Google reviews are easy to game with fake accounts, so a high star score alone does not tell you much. I would rather ask for the broker's MC number and check their record on FMCSA, then call a couple of shippers they actually moved for. A 4.8 means little if nobody can prove the loads went through on time.

Man, this is just like when you burn toast and scrape it over the sink instead of starting over! Half the time nobody even notices once you load it up with butter. Same thing with your ribs, the foil and juice softened that crust and the glaze hid the rest, so the judges just tasted sweet and smoky. That trick works everywhere in life, cover up the mistake and most folks never know the difference. Taking 11th out of 42 with burnt ribs is a win no matter how you slice it.

Wait, the author actually cracked up at page 200 and you heard it live? That's wild to me. Like, I get that a narrator can do voices and stuff, but hearing the actual person who lived through it start to break down is a whole different thing. My wife listened to a memoir last year where the guy got choked up reading a letter from his dad, and she had to pull over she was crying so hard. I still gave her a hard time about it counting as reading, but honestly I was just jealous I wasn't feeling anything from my paperback. Maybe the voice is the whole point and the words on paper are just the blueprint.