katdebrob

Started strong, and then collapsed from lack of editing and truth testing.

Revisado: 08-11-23

Finding out the author is a former screen writer renders the devolution of the writing in the Coroner a little more understandable- it's as though she got a quarter of the way into it and then reverted to the expectation actors would demonstrate the emotions and motives she wanted to convey for her. I think it might also explain the lack of serious editing: the frequent and repeated wrong word choices, the odd disappearing close family member, and the bizarre choice to specifically name a make of electric car without ever dealing with the very real constraints the lead character would have to manage to actually drive that car in a small town (how was she charging it in Freeport? Where did she recharge it on the way from Chicago to Freeport, given the range of the Leaf available in 2018 was 120 miles, max?)

This kind of sloppy writing makes everything else the writer says suspect as well. And it should be- her police procedural details are Nancy Drew level. Because of her background, I want to trust her forensic medicine details, but the errors in other parts of the story make me wonder.

I read to be absorbed by the characters and plot, and to hopefully see things from a new perspective. If the book is constantly jerking me out of the story with poor word choices, flat writing and glaring factual inaccuracies, it's not worth my time.

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Meh story, Meh narration

Revisado: 07-06-23

This was unlistenable for me. The narrator's butchering of Scottish place names and low energy, soporific performance combined with trite writing, one-dimensional cookie-cutter characters and a predictable, overly recycled plot made listening an act of endurance I won't repeat for either author or narrator

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Gorgeous story, exquisite narration

Revisado: 06-07-23

Every part of both the story and the performance feel profoundly true. I will miss being in the world of Twelve Months And A Day, and won't easily leave the feelings and thoughts it inspired behind.

This is my first encounter with both author and narrator, but it won't be my last.

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everything Therese Plummer reads sound the same, and that made me wish I'd read it instead.

Revisado: 09-06-22

The narration is so overdone it really made it hard to get into the story. Every line is so dramatically read and so "Therese Plummer" in delivery, that I really struggled to get a sense of the characters. Augh!

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Jane Austen is rolling in her grave

Revisado: 01-25-20

This Elizabeth has nothing to do with Elizabeth Bennet except for sharing a first name. She is vapid, shallow and demonstrates the emotional maturity of a pre teen, despite the author’s repeated declarations (through the Darcy character) that she is all that is good and wonderful. The dog show conceit makes no sense for a character who has such a debilitating slavish submission to 19th century class divisions.

The narrator does her best, but the story is poor fan fiction at best, and a huge waste of time at worst. If you want a great romantic comedy with a witty, razor sharp heroine, read the original.

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Awful narration, so so story

Revisado: 05-11-17

Would you try another book from Julie Garwood and/or Anne Flosnik?

I've enjoyed previous Julie Garwood books. I've hated every narration I've heard Anne Flosnik perform. This is the last time I'll listen to anything she narrates.

Would you be willing to try another book from Julie Garwood? Why or why not?

Possibly- I don't know if I've changed, or this book's characters are more stereotypical than some of Garwood's others, but I require more from the people I invest my time reading about... Specifically, the protagonist was silly and childish- and while the author told us over and over again how she inspired universal love and adoration in all around her, I didn't feel it. The character repeatedly jumped to illogical conclusions, was "adorably" bossy (and amazingly right about the things she butted into, given the clear thinking errors she demonstrated about so many other things) and alternatively curiously progressive. The book is set in the late 11th/ early 12th century, but the protagonist could have been plucked from any damsel-in-distress story set in any time period.

I'm confused by the rave reviews of others.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Anne Flosnik?

Davina Porter, Carmela Corbet, Sara Coomes- pretty much anyone who can muster a decent accent and is able to do a tolerable male voice without making him sound like the villian in a campy horror movie. Flosnik is dreadfully melodramatic, and she especially butchers male voices. I find myself trying to imagine what listening to the story by a more skilled performer would be like, and wondering if my reaction to it would have been more favorable.

Was Honor's Splendour worth the listening time?

It passed the time on a long drive, and I finished it, but I wasn't much invested in the story. Getting past the narration was a serious challenge, and there were times I opted for silence or am radio in a different language.

Any additional comments?

I got this for a discounted price. I'd have been very disappointed if I'd wasted a credit.

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Compelling story; I want the next book

Revisado: 04-20-16

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely, though I think this series in particular is best enjoyed in the order it was written. The characters are well developed, but they definitely develop in time. The world they inhabit is evocatively drawn. You care about both the people and the place, and walk away with quite a lot to ponder over.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I don't have a favorite, but in this book I was pleased to see Merrily's daughter Jane evolve into a wiser, more self-reflexive person. As always, I enjoy expanding my sense of Huw Owen. I also appreciated the deeper sense of Athena/Anthea White. I found the Aisha Malick character very powerful, for someone who never truly appears in a scene, and her father broke my heart.

What about Emma Powell’s performance did you like?

All of it, I think. She embodies (envoices?) Merrily, Huw, Sophie and Franny Bliss to a degree it's hard to imagine them with any other voice. Her performances of the other characters is equally good, if not quite as distinctive.

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

There were a lot of powerful moments in this book. Various events in the family drama at Kumarrow where wrenching and powerful, and the various elements of generation, religion, culture and supernatural all blended to create a feeling of tight unease and growing desperation. The scene in the chapel at Lime Hill wasn't spectacular, event-wise, but it was moving in its depiction of Merrily reaching a place where she was able to see Athena as a fragile person, rather than the deadly spider in the corner. Each one-on-one encounter between Franny Bliss and Charlie Howe strikes me viscerally, not because of Franny's mastery of the event, but because repeatedly, the bad guy wins. And it feels true in my gut.

Any additional comments?

This book is an excellent addition to a great series. I dreaded the end, even as I wanted to reach the final denouement (which of course wasn't fully there...) because I want more- both about what happened in this story, and what happens in Merrily's larger story. That won't come for awhile, I'm afraid. I think that's a good sign: I care about these characters and want to know what happens with them. I can't decide if Rickman is a horrible tease, or a brilliant writer in keeping a lot of that information, like in life, just out of reach.

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Great Story, Crappy Performance

Revisado: 03-06-16

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Someone not bothered by a narrator who butchers male voices and doesn't get speech in general.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Anne Flosnik?

Rosalyn Landor, Davina Porter, Mary Jane Wells, Barbara Rosenblat, Justine Eyre, Carmen Rose- there are a lot of very accomplished female narrators out there.

Any additional comments?

I really like Amanda Quick's brand of smart, funny romance, and this was a particularly good story. Sadly, Anne Flosnick's narration was so bad it was almost unlistenable

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