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Needed cheese and crackers to go with the WHINE

Revisado: 04-15-25

Two of the most unlikable fictional characters I've encountered in quite a while. The only redeeming thing is they're together so they're not inflicting their self pity, bad temper, victimhood and limp as overcooked spaghetti backbones on two other poor people.

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Wash, rinse, repeat ad nauseum

Revisado: 06-27-24

This book would have been a hour/chapter shorter if we'd only been told the heroine lied her way into the position 100 times over the course if the entire book instead of that many times in the first 5 chapters. If you made a drinking game of every time her angst about lying to get the position was mentioned you'd die of alcohol poisoning before you made it half way through the book.

And heroine's "mouth went dry" so many times it's a miracle she could speak at all for the dust on her tongue. Descriptive phrases are necessary and appreciated, but their overuse is distracting and annoying. It takes you out of the story line and causes the character(s) to no longer elicit the feeling the author is trying to portray. Instead of feeling sympathy and empathy for the character(s) you just feel apathy and boredom. You find yourself thinking, "OMG how many times do you think you have to tell me this. I got it the first 20 times you told me".

In doing this an author comes across a lazy and just phoning it in. It's like they can't be bothered to put much thought into expanding their plot line or character development. It appears like they just keep cutting pasting the same lines over and over so there is no true insight or growth to the characters.

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Story was ok, but narration was cringe worthy

Revisado: 03-21-24

I really like Chasity Bowlin and usually enjoy listening to her books, but this one is a hard go. I seem to be in the small minority, but the narration on this book is creepy and like fingernails on a blackboard.

The male narrator, regardless if which character, sounds like what every female imagines every creepy predator would sounds like. It's skin crawlingly uncomfortable.

The female narrator is not as bad, and alone she might be ok, but she voiced female lead with more of a little girl's voice than a grown woman who'd survived what she had.

I believe I might enjoy the book if I read it, but on Audible.. no, just no. I didn't use a credit for the book so I can't return it for a refund so this is dollars and 2 hours of my life I'll never get back.

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Good story, annoying narration

Revisado: 11-13-23

I really like this book when I read it, the Audible version is annoying. Someone please give Liisa Ivary a Xanax and a dentist appointment. Her teeth must be in bad shape after this much chewing of the scenery. I've heard fifteen year old girls with PMS and a broken heart be less over the top. She has no nuance; no shade and light; no ebb and flow, everything is at full breathless, about to have a breakdown drama from the first sentence. The whole book she's the narration equivalent of a run away train coming down a mountain.

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Eye roll and gritting teeth

Revisado: 10-31-23

What is it with female authors trying to make domineering bullying men into heroes?

The emotional punching bag the author tries to pass off as a heroine is just sad and pathic. She couldn't hold firm in her convictions on a breakfast order. She says she's tired of being a puppet and a pawn of her controlling and bullying guardian. So she devises a plan to get away from him by marrying a nice, unassuming husband so she'll gain control of her family estate and fortune. Sounds good on paper, but the guardian will always walk all over her because she caves faster than a toilet paper tent in a hurricane to anything male. So the poor little thing needs a big, strong bully to treat her like she's a 3 year old. When the big, strong bully hero decides he's going to marry her, he doesn't ask her he tells her. He makes her sit on his lap, not in the lovingly I want to hold you way, but in the I'm going to treat you like a toddler with no choice way, and informs her she will marry him whether or not it's what she wants. But that's ok because he knows what's best for her. She's just a dumb woman and can't possibly know what she wants.

I agree with another reviewer that this book reads/listens more like it was written by 1950's misogynistic old man than a 21st century female. Yes, yes, I know, that's just the way it was, but female authors don't have to keep perpetuating these detrimental, woman hating stereotypes in romance fiction. Just because it was that backward then doesn't mean you have to glamorize now.

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Enjoyable finish to series

Revisado: 08-05-23

I enjoyed reading this series, but wasn't quite as happy with the narration.

I really liked that all three stories in this series featured strong, level-headed, capable female characters. The only real drawback was the ridiculousness of every female lead becoming muddled, tongue tied, and totally befuddled because a man looks at, touches, and/or kisses her. Even during the Regency Era, most women weren't that stupid. It's something every female Regency author writes, and it needs to stop. It has become so formulistic that it's beginning to border on being insulting to female intelligence. I would expect such brainless characterization from a male author, but really, ladies, all of you can do much better.

For the most part, I like Ashford McNab's narration, except when she drops into that breathy, can barely hear her whispery voice for different scenes. Then it becomes annoying and a little creepy. I found myself wanting to yell, "omg just speak in a normal voice".

The series is an entertaining read and a good listen, if you can overlook the occasional creep factor in the narration.

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Good book with terrible narration.

Revisado: 08-03-23

I've read the print version and listened to the audiobook, liked the book a lot, / so much the audiobook.

The book is more lighthearted than most, and the banter between the two main characters is witty and charming. I loved the grandfather and the wonderful way the main characters interacted with him. I chuckled out loud at several points. Yes, the plot line is a little predictable, but Ms. Clee handled it with humor. Helena and Pru's sit downs to the trouble making ex mistress definitely deserve a "yes girl".

The only fly in the ointment is the narration. I have to agree with another reviewer that the narrator is definitely more suited to children's and tween's books. It's my opinion that she would do a wonderful job narrating for kids because her voice sounds so young and is so soft. However, in this book, she makes the female characters sound either extremely juvenile or very breathless and whispery. We know from the book about Lucas and Helena that Helena is strong and independent, but the narrator makes her sound like she should be working at one of those barely legal 900 numbers. Because the narrator does sound so young, and at times a little squeaky, listening to her narrate the sex scenes borders on downright creepy.

Overall, it's a nice, easy, and entertaining read/listen that leaves you smiling, if you can overlook the problems with the narration.

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Don't, just don't.

Revisado: 07-12-23

This was money and time wasted. While the stories couldn't be saved by better narration, they might not have been not so fingernails on a blackboard with it.

There's not a redeeming male character in any of the books. The best of them are rude bullies and digress from an uncaring, dissolute father to kidnappers and rapist.

The female leads are the standard can't or won't stand up for themselves or mistake being a total selfish brat for being strong. Even that one caves like cardboard box in a hard rain.

The narration makes every female character sound like either a nasally, whiny emo teenager or a scared whiny rabbit that is afraid to speak above a whisper. It's hard to take a character seriously when every word sounds like a drawn out whine. And, the male characters are worse. Every one of these supposedly manly males sound more like wheezing 80 year old perverts than heros.

Don't, just don't.

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Three wasted hours I'll never get back.

Revisado: 07-11-23

Made it to halfway through chapter six and just couldn't take it anymore. When I realized I had developed a headache from gritting my teeth, because I wanted to b**ch slap the hero and heroine (I use those terms VERY sarcasticly), I had to wave the white flag if surrender. Two more milksop characters I don't believe I've ever read.

The lead female character, you can't call her a heroine, is the literary equivalent of an empty plastic grocery bag. She just goes wherever someone blows her. An overcooked spaghetti noodle has a better chance of standing up for itself than she does. She doesn't open her mouth except to meekly say yes to whatever someone else tells her to do or to whine, to herself, about how awful things are, but makes no effort to change anything.

The lead male character, the only way to attach the word hero to him would be if he was holding a hero sandwich, is as bad or worse than the lead female character. He's cold, unfeeling, rude, emotionally abusive, and as whiny as a hungry, tired 2 year old cutting teeth. If he was still so mired in sadness, grief and dispare over his dead wife, he should have hired a nurse and governess for his daughter until he got his act together. Not marry e poor relation neice of a tight-assed nobleman that just wanted to get rid of her. He looked around for a victim, who had no one to support her, and married her so he could push his daughter off on her. Of course the lead female character knew nothing about the daughter, because the jerk male lead character never told her he had either a dead wife he was still mourning or a child who was mourning the lose of her mother. But, then again, how could he have told her, he never spoke a word to her until after their wedding. Of course, he justifies being a gold-plated schmuck with the excuses of my heart has been broken, so I'll never let anyone hurt me thus much again, yada yada, yada. Lawd, I wish authors would give this worn out story line a long rest. I mean come on, they've beaten that dead horse until there isn't even dust left.

In short, I've seen more grit, bravery and self respect; and less angst, whining and self serving pity in the tween emo books my granddaughter and great neices might read. And the fact the narrator sounds like she's a 12 year old reading one of her tween emo books doesn't help things any.

Overall this book is a bigger fail than a second grader attempting to do calculus.

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Just another story of a wea k woman and a bullying

Revisado: 05-12-23

s for a story where the female lead is subjected to the continued bullying by a man that refuses to take no for an answer. Pennington is a despicable ass that enjoys using his position and power to bully and force Gabrielle to submit to him or he'll ruin and beggar her family. He's got a vendetta against Gabrielle's grandfather, and instead of being a man and facing his foe head-on, he tries blackmailing her into forced marriage to save her family. Just because he keeps telling himself he's an ass, despicable, underhanded, a bully, etc he takes way too much pleasure in humiliating, bullying and terrorizing her for the reader to believe he actually has any conscience about his behavior. The worn out HEA ending of him being changed by love is hard to swallow. Any man that has spent that much time and effort maneuvering to ruin and force a woman to submit to him against her will isn't going to actually change. His change of heart will be short tetm then he'll be back to being his bullying self.

I had hope for Gabrielle at the beginning, but it didn't take long before she was falling at the bullys feet at a mere look and loses all intelligence with a kiss. l

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