Donna

I Can Hardly Wait to go to Bed Each Night...

Revisado: 01-13-18

I primarily listen to my Audible books at night before I go to sleep. With the Roxton Family series I find myself in a paradoxical situation: I am going to bed earlier just so I can listen to Alex Wyndham, but then I am so entranced by the story that I find myself staying awake later as I keep on listening.

Brant plus Wyndham make a magical combination. Brant's books really focus on creating the feeling of falling in love, all within a richly detailed historical world. I would say that she is a modern Georgette Hayer.

Wyndham is among the most gifted narrators I have listened to. His enunciation and pacing are perfect; his voice is rich and melodic without being contrived; his ability to create distinct voices for so many male characters and sustain them across a series of books is astonishing.

This series of books is character driven. Plot is driven by the characters and not the other way around. Although there won't be any major plot surprises, you will feel like you come to know these characters. In the end, you feel happy to be given a peek into their lives.

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So Bad that it is Insulting....

Revisado: 01-02-18

I thought this would be a cute and sweet romance with a little twist. Instead, it is repetitive, unintelligent, and insulting. First, the heroine is unlikeable. She expects everyone to change to suit her righteous ideals, but she herself is unwilling to accept that perhaps she might need to change, or mature, or grow. Second, the author is on some kind of liberal crusade. Everyone who is white is a "bad" character. All the "good" characters are minorities. There is even moralizing about how everyone who is white, male, and rich is over privileged. (Insert eye rolling emoji here). Even ordinary details are written wrong. You cannot go to two different boarding gates in an airport without a ticket because you cannot get past security. (Insert head smacking emoji here). I also did not appreciate the author's diatribe about Christmas in America. If you want a Hindi country, don't come to a Western Christian nation (insert sparkly Christmas tree emoji here).

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Missing the Magic

Revisado: 11-14-17

Falling in love feels like magic, and the best romance novels can make the reader/listener feel a part of that magic. J. Bengtsson achieved that in "Cake", the first of this series. Any flaws found in that book were more than made up for by the charm of the two lead characters, the witty dialogue, and the slow unfolding of their relationship. Unfortunately, the second in this series lacks that same magic and charm. The male lead is unlikable and immature. The romance is unbelievable. And the plot centers around a weird reality show vibe with too many unnecessary secondary characters. It seems that a book that can capture the feeling of true love is as rare as true love itself. (Audible 20 Review Sweepstakes Entry).

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Not Perfect, But I Loved it Anyway...

Revisado: 11-11-17

The wonderful thing about this book is the way the listener feels they are part of the romance. The author takes time in developing the attraction and the romance. Dialogue is often excellent and clever. The backstory is harrowing. I do feel, though, some plot points were misdeveloped....there was not enough time spent showing the romantic side of Europe, for example, and too much time spent on a scene in Target. Also, the characters felt too young to behave as they did. I could also do without some of the crasser moments. Overall, though, this was a very sweet and heady romance.

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Nicholas Boulton, Will You Marry Me?

Revisado: 09-04-17

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The plot! "The Dream Hunter" has the thinnest plot of any of Kinsale's books. Half of the book is just spent following the same point...that the heroine is irrational. It takes too long to resolve. The plot goes nowhere (she has to invent a sexual backstory for the hero, because there is just no romance between the hero and heroine)...

What do you think your next listen will be?

A thriller.

Which scene was your favorite?

I don't have a favorite scene, but Nicholas Boulton is my hands down favorite narrator.

Could you see The Dream Hunter being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Nope.

Any additional comments?

I found this to be the least appealing of Kinsale's books. However, listening to Nicholas Boulton is wonderful, as always.

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It's so Awful that I Complained to the Publisher

Revisado: 06-06-17

What would have made Come Sundown better?

SPOILERS: Nora decided to make the villain a bible-believing conservative Christian. She seems to think that those who believe in a literal interpretation of the bible somehow use it to justify raping and enslaving and killing women. In addition, she makes the villain someone who is anti-government and someone who quotes Jefferson's beloved words about the tree of liberty being refreshed with the blood of patriots. It's as if she trolled comment sections on conservative websites to come up with half of the dialogue. By the end of the book, I fully expected there to be an anti-Trump tirade. I am used to there being disturbing scenes in NR books, but there was SCENE after SCENE after gruesome SCENE.The rest of the book was pathetically boring. The romance between the leads was unbelievable. NR writes something like "the bond they had created over the many conversations" but never describes the conversations. She ignores the first rule of writing--"show don't tell". Meanwhile, we are subjected to endless descriptions of Bo's work day...the emails she answered, the calls she took, the interviews she scheduled. Look, that is real life. I do not want to read about it in a romantic suspense novel. Alice's character is understandably disturbing, but she takes up too much of the book. It's as if Nora wasn't sure what book she wanted to write, and what we got was the complete disaster of a book.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Diana Gabaldon or Ken Follett....give me a writer I can rely on!

What about Elisabeth Rodgers’s performance did you like?

She does a good job with the male voices. However, many of the voices become indistinguishable and it not always easy to know who is speaking.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

All of the above! I have thoroughly enjoyed all of NR's big stand alone novels. This one was a complete waste of time and money.

Any additional comments?

I am not interested in your political viewpoints disguised as a novel. Stick to what you do best and try not to alienate your conservative readers. I am not sure if I will give any more Nora Roberts books a chance.

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No! No! No! Run in the Other Direction!

Revisado: 08-04-11

This book has so many things wrong with it, it is difficult to know where to begin. Here is a summation:

--Poor Plot Pacing: Everything happens at once, than nothing happens. Hero kisses heroine, and heroine discusses kiss with BFF for one entire chapter. BOR-ING.

--Poor Plot Elements: Some of the more horrific plot devices seem as if they were lifted directly from a 1950s "B" movie like "The Bride of Frankenstein Meets the Evil Mad Scientist".

--Poor Character Development: The characters are strictly one-dimensional: the abusive mother and sisters, the bumbling fat guy, the alpha male, etc. Other readers have commented on how tiresome it gets to hear about the heroine's "big nose"....and yes, by the 33rd time, it does.

--Narrator: Well, she does the main voice OK. She sounds rather like Bridget Jones but I can live with that. The problem is her secondary characters, especially the males. One male character sounds EXACTLY like the Martian in the Looney Tunes cartoons. Even the hero's voice is not that well done.

--Inconsistant references: The author keeps calling the Earl and Countess Woolsy (sp?) by Lord and Lady xyz. Um, no, a Countess would not be referred to as "Lady XYZ" unless she were the DAUGHTER of an Earl. The WIFE of an Earl is referred to "Alexia, Countess of Woolsy". Editors, where are you?

--Stereotypes: Could she make the gay Vampire any more stereotypical? (Reference, also, poor character development). The bashing on Americans also became tiresome very quickly.

I CANNOT believe all the positive reviews this book has earned, and furthermore cannot believe that it is the beginning of a whole series. It is trite, boring, and poorly done.

Don't waste a credit on this one.

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Terrible Narration Ruined it For Me....

Revisado: 11-24-10

Took a chance on this one, and heartily regret it. The narrator's "female" voices were so insipid and annoying, I could not take it.

And, I'm sorry to say, it was boring.

Just my .02.

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Enchantment is Enchanting...and Funny!

Revisado: 08-03-10

The reason I LOVE Audible is because somehow they have sales on wonderful books I would never choose just left to my own devices. "Enchantment" is one of those books. I found it by turns funny, imaginative, original, informative, romantic, and even enlightening. The pace was mostly very good...only a few parts lagged.

The narrators were excellent as well, and handled the numerous characters deftly. And even though this is a longer book, I got through it quickly and was in fact sorry when it ended. I only wish I had more books like this one to listen to.

Highly recommended.
Enchantment | [Orson Scott Card]

* Enchantment
* UNABRIDGED
* By Orson Scott Card
* Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki

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