Thank you to Harper Audio for my copy of the Audiobook for Better Luck Next Time by Julia Claiborne Johnson in exchange for my honest review.

This is not your typical Historical Fiction and I will say that it is has a slower pace, but it was also an easy read. It is set in the 1930s in Reno, at a divorce ranch where women came to stay at for 6 weeks while they waited for their divorces to go through. It is told from the point of view of Ward, a young man that works as a ranch hand, who is there to tend to the ladies more than the land or animals. He was definitely there to serve as man candy and flirt with the houseguests!

And that handsome young ranch hand had some stories from his time there! He tells the story of his time at the ranch with the two most memorable women, Emily and Nina, and how they changed his life. I especially liked Nina, who flies her own airplane and was staying a the ranch for her third divorce. She was quite a manipulative woman, but had true intentions. The characters were all interesting and fit together to make a unique story overall.

I also liked the bits of Ward's past and future that were told and mixed in with the story.

The storyline format that this book was written in lended itself perfectly to an Audiobook. David Aaron Barker did a fantastic job with the narration for it. I felt like I was sitting next to him as he told War'd's story. It definitely enhanced the experience of the book for me.

First, the disclaimer: I received this as an audiobook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions that I express are my own and are not influenced by having received this ARC for free.

This is a character-driven novel told in reminiscing flashbacks from the narrator, Ward. The fourth wall is broken in this story, so if that is a pet peeve of yours, this might not be the book for you. The person interviewing Ward is not identified, and it reads as though the reader themself is that interviewer. (Personally, I enjoy that literary device and I liked the writing style a lot, but I do understand that it is not something all readers enjoy as much as I do so I want to offer that information ahead of time to anyone considering this book.) Ward is a retired, folksy doctor who is recounting the time that he worked as a ranch hand at a Reno divorce ranch back in the 1930s. Back then, Reno was the place to go if you wanted a fast divorce from your cheating husband. For a woman to secure a divorce, she stays there for 6 weeks in order to gain residency and is then able to divorce her husband. This divorce ranch hosts these ladies and entertains them during the six-week waiting period. Ward was the good-looking entertainment. (Read: Eye Candy). Most of the tale centers around Ward’s experiences with two women on the ranch. Nina is an amateur pilot and is here for the third time to obtain another divorce. Emily is a wealthy woman who is just learning to spread her wings. What unfolds is a sometimes humorous, lighthearted story with lots of heart and plenty of good times. Sometimes, historical fiction is heavy-handed, but this historical fiction is, refreshingly, on the light side. The characters are fantastic, and I enjoyed getting to know them throughout this story. The atmosphere of this book is also awesome. My favorite thing about historical fiction is how easily the reader is usually swept up in the atmosphere. I feel like this book would be an excellent movie. I was transported to the ranch through this story and could view it as a movie in my mind.

I actually liked almost everything about this story. The only area that was lacking a little was plot. While this is not a plot-driven story, the pacing lagged a bit in the middle of the book.

This is a great book that hit me in the feel-good feels. If you enjoy light-hearted historical fiction, give this one a try!

CAWPILE Total: 56
CAWPILE Average: 8 average
Star Rating: 4 ½ Stars

READ ON AUDIO ARC – 8 hrs. 26 minutes/ 288 pages

This was a nice light listen. It's about a dude ranch in Reno that caters to rich women that are seeking a divorce. The women have to stay there for 6 weeks in order to get their divorce. It is told by one of the workers. I really enjoyed listening to this book.

I know this was a very anticipated book for a lot of readers. While I stuck with it this was just not my wheelhouse. I love literary fiction, but the time and sense of place did not work for me. This might have better served to read this and not do this on Audiobook.

I listened to the advanced audiobook copy of this book. I did enjoy the narrator, however as I sped the voice up to 2x as the story was slow at times, the narration began to sound like it was in a tunnel rather than clear audio. I listen to many audiobooks at this speed. Maybe it’s the advanced copy, I’m not quite sure.

This story takes place at a 1930’s dude ranch for women who need to legally divorce their husbands. The premise of this book is great, but for me it fell a little flat. The story is told by Ward, the ranch hand and he pretty much tells the whole story. There wasn’t much character interaction so I felt like there wasn’t much going on in the story. There were times when I didn’t even know what was happening.

Maybe the print copy of this title would be better for this type of story.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

Pros: My favorite part was the strong sense of place of a divorce ranch in Reno in 1938.

Cons: Although the setting is unique, I didn’t care about the characters, and the plot was predictable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Audio for the audio version of this book.

Sweet audiobook with great narration. I could see where the story was going early on, but enjoyed the journey. Johnson lends a nice sense of place to her novel which is set on a Dude Ranch outside Reno, where wealthy women spend their six week residency awaiting their quickie divorces.
Recommended.

3.5 stars (rounded up to 4 on Goodreads)

An interesting look at a 1930s divorce ranch and the 6 week stint that a group shared on the ranch. These ranches (true from history) were a place women could go spend 6 weeks at to get their Nevada citizenship which then allowed them to divorce their husband.

We meet a cast of women but the two main women involved are Nina (on her third trip to the ranch) and Emily. The two pair up and become fast friends. One drives an automobile while the other an airplane denoting them both as strong women.

The story is told from the point of view of one of two ranch hands, Ward. Ward is a young man from TN. The two women take a liking to Ward and manage to entwine him in several of their hijinks.

Ward is telling the story to an interviewer who has been visiting him at his retirement home armed with a picture from those 6 weeks and a tape recorder to get the story. The story stops as Ward comes back to his present time to make commentary about lessons learned or about his life after the ranch. In the end this style helped the book come full circle but throughout the story it sometimes made it feel a bit jerky in pace.

The book was not a fast read as there isn't a ton of action but I appreciated the story greatly by the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins audio for an advanced copy of the audiobook in exchange for my honest opinion.

Take a great premise and add in clever writing- makes for a great book.
Set near Reno in the 1930's, Ward is cowboy who works on a dude ranch resort for rich ladies looking to establish the mandatory six week residency to get a divorce. The story is told from Ward's perspective as an old man, looking back on that time in his life and how the entertaining, independent, and well formed characters impacted his life. The ladies are interesting and could each have their own books, but framing this story from Ward's narration works very well. I listened to the audiobook version and the narrator, David Aaron Baker's reading is witty and humorous. He even somehow pulled off the voices of the diverse group of ladies and managed to inject this book with a fun, thoughtful, and loving spirit. I laughed and teared up and really enjoyed this book.
Put this on your reading list for January 2021!

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance audiobook for review.

Happy Publication Day to Better Luck Next Time! This book is set in 1938 in Reno, Nevada - a state where women could stay for six weeks and obtain a “no questions asked” divorce which was quite unusual in the day. This book describes the relationships formed at the Flying Leap Dude Ranch which hosted many wealthy women who fled to Reno in order to dissolve their marriages.

Told from the perspective of a retired physician, Ward reflects about his time working at the ranch at the age of 24. He particularly recalls two women Nina, a St. Louis heiress and amateur pilot at the ranch to obtain her third divorce, and Emily whose most courageous act to date was to drive herself to the ranch from San Francisco. These two women share a suite at the ranch and they develop a special bond. Not only do their personalities complement one another, but they bring out the best in one another as well. The story also demonstrates the difference in social class, aspirations and gender in 1938 - some of which have not improved much over the past eighty years.

While the book was entertaining, I did not feel connected to these characters. Moreover, I felt the book lacked emotion which was not only disappointing, but a must for me to enjoy a book. Having said that, the stories and antics from the ranch were amusing - just not often enough to keep me fully engaged. I enjoyed the bit of romance in the story, which provided insight into the personalities, and differences, of the characters involved. I recommend this book to those that enjoy literary fiction.

I listened to the audiobook version of the book which was narrated by David Aaron Baker who had a good performance. Reminiscent of listening to a cowboy telling stories of his past, I appreciated this quality which brought some authenticity to the book. I listened to the book at my usual 1.25x speed which was perfect for me. I would not hesitate to recommend the audiobook version of the book to those that enjoy this format.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper audio for the ARC of this audiobook in exchange for the honest review provided here.

3.5 stars. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of the audiobook of "Better Luck Next Time". Ward is telling the story of his time as a ranch hand at the Flying Leap, a dude ranch where wealthy women live for 6 weeks to become Nevada residents, and then are legally able to divorce their husbands. Told in interview format, Ward shares the ups and downs of his time at the Flying Leap with a reporter writing a story. The book had some great laugh out loud moments, mostly courtesy of Ward's fellow ranch hand Sam. David Aaron Baker does a great job reading as Ward. Recommended for fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid's "Daisy Jones and the Six"- Better Luck was a smidge less successful in my opinion, but still definitely worth a read.

Wow—I was blown away by this book. It caught me by surprise at how much I loved this story.
The narrator has a phenomenal speaking voice and it fit the character of Ward perfectly.

The book shows us the history of a very niche time and circumstance in the 30s.
Wealthy women would travel to Reno and stay at The Flying Leap Ranch to legally divorce their husbands. If they lived in Reno for a certain amount of time, they were considered residents. The divorce laws in that state were very lax, so women would work the system to their advantage.
This was back in the day where women didn’t have many good options when they wanted to get out of a marriage.

One aspect I adored about this book was how the telling of the tale is set up. Ward is an old man who is being asked by another character (we aren’t sure who) to retell the events that happened during one particular visit. Ward worked on The Flying Leap ranch in his mid-twenties. He was a young attractive cowboy surrounded by soon to be divorcees. You can imagine the interactions he had.
The way Ward tells the story as well is humorous and intimate. It sounds like he is speaking directly to us.

There is one stay in particular Ward is recalling. The time when a woman named Emily comes to the ranch. She changes his whole life in the few weeks she is there.
Ward falls in love with her, but of course things happen to prevent them from being together.
Her husband and daughter come to change her mind. A heartbreaking series of events unfold and Ward is left alone. Up to the very end I fell in love with Ward through each page.

This was such a vulnerably human story. You see so many women coming to the ranch for different reasons, and they all learn a little from each other. Everyone there has some sort of heartache. But Ward is the one I was rooting for the whole time.

This book hit home for me and was such a gem of a story. It is more literary, but it would be a great book to kick off your 2021 reading pile.

This one started out strong but kind of ended up losing me along the way. It did remind of my favorite movie The Women(1939) but fall flat.

Now narrators are rockstars to me so I really feel bad about the following review of the narration but it is what it is.
The narration by David Aaron Baker was uneven in that some of his voices were good and others (mostly his female voices) bothered me, one sounds like Mr. Teatime from the Hogfather another is Josephine (Tony Curtis in Some Like it Hot) his female voices just didn’t do it for me.

I know some will love this book but for me it was just okay. I will still buy this book for my library I have patrons who will enjoy it.
3 stars

I received this audiobook from NetGalley & Harper Audio for a fair and honest review.

I hesitate to call "Better Luck Next Time" historical fiction, but it is certainly a slice of history that was unfamiliar to me. Nevada passed a law in 1931 that allowed for "quickie divorces" for its residents--not long after the law passed "Divorce Ranches" started popping up. Women (well mostly women) would stay at the ranch for 6 weeks and would then be residents who could finalize their divorces.

This book is primarily set on a divorce ranch outside of Reno, the divorce capitol of the world, in 1938, and is told from the perspective of one of the cowboys, Ward. He had no idea what he was getting himself into when he met Nina and Emily. For a book featuring women who are all seeking divorces, its surprisingly light hearted, but it also serves as a reminder of how impactful someone can be in your life even if they aren't in it for long.

Thank you to @netgalley and @harperaudio for the early audio copy of BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME by Julia Claiborne Johnson (PUB DATE 1.5.2021) 

This book was wholly unique and a breath of fresh air.  The story is narrated by Ward, described as "Cary Grant in cowboy boots", as he reflects back on his time working at the Flying Leap, a divorce ranch in Reno during the 1930's.  The ranch caters to a cast of independent, eccentric, and conflicted soon-to-be divorced women. 
It was a feel-good story  full of old-fashioned charm.  I appreciated how the author created a humorous romp but also blended in emotionally contemplative elements.

The narration was fabulous. I felt like I was a guest on the ranch.  My only gripe, which is a consistent audiobook gripe,  is the voicing of the 14 yr old character. Her narration came across much younger than 14 and it pulled me out of the story a bit.

I was drawn to the this book based on the description, the cover and the fact that I enjoyed the author's earlier title Be Frank With Me. I was not disappointed. This story set in pre-WWII Reno, Nevada, on a 'dude' ranch where wealthy women establish residency so that they can obtain a 'quickie' divorce was a winner. We meet Ward, the Ivy League cowboy, whose jobs include hanging out the clothes, serving meals and cleaning the kitchen, and playing chauffeur to the women. It's inevitable that he should become involved with at least one of the women. I enjoyed the story and especially enjoyed the narration (something I frequently fail to mention). Mr Baker was the perfect narrator for this story and I'm sure this added to my enjoyment.

What a unique and fun read!

I was very excited to dig into a book set in 1930s Reno, Nevada on a "divorce ranch." In those times, women couldn't easily leave their cheating husbands and were forced to reside in Reno for 6 weeks awaiting a status of resident in order to process their divorces.

Ward is a good looking ranch hand who is dedicated to working the ranch with the utmost professionalism. Emily is a new arrival to the ranch. She's finding her way through her first divorce and learning to spread her wings. Nina is a repeat customer of the ranch and makes it her mission to be a genuine friend to Emily. What unfolds is a story of heart and good times of decades past.

This audiobook was wonderfully performed. I really don't know if I could have fully enjoyed it without such a talented narrator sharing the story. The characters in Better Luck Next Time are a delight to get to know. I loved hearing about their marriages and hard ships and watching them grow over the course of the book. Where this book falters for me is the pacing. I was in it the first 50-75 pages. I loved the speed in which the story unfolded. But the middle is painfully slow and seemed to lag in plot.

I have never read this author before but I do believe her style of writing would be perfect for a number of people in my reading circle.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperAudio for this advanced reader copy for my true and honest review.#netgalley #betterlucknexttime

Thank you William Morrow books and Harper Audio for the advance reading copy!

Here’s what this book is about:” It’s 1938, and women seeking a quick, no-questions split from their husbands head to the “divorce capital of the world”, Reno, Nevada. There’s one catch: They have to wait six-weeks to become “residents”. Many of these wealthy, soon-to-be divorcees flock to the Flying Leap, a dude ranch that caters to their every need.

Twenty-four-year-old Ward spent one year at Yale before his family lost everything in the Great Depression; now he’s earning an honest living as a ranch hand at the Flying Leap. Admired for his dashing good looks - “Cary Grant in cowboy boots” - Ward thinks he’s got the Flying Leap’s clients all figured out. But two new guests are about to upend everything he thinks he knows: Nina, a St. Louis heiress and amateur pilot back for her third divorce, and Emily, whose bravest moment in life was leaving her cheating husband back in San Francisco and driving herself to Reno.”

I thought this book was interesting but I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would.

Unfortunately I was not a fan of this book. It was boring and I had to force myself to continue listening to it. I loved the concept and the setting was interesting. I just kept waiting and waiting for something exciting to happen and was continuously disappointed with the character.

One look at the synopsis for Better Luck Next Time would easily make one believe this is a new take on Clare Boothe Luce's 1936 play The Women (given movie treatments in 1939, a musical in 1956 called The Opposite Sex, and then again in 2008). While both book and play deal with the pampered lives of soon-to-be divorcees and feature a dude ranch in Nevada, the play had cutting commentary about women's power struggles while this book is a sweet story of a handsome young man and two very different women.

Story: Ward is an educated Tennesse boy whose family fell on hard times during the depression. He set out to work on the Hoover Dam project and ended up being hand picked to work a dude ranch for wealthy divorcees who are 'vacationing' in Nevada for 6 weeks in order to obtain a residency and then immediate divorce. When the vivacious Nina and shy but sweet Emily join the ranch, everything changes for Ward. He soon becomes embroiled in the two women's lives as he learns lessons in life and love from the fellow ranch hands, the divorcees, and the ranch owners.

At first, I thought this would be The Women - retold from the perspective of "Buck" the ranch hand. But it soon became clear that The Women was about, well, women. This book is all about Ward and the push-pull he has with Nina and Emily. Nina is a wild free spirit and Emily is a mother mourning a bad marriage and straddled with a very unsympathetic teen daughter. Other characters include the bohemian owners and fellow ranch hand Sam. Along the way we meet several other quirky divorcees but for the most part, we follow Ward. So although the setting is the same, book and play are very different (though admittedly I wish there was an "America's sweetheart" aspect in Emily and a vixen in Nina, as the play had). The play had far more interesting characters and dynamics but this book has far more sweetness, humor, and heart.

The story is told as if we are watching an elderly Ward is being being interviewed by an unknown person about his recollections of the time he was at the dude ranch. It can be a bit disconcerting at first but the story does flow into his memories nicely to create the tale of his time at the Flying Leap ranch. Since the ranch is isolated (as are the pampered divorcees) there isn't that much milieu of the Great Depression in which this sits. It's a nicely intimate story about Ward, Emily, and Nina.

Because this is Ward being interviewed at the end of his life, we get a full story of what happened after Ward left the ranch and became a doctor. I particularly liked that aspect at the end because it filled out the story in places where it was really needed. It is a bit of a bittersweet tale and a slow start became much more engrossing by mid way through the book. You may not like any of the pampered wealthy protagonists but the book has heart and a lot of character in its fluid storytelling.

I listened to the audio book version and enjoyed the narration. The narrator did an excellent job with creating distinct characterizations - especially considering most of the cast is female but told from a male point of view. I highly recommend the audio version for that reason.

In all, by the end, it felt like a very enjoyable and filling read and was a fun and heartfelt look at a 1930s dude ranch. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.