Louise

Angry smeering narrator

Revisado: 11-10-24

I have many of Fiona Ferris's audio books and also in the Kindle edition. I love them dearly. This narrator does not serve Fiona's material well. Fiona should really consider recording it again. Fiona's gentle voice is soothing and inspiring. I made it through to chapter 6 of this book and I'll keep going but the narrator sneers and sounds angry. I listen to this with an earbud and so all of this vitriol is up close and personal. This is such a disappointment.

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narrator is quite good at 1.4 speed.

Revisado: 09-27-24

I have enjoyed this series and plan to read the next book too. Some people here have complained about the narrator but I just found her a bit slow. For me 1.4 speed was perfect and her voice is evened out and it was quite enjoyable. I was rather annoyed with the heroine who was very slow to gain agency in the story and to act like a real adult. I would have sped up some of the action of the story if I could have.

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What a wastee

Revisado: 12-08-23

I have read all of the Dick Francis novels many of them several times I was looking forward to this audiobook which I got on sale so I cannot return. The narration is dreadful. I'm an experienced listener I have thousands of books in my audio library. I had to start this again and again just because I lost track and I wasn't that interested I made it to chapter 4 before I bailed. Don't waste your money.

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Get on with the story already.....

Revisado: 10-07-23

Oh good grief. The writer has to describe every single thing in a conversation including the cups of tea, sip by sip, and also the leaning forward, the hand of a friend on the arm, etc. 3 hours could have been omitted from this mess with no hinderance to the actual story.

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Uggg... why insert all the clunky woke bits?

Revisado: 03-29-23

I love a good time slip story as much as the next person. A good ghost story is great too. I'm not sure this mash-up works. That said, the writer's virtue signaling with clunky politically correct situations is just awkward. Right off there is a discussion of pronouns with a character who is ultimately a 3rd or 4th tier character in the story and the pronouns don't advance the story at all. They don't earn the attention or their place. Later on there are situations about consent with romance and intimacy that while better than the pronouns are still very clunky and eye-rolling cringe. The overall effect is a writer who is not confident in her craft enough to let her story stand on it's own.

I did finish the audiobook because I like to complete. I won't be continuing in the series.

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TEDIOUS - for the last 2/3rds

Revisado: 10-27-22

I really enjoyed the first 3rd of this story. It has been ages since I'd read or listened to Stephen King and based on the initial experience I thought, "Wow, I should go check out other books." But, once you break into the other reality it just slows down and there is no one that is interesting or compelling enough. I finished because that is what I do but I will really think again before going with another King title for my credit.

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Hot mess of alcoholism and low class behavior

Revisado: 09-04-22

I simply can't believe all the positive reviews. I listened to the whole thing and by half way through I would have been happy with all of them being dead. None of the characters is appealing. They seem to exist to drink, to get vanity beauty treatments and snipe at each other.

* * * Possible Spoilers Ahead * * *
Within the world of the book it is not sufficiently established what brings the women together. They seem to feel they are trapped in their friendships yet all they need to do is walk out the door and make new friends. Several other elements in the book world did not make sense. Primarily that a divorce happened a few months prior, the new wife moves into the old house and in just that amount of time has managed to do major additions to the house without everyone else in town knowing all about it? Also, perhaps the author has not been around the planning of major galas. These things often have a full-year horizon with many sub-committees and plans. It simply can't be accomplished by a few individuals with a few hours. It's ridiculous to think that the chairperson could be replaced secretively. Many of these events have a 3-year chairwoman plan, for example the 1st Vice Chair of the current year will be the chair the next year and the 2nd Vice Chair will become the 1st, etc. The characters are presented as supposedly high class rich women but exhibit the most vulgar and crass behavior. True southern women would see each of them coming a mile off and give them a wide berth. Overall the book reads as a young person's attempt to describe an aspirational luxury lifestyle based on Hollywood fiction.

The narration was a pleasant surprise. I generally don't like multiple narrators especially when it gets beyond 2 voices. The production was very good and it was simple to keep track of whose point of view was presented.

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The book drags... get on with it

Revisado: 09-02-22

I'm working my way through this series. As always, Davina Porter's narration is a joy to listen to. The book itself seems to drag and to repeat. There seem to be several passages going over basic establishing information throughout the book. It's almost as though the editor and perhaps the author had set the work aside for a while and then returned to it. I guess if I was reading this as a book and did the same it would not be as noticeable. A tighter story would have been more enjoyable and suspenseful. It did help to speed up the narration to 1.3.

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Enjoyed it much more than I anticipated

Revisado: 03-07-22

I have read and or listened to every Dick Francis book multiple times, I've been reading them for more than 30 years. I've also read several that were co-authored with Felix and now some that are on his own. I didn't expect to like this as much as I did. It was refreshing to have a female protagonist and even though she had some major personality and metal challenges to work through I felt engaged with her story and was cheering her on, hoping for the best. I found she was competent in her work and learned quite a bit about it. This is a feature I've long enjoyed in the books. I'm glad I have the book and will gladly listen to it again in the future.

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Multiple narrators at very different speeds

Revisado: 11-01-21

I enjoyed the book very much and it's the type of thing I'd probably like to listen to again and again except for the performance. I listen on a Bluetooth and each chapter is a different narrator who reads at a different speed.

The one who presented Sophie's point of view was very s-l-o-w so I had to dash across the room, grab my phone and speed her up a bit. Once that was done it was fine, until the next reader when the speed would have to be adjusted down again.

The one who presented Estell's story was the story line I was most interested in but the hardest to listen to. Her reading of dialogue is just fine but when she reads descriptive passages every blooming sentence is delivered in the same 3-fold way. It starts off normally, the middle is delivered very fast, the ending is on a slight up-note in tone and almost sounds like a sneer. This would go on for sentence after sentence in a row. I promise once you "hear" it that's all you hear.

These issues may not be off-putting to most people. I'm sure because they are snug in my ear because of the Bluetooth that they are more apparent to me.

I did enjoy and finish the book itself.

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