Melinda Parmer

Amazing story and narration!

Revisado: 07-30-16

Any additional comments?

I heard the original recording, from cassette - not only is this an incredible story from one of the masters of romance, but Kate Forbes' narration is brilliant, spot-on, and in every way one of the top romance audiobooks. Her performance is phenomenal. Mesmerizing. Perfection. It's been out of print and impossible to find for years - Get this audiobook now!

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esto le resultó útil a 8 personas

LH books deserve a better narrator

Revisado: 11-12-10

I fell to the lure of a credit calling me, and got it in spite of all the reviews warning about the mediocre narration. The reviewers are right - although her character voices are good, her reading of the lines between speaking voices was sing-songy and just wrong. The longer I listened, the more it irritated me. I will have to read the book to see if the story rates higher than 3 stars.

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mixed feelings

Revisado: 03-27-08

I have mixed feelings about Secrets of a Proper Lady. First, I have to agree with the other reviewers - it was very disconcerting for the hero's voice to be pitched higher than any other character. At first I thought maybe the narrator just didn't differentiate much between characters, and was using her own voice for all of them, but her other male voices were pitched a little lower, and she did seem to have control of all the different character voices. The hero's voice, in fact, seemed even higher and girlier than the heroine's. I tried to get over it - really, the narrator wasn't bad, and she slipped from American to British accents back and forth very fluidly, but sheesh, give us a manly hero, please!

Second, while I enjoyed most of the story, I thought the heroine walked a thin line between feisty/independent and TSTL (too stupid to live) and she stepped way over into stupid at the end, in my opinion. You know the type, where you find yourself saying NO DON'T DO THAT out loud while you listen. That indeed made it go from a solid 4-star to a barely 3-star for me. I didn't quite go as far as ripping the earphones out and yelling, as I have with some (the audio equivalent of a Wall Banger book). It didn't actually ruin the book for me, but it was frustrating.

The tea-party 2nd epilogue didn't quite work for me as this was my first book by this author, but was a fun idea and helped me slightly get over my feelings about the heroine at the end of the book. If you've read several of this author's books already, you might enjoy it more. That is, if you make it that far without ripping your earphones out and yelling...

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esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

excellent

Revisado: 02-14-08

This is a terrific romance audio book - compelling story with witty dialog and interesting plot twists, as well as great narration. While romance in general is fairly predictable - always a happy ending - it's the journey that makes a romance novel work, and Claudia's journey is touching and realistic. It isn't just about the journey to romantic love with Leandro, but also her personal journey to accept her mother and find acceptance in her family. The relationship with her 2 best friends is also an important component (All Over You is Grace's story, and Sadie's story is only available in print). And the chemistry between Leandro and Claudia is good - and hot.

My faith in this author is restored after listening to Burning Up (which I found to be a big disappointment, predictable and cliche-ridden). Hot For Him is a 5-star listen!

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another SEP winner

Revisado: 01-26-08

After reading the review of the book on All About Romance, I wasn't expecting to love this one as much as I did - but I think this is my favorite SEP story! Of all her characters, I found Mat and Nealy two of the most down-to-earth and believable, without the true over-the-top quirkiness of some of her other stories.

Anna Fields' performance is, as always, excellent. And yeah, I found myself grinning like a fool at the epilogue - think it's not possible?? Well, I think it is!

If you're already an SEP fan, I recommend it - and if you are not yet acquainted with this author, I HIGHLY recommend it as enjoyable introduction. She has a way of spinning a tale that is funny, sweet and romantic, with laugh out loud moments - the perfect escapist read/listen.

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esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

Short and tense

Revisado: 01-16-08

I got this book for a short, inexpensive romance fix - and it fit the bill perfectly. The narrator was above average, which to me is a big part of the audio book experience. The story kept me on the edge of my seat - it's romance, after all, and romance always has a happy ending, doesn't it? Although I had some ideas on how it could turn out, the author had me guessing til the very end how in the world the hero and heroine would ever get their happy ending in this situation. I started it over from the beginning, just to hear it all over again.

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esto le resultó útil a 9 personas

Fun book, good narrator

Revisado: 01-12-08

This was my first Lori Foster romance - and the only one currently on audible. I enjoyed it as a short, inexpensive listen. It's typical romance novel fare with a happy ending - in this genre, it's all about the journey, which I found entertaining.

This book is actually part of a series - I figured that out from the characterizations of the hero's friends, and did some looking around. The others aren't available on audio, but Beguiled (Dane) and Wanton (Alec) come before, and Treat Her Right (Zack) and Mr. November (Josh) come after.

I liked the narrator for this book - I especially liked the voice he gave the hero, and how he kept all the characters separate and easy to follow. I hope he records the rest of this series. I find the narration can make or break any audio book, and this guy was real easy to listen to.

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esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

Narrator Too Young

Revisado: 12-13-07

I was in the mood for a quick audio fix, short, cheap and fun. I figured Nora Roberts, less than 3 hrs, was a good bet. Unfortunately, there were no reviews and the sample wasn't working. How bad could it be?

Bad. Real bad. While downloading, I perused reviews for other books by this narrator and was dismayed to see how many people commented on how young the voice of this narrator sounds.

Yep. It's creepy to have a 10-yr-old read a romance to you, even when the romance part is fairly subtle. Very creepy. I don't recommend it. I did listen all the way through but was cringing every time the hero dipped his head for a kiss, or had any thoughts about the heroine at all, because that Girl Scout narrator's voice just did not set the right mood. I kept wondering if her mother knew she said those things.... (LOL)

Her intonations and reading were mediocre as well - hopefully they'll find a better narrator or Ms. Davis's voice will mature and she'll learn how to read aloud better.

The story itself might be sweet but frankly, with audio books, I just can't get past a bad narration.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

might have been ok but

Revisado: 10-10-07

The story itself was interesting, but the narrator ruined the series for me. Her odd enunciations - over-emphasizing all the Ts but leaving off the "g" every time a word ended in "ing" (as though she were reading Tom Sawyer) - grated on my nerves almost as much as her constant mispronunciations of several common words. I was actually moved to keep a list of all the words she said wrong, and more than once ripped the headphones out of my ears in disgust at her attempts. Her reading in the heroine's voice was ok, and some of her regular narration worked, but her Carpathian accent (and while I don't know what the author intended, the mountain range is pronounced Car PAY thian, by the way) is monotonous and robot-like as opposed to using some eastern European accent, or maybe just reading it. I'm not sure the author intended for her alpha male Carpathians to be so void of emotion as to sound robotic. I personally wanted to hear them be a little more sensual and compelling.

The series is vampire romance, so expect bodice-ripping scenes, the alpha male hero, and the spunky, petite heroine. But you might want to read it yourself, in book form, if you are interested. I couldn't focus on the story enough to decide if I liked it.

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esto le resultó útil a 9 personas

fun to find out the rest of the story

Revisado: 10-08-07

It's fun to find out the rest of the story - but I didn't like the narrator as well as the original narrator for the series. He pitched Hyacinth's voice lower than Gareth's (or did he pitch Gareth's higher?) - well, whichever, I didn't like it. It was almost as if he were trying to make them sound elderly by using a character voice (like Prebble's Lady D), and I hardly think their being 42 and... however old Gareth would be - is elderly or worthy of a funny character voice.

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