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Fat Chance cover art

Fat Chance

By: Nick Spalding
Narrated by: Heather Wilds,Napoleon Ryan
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Summary

Meet Zoe and Greg Milton, a married couple who have let themselves go a bit.

Zoe was a stunner in her college days, but the intervening decades have added five stone, and removed most of her self-esteem. Greg's rugby-playing days are well and truly behind him, thanks to countless pints of beer and chicken curry.

When Elise, a radio DJ and Zoe's best friend, tells them about a new competition, it seems like the perfect opportunity to turn their lives around. Fat Chance will pit six hefty couples against one another to see who can collectively lose the most weight and walk away with a £50,000 prize.

So begins six months of abject misery, tears, and frustration—that just might turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to them - in another laugh-out-loud look at the way we live now from bestselling author Nick Spalding.

©2014 Nick Spalding (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

What listeners say about Fat Chance

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Unbearable

The narration is awful. I found myself auguring with Ms Mills over how she be telling the story because her robotic, nasal voice was overwhelmingly irritating. The parts of the story I could focus on left me frustrated because of the writing. Nick Spalding talks of a curtain growling as it is pulled across; seriously? Growling? And uses narrative viewpoints that are impossible such as the woman in the changing room who's stuck in a dress so badly that she can only just see through the top of it but can somehow describe what the dress looks like round the waist. Just awful. I'm getting my money back. Avoid.

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46 people found this helpful

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Awful narration

I was very much looking forward to this book as a little light relief after reading some thrillers. The female narrator was terrible, like a robot with no emotion at all. The male narrator was better but still a bit stiff. The content of the novel was funny enough and i probably would have enjoyed reading it myself. There was a lot of fat-bashing though which was a bit off putting. Zoe calling her boss pig dog for example just made me cringe. A funny little read for those trying to lose a little weight in January, although if you are more than 5 pounds overweight it could leave a bitter taste in your mouth worse than a slimming shake.

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26 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars

Fat yarn

I listened to the end probably as I need to lose weight and I hoped it would inspire me. Maybe. What I didn't enjoy were the voices playing the leads. They didn't seem a good match to me and I found the female leads voice had weird intonations. The story was ok. Predictable I guess. I wouldn't recommend it.

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20 people found this helpful

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Not worth the listening time

This book starts off with a very robotic account of an overweight woman being embarrassed in a changing room. So far so bog standard. It then switches to the male character who sounda like he is struggling to draw a breath. This of course may be deliberate as the character is very overweight, but it didn't really enhance my listening enjoyment. At first I thought I would stick with this to while away the time but then I decided that I would prefer to enrich it. Sadly it is too late for me to return this one so I will put it down to experience.

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18 people found this helpful

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Bizarre narration style

The narration is so bizarre I stopped listening, so probably didn't give the story enough of a chance to be able to score it. It's as though they are putting on mock voices in a children's pantomime. Very strange direction and meant I couldn't listen any further. Perhaps one to read instead

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Blah Blah Blah

If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

Narration was awful, story line incredibly thin, didnt enjoy it at all. Funny in parts particularly the begining

What was most disappointing about Nick Spalding’s story?

no real plot

What didn’t you like about Heather Wilds and Napoleon Ryan ’s performance?

monotone, sounded like talking clocks....at the tone the time will be ........

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14 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Well written and very funny!

Would you listen to Fat Chance again? Why?

I don't tend to read or listen to a book again since there are 'so many books, so little time'. However, this a a cheerful, funny, easy read/listen, so maybe!

What did you like best about this story?

It was 'laugh out loud' funny at regular intervals, but at no time did it engage in the socially acceptable, but reprehensible, passtime of laughing at, and being judgemental and patronising to, fat people.

Which character – as performed by Heather Wilds and Napoleon Ryan – was your favourite?

My favourite was probably Greg, but I loved Zoe too.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I was driving when listening to the chapter in which Greg had been drinking copious amounts of coffee as part of the Russian Airforce diet. It made me laugh so much that I fear I looked like a completely crazy women to other motorists!

Any additional comments?

Napoleon's narration was spot on. Heather Wild's was a bit wooden in style. I checked some of her narration in samples of other books. No problems there, so I think it was her interpretation of telling the story in diary exerts. However, some sentence breaks were just wrong and it did mar the listening experience a little. That said, she has a lovely voice and was pleasent to listen to.

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8 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Felt like Siri was reading the novel to me

As a voracious reader and an English teacher I expected more from an audiobook by such a well regarded writer. The female voice lacked any real emotion, I tried to improve my experience by speeding up the reading to no avail. The male voice was better and more engaged with the words he was reading, but the damage was done. I returned the book.

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7 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A bit disappointed

I've read Nick Spalding books before & enjoy his sense of humour, so bought this book without much thought. The book itself, doesn't disappoint. I would totally recommend the book. Sadly the narration lets it down completely. I struggled to get past the first chapter. The tones are confusing and although the words are clear and easy to hear, the lack of pace & natural speaking, loses most of the humour. I struggled to identify with the characters as I couldn't become absorbed in the story. Some of the accents were good but it seemed as if the story were being read for the first time as homework. I asked friends to listen to the first chapter & without exception they couldn't understand why it was being read in that way. It was irritating. I will always listen to a sample in future, to avoid this again. Sorry guys but it wasn't good.

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    4 out of 5 stars

Fat chance!

If you could sum up Fat Chance in three words, what would they be?

Amusing, predictable, ok.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Fat Chance?

Quite liked the description of the dress incident at M&S although the staff response annoyed me as working there none of my colleagues would have reacted that way!

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Heather Wilds and Napoleon Ryan ?

Narration absolutely appalling. Anyone else cast would probably have been better. Heather Wilds' voice was nothing like I imagined Zoe's to be and had an irritating lack of emotion and odd intonation.

Any additional comments?

Wouldn't listen to it again because of the narration but would like to read it on my kindle.

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