The Complete Emily Bernal Trilogy

A Three-Novel Romantic Mystery Box Set From the What Doesn't Kill You Series

By: Pamela Fagan Hutchins

Narrated by: Tracy Hundley

Length: 30 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Heaven to Betsy

When a dead body swan-dives from a balcony into the pool at a wedding, gossip comes to a halt about disgraced paralegal and former rodeo queen Emily - whose husband left her for a woman who turns out to be a man. Enter Jack, a secretive attorney and sexy mix of cowboy and Indian. She refuses to work for him, until she learns about the disappearance of the six-year old daughter of his notorious client Sofia. Emily launches a desperate search for her. Bodies pile up in her wake across Texas and New Mexico as the walls around her own secrets begin to crumble.

Earth to Emily

Emily only wants two little things. The first is to adopt Betsy - the girl who has stolen her heart but could be deported to Mexico at any time. The other is a second chance with her boss, Jack, a smolderingly hot and mysterious criminal defense attorney. But before Emily can dare to hope for either (or both), the obstacles between them mount: two runaway teenagers, an aging exotic dancer, and a dead trucker.

Hell to Pay

Emily finally has her life back on track. Then client Phil Escalante's childhood buddy Dennis drops dead, face first into a penis cake at the adult novelty store. The cops charge Phil with murder right on the heels of his trial for burglarizing the Mighty is His Word Church. Emily's nemesis ADA Melinda Stafford claims a witness overheard Phil fighting with Dennis over a woman. Before he can mount a defense, Phil falls into a diabetic coma. Meanwhile Betsy’s ultra-religious foster parents apply to adopt her, and Jack starts acting weird and evasive. Emily feels like a calf out of a chute, pulled between the ropes of the header and the heeler, as she fights to help Phil without losing Betsy and Jack.

©2015 Pamela Fagan Hutchins (P)2016 Pamela Fagan Hutchins

Awesome!!

This was such a well written series!!
I loved everything about each story and hope more will follow !!

Emily’s Trilogy

I enjoyed the story but the narrators voice was a little to much southern twang. We Texans don’t sound like this. But if you can get past this voice it’s a good series. Emily’s determination to except everyone as they are and to help them through the hard times without question was fun. She get’s in and out of trouble faster than rodeo steer roping.

Loved it

Loved it. Even listened to it 3 times. Fun story and believable characters. Loved the descriptions

Emily

started slow but wow kept me wanting to listen to more you will love it

Good listen once acclimated to main character

It took a minute to get used to the narrators choice of voice/accent for the lead character, but once I did, I found the stories to be well written and the character development to have good depth. Just like all of us the main character has her flaws but overall, I found myself looking forward to continuing to listen. I would absolutely purchase more stories by this author.

Spit yeah, you are going to love these books

5 Star stories/4 Star narration. Audio Book Review. (I bought the eBooks and added Audible narration.) I had already read (in print) the third book in the Emily sub-set, #7 of the What Doesn't Kill You series, but it was fun to go backwards and read (with my ears) forward with books 5 & 6 to learn the back-stories. Main character Emily is a mess and a HOOT, and so real. "Oh spit," did I laugh a lot, and "Mother Goose," I could relate to Emily with her coffee love and crooked teeth and alternative vocabulary.

These books are chock-full of memorable characters and notable quotables, and I enjoyed and related to how Emily struggles with her faith, how to worship, how to pray, and how to be grateful. One of my favorite quotes from book one was, "I'd done a little too much of the 'why me' and the 'not fair' instead of just being thankful for what I did have." The point was not lost on me that often when Emily does the "Christian thing," it ends up badly. The slow-burn relationship between Emily and Jack is well-done, especially as things begin to smolder in book two, and again, just like Emily, the relationship feels real. It's not perfect: there are miscommunications and missed signals and uncertainty -- and a fair share of embarrassment, thanks to Emily's mother.

The narrator, Tracy Hundley excels in her female Texan voicing -- she has an accurate Texas accent and uses the right lilt and cadence in her speech and author Pamela Fagan Hutchins's fabulous phrasology. Initially, it seems like there is almost no attempt to make the male characters' voices sound male, though they do have different inflections, but that got better over the course of the three books. I am not a fan of her voicing of children and young people, and those pop-up with some frequency, but the adult females and a few selected male characters were so excellent, I didn't much care. (Melinda, described as "As shallow as a Texas river in August," sounded a bit Miss Piggy-ish, but you know, I think that is pretty accurate!)

I intend to go back to the beginning of the series -- and read the books after this set -- to get to know Emily's other friends and their stories. I like that though the books main friend group characters are what tie the full (now 9 book) series together, they work as stand alones, too. Pamela Fagan Hutchins is an immensely talented writer and has created a world with endless possibilities for storylines, each approached to match the unique women in this friend circle. There's humor, action, suspense, and romance a'plenty! HIGHLY recommend.

Fast & funny

Fast moving and filled with humor. I used to live and work in the neighborhood.

great story, laughed and cried

This was a great story, I laughed and cried, the narrator was very compelling. Several twists were unexpected, and added to the intrigue.

Enjoyable Series

I like getting the 3 book series for 1 credit and thoroughly enjoyed the stories and especially the imperfections of the heroine. The narrator did a good job with the female voices, EXCEPT the Texas accent was way over-done & the male voices were much too feminine, distracting from the storyline. After listening a few hours I kind of got used to it though.

fantastic!

sweet funny and intriguing! I was captivated by every twist and turn! great imagery and real characters