It was very, very entertaining! I hated that the book ended because I wanted to continue in the story. I will definitely be looking forward to more stories by Sheila Mc Clure!

The narration was superb! Imogen Church's style was extremely entertaining and quite funny! I will definitely be looking for more books narrated by her.