Shannon GC

Truly lovely

Revisado: 08-29-24

I love to find JAFF that shows the human side of Lydia Bennet. She is too often written as worse than in canon, while missing the very real parts of her character. This audio play was a truly lovely inside look at Lydia that I enjoyed so much.

The title description is very good so I won't try to rewrite it.

The performances are perfectly done and give a real sense to their characters. The play is well paced. The music was an interesting choice that made me grin as it has a more modern feel to it, rather than a Regency feel, and it worked very well for the play itself.

We love Elizabeth Bennet in P&P because she is strong, makes her own decisions regardless of the consequences, and is witty and smart. It is so easy to turn Lydia into the villain, when writing a story focused on her. But Sarah Page wrote a version of Lydia that shows how much like Elizabeth she actually is. Their personalities are almost identical, two sides of the same coin. P&P shows the two futures of the same personality. Those two futures are formed by the parent who nurtures each of the girls.

Sarah Page wrote a play showing that same inner strength we value in Elizabeth, manifesting in Lydia. Watching her come to terms with her life and make do with what she has is a delight. The emotional impact is real. There were times I was grinning wildly and times I was weeping as I listened to Lydia's trials and strengths. In particular, Page also shows the terrible limitations women of that time period had to face every single day. Lydia is strong and smart within her limitations and watching her come into her own is lovely.

It is extremely well done. I do hope Sarah Page will do more JAFF audio plays.

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Achingly lovely

Revisado: 07-18-24

I love everything KJ Charles has written. There is the loveliest feeling to their books that draws me in every single time. Each book is different, each stands out. In Band Sinister, the story of Guy and Amanda Frisby and Sir Philip Rookwood feels real. Guy is a wonderful character who loves fully when he loves. Watching him care for his sister at all costs because she matters to him, yet learn to care for himself as well is a great character arc.

Charles writes wonderful Regency era stories that are focused on the relationship more than the problems the relationship has in that society. It's a fine line and Charles walks it very carefully.

Cornell Collins was the hands down perfect choice for narrator. I can't imagine a better one. Certain scenes had me in tears. And he imbued each character voice with their personality so well I could picture the person. It was very well done.

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Love the story, hate the narration

Revisado: 02-22-24

I love the books written by Victoria Lynn and was hoping to get some good narrations of them. This did not work. The flaws with Virtual Voice are too many.

1. Mispronouncing certain words: These were annoying. Rosings is pronounced as Rossings. Darce as Daykah. Landin as Londeen. Forté is forty. Hmmph is spelled out instead of pronounced. They are jarring.

2. Inflections and cadence: Questions have the exact same cadence every single time. And there are really long pauses between sentences and paragraphs. There are inflections but they feel forced.

3. Character voices: There is absolutely no change in character voices. Even the worst human narrators will try to change their voice between male and female but the VV does them all the same. We listen to human narrators because they give a human feel to the narration. They express the character's personality in their voice.

4. Emotion: There is no emotion at all. I mean none. Just imagine Mrs Bennet crying for her salts and fussing about her nerves with the same emotion as Charlotte Lucas asking you how you take your tea. Human narrators will give the right emotion to the dialogue in the book. VV doesn't have that.

The book is a lovely book but it was ruined by the narration. I tried it because it was free and I wanted to see if it was any good but I am not keeping it in my library. This was ruined by the narration. If it is ever re-released with human narration, I'd change my mind. But this doesn't work.

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One of my hands down favorites

Revisado: 06-21-23

This is the first book I read by Melanie Rachel on Kindle and I fell in love with her style right away. I've reached the point of buying her Kindle books sight unseen. This book is delightful because of a few things:

1. It explores the whole idea of a Gentleman's honor rather well, without being too heavy handed about it. Rachel shows the ridiculousness of dueling and the code of honor and demonstrates quite clearly what TRUE honor is.

2. The evolution of the relationship between Darcy and Elizabeth: They have delightful repartee and there isn't a feel of one-upmanship. They are two equals dealing with a dangerous and difficult situation. The trust they each have in the other allows for some rather delightful bits of humor.

3. Bingley and Jane: I was pleasantly surprised to see Bingley behaving badly. (Not a spoiler since it happens in the first chapter!) Seeing his attempt to create a compromise and force Darcy to marry Caroline foiled was well done. Watching Jane show a measure of steel to her backbone was also well done. I like how their side stories end, though I wouldn't have minded a closing mention of Caroline Bingley.

4. Regarding the narration, I love each narrator -- Harry Frost and Elizabeth Grace. Those two are in my top 5 favorites and I regularly search to see what they have out next. (I wish Audible would let you follow a narrator like you can an author!) Having Harry Frost narrate everything but the women's dialogue was an intriguing choice. It grew on me the further I got in the book. The wedding night dialogue was absolutely beautiful. It was a *chef's kiss* moment, Perfection.

So yes, I loved it. I hope for more of Melanie Rachel books to be put out in Audible soon.

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This is NOT unabridged

Revisado: 12-18-22

The story is delightful and I know the full story because I own it on Kindle. The narrator is fantastic and I look for any that she has narrated because she does the voices so well.

The problem is that there is a whole section that has been taken out and there are things in the epilogue that directly reference that section so they don't make sense. This should be listed as ABRIDGED.

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A different view of Georgiana

Revisado: 10-09-22

I find this story fascinating. Part of it is seeing Georgiana as a high functioning autist. Watching her struggles in a world where people in her class are expected to fit into very strictly defined expectations and if they don't, they are put into asylums. She is able to deal with the world on her terms, if she is allowed to. Her interactions with her brother and with Lizzy are fascinating.

This story takes place when Lizzy and the Gardiners tour Pemberley and while you see Lizzy and Darcy encounter each other again, you also see what happens when the Darcy's uncle, the Earl, comes to visit. The conflict of the story is when he tries to take charge of what is happening with Georgiana.

Darcy is written perfectly. He loves his sister and has created an environment for her that she can function in and as long as the world doesn't invade that environment, it goes well. The unconditional love is obvious, even in the middle of the frustrations, fears, and anger that he experiences during the story. He is desperate to keep his sister safe. And all of this that you see, just in the scenes of the novella, explain away every action and word of Jane Austen's book to that point. It is beautifully done.

The slight drawback is the narrator, but that's not a huge drawback. This one isn't my favorite narrator for a story like this. I think I would have preferred Lillian Rachel.

The novella is absolutely lovely. I have it on my Kindle as well as Audible and it is well worth it.

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Once again, another winner from Marin

Revisado: 09-18-22

The narrator does a decent job. I think a male voice -- Harry Frost, in particular -- would have been a much better choice though. I wasn't overly fond of her choice of voice for Caroline. It is full of whiney petulance and while I get why she chose to do that I think it doesn't work because that isn't how Darcy sees her. The recording has some static at times, which is also annoying.

I have developed a real love for Lucy Marin's books. She takes an in depth look into various problems of the Regency time period and gives us a fascinating "what if?" story in the P&P universe.

The description of the book is good. Here are a few other things, Charles Bingley and his sister Caroline, live on an estate in Derbyshire and have been long time friends with Darcy, in spite of the objections of his family. Bingley's father was a tradesman so they are looked down upon by most of Darcy's class. There is no Wickham, though Caroline Bingley shows many of his mannerisms. That was well done.

Side note: thank you, Marin, for not naming the Colonel, Richard. Jane Austen never gave him a first name so I prefer it if other JAFF authors don't use the same one as everyone else.

Now, here is what Marin does best. She shows all of the hypocrisy of the haute ton in their treatment of Elizabeth. But she also shows it in Darcy himself. And yes, Darcy is a hypocritical jerk through much of this. But I also felt extremely sorry for him because he was raised in this atmosphere. He is fighting an engrained belief that is supported by the society he grew up in. Elizabeth is a gentleman's daughter but all anyone cares about is that she is a tradesman's niece. Marriages at the time were mostly business arrangements in the ton and gentlemen would marry for a woman's dowry all the time because the dowry was usually needed on the estate. That was normal. Marrying for love was not. And yet, the society itself would still look down on the man for doing so by marrying a woman connected to trade. Darcy does everything he can to honorably save Pemberley and to help his sister and instead of being praised for it, he is criticized and made fun of because he did it by marrying a tradesman's niece. They show more respect for a member of the gentry who is deep in debt and gambles too much than they do one who is trying to climb out of a deep hole of debt caused by his family. He used honorable means to do it and the society, as well as Darcy himself, looked down on him for it. HIs contempt for himself drives much of his actions.

The hypocrisy is really seen by Darcy's treatment of Caroline vs Elizabeth. It was fascinating watching him look at his world with a beam in his own eye. Elizabeth is above her in birth and behavior but he, like most of the ton, refuses to see it. And why he won't see it is an integral part of the climax and denouement so I won't spoil it. The big showdown that takes the scales off of his eyes is really good.

Marin also shows why the phrase that so many JAFF authors love -- "Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure" -- is not an admirable nor useful philosophy. And it causes much more damage than it heals. (Of course Jane Austen herself wrote it as a satirical moment because Elizabeth shows all throughout the book that she doesn't actually believe or even try to enact that philosophy but that's beside the point here.)

But mainly, I appreciated the deep look into one of the awful parts of Regency society because we, with our 21st century eyes, tend to see it as something beautiful when in reality, it wasn't. There was much in that society that was wrong. Marin is excellent at removing our rose colored glasses.

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This is excellent

Revisado: 09-14-22

I have to say, having never read anything by Tamsyn Muir before, this book was FANTASTIC. The narrator, who I notice has read a bunch of Muir's books, did the hands down perfect job with it. I can only think of one or two other narrators who could possibly have done it as well.

Some of what I liked so much about it is the underlying themes in particular. Yes the author took many of the fairy tale/legend tropes and either turned them on their heads or showed the quiet part out loud, but she also gave it a dark twist that was extremely well done.

The underlying lessons were subtle enough you don't really notice them until you mull the story over a bit. I only listened once but this was a purchase I am very happy with and one I will listen to many more times.

Now I need to try the other books Tamsyn Muir has written.

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Cute but,...

Revisado: 09-10-22

Biggest problem is the choice of narrator. This is from the viewpoint of a man so why didn't they use a male narrator? Also, this narrator used the same voice for EVERYONE.

Second biggest problem is the awkward writing. A better narrator could possibly have made up for the choppy writing but that is hard to tell. The dialogue absolutely does not work. It is painfully awkward and it's obvious no one ever thought to test it out first before finalizing the draft.

Once you dig through all of that, the story itself is a cute idea but the writing and narration just did not do it any justice. I'm glad it was so short. An entire novel would have been awful. But as is, it's meh.

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So happy this is finally on Audible!

Revisado: 08-23-22

This is my hands down FAVORITE Roger Zelazny book. I have read it every October for the last 28 years. I always try to read it one chapter a day but never actually succeed. I end up reading the entire thing in one sitting. Every time. 

The Audible description is really good. It's difficult to write a good description that doesn't give away everything.  Zelazny had a great skill in his writing and his use of language, puns, turns of phrase, style, etc are perfect. It feels like it is a dog speaking to you. It's very well done. And having once spent several hours talking to Roger Zelazny and enjoying his delightful sense of humor, I can absolutely attest that this book is an excellent representative of his power over the English language. 

This was my first book from this  narrator and he does a great job. His different voices are well done, particularly the Things. His dogs sound like you would expect a dog to sound. As do his cat, squirrel, rat, owl, bat, and snake. His humans and those who aren't necessarily human but are humanoid, are also excellent. He understands the nature of the book itself, which is vital to get Zelazny right.

And in case you might have thought otherwise, this is not a children's book. It's not graphic in violence but it's there. 

The only sad thing about this is that since it's Audible, you don't get to see the delightfully macabre illustrations by Gahan Wilson. 

I am extremely happy with this. 

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