Coriesu

Truly enjoyed it

Revisado: 05-09-22

If you like Jane Austen, these audio renditions are definitely worth listening to. After you read the books, that is. These are well done adaptations, but not perfect.

The actors were superb. The voices gave life to the characters better than any movie, and the narrators were fantastic. Emma Thompson in Mansfield Park was so much fun; she made me laugh with her purposeful overdramatization of a young girl’s fantastical feelings and perceptions.

My greatest quibble was with the music. It was good music, but after listening to the same tune between each chapter, it seemed like the blessed music went on for an unbelievably long time before we got back to the story. Not well done.

My second, slighter quibble was with the writing. I love Jane Austen’s subtlety. She makes you understand her characters so you don’t need to be told outright a lot of what goes on in her stories. These adaptations were a bit in your face for me. Maybe that’s because it was as much dialogue as narration, but it took away some of my delight. Of course, I am a huge fan, and know her books well, so it probably won’t be noticed by others. The language and style was (mostly) spot on, though.

So,
5 star performances
4 1/2 star adaptations
2 star for use of (admittedly good) music

Totally recommend.

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Fantasy

Revisado: 10-28-21

Schoolgirl daydream. She hints that she wants to date him and he says “You like me?!” High school much? And then they just go upstairs and have fabulous sex. I feel like no effort was put into this book; 100% cliche.

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Deceitful title

Revisado: 10-26-21

Wow, what a cringy book. I finished the book (on 1.7 speed and skipping through much of the final third) and found very little happiness. Oh, it had the obligatory hea for the three women, but it was pretty unbelievable. The replacement men were perfectly perfect.

Most of the book was angst and misery. I feel like this author doesn’t really like men, since they were either horrible (read sociopathic) or over the top saps. I’m sorry, I hate to rip a book like this, but the mental/emotional cruelties Redland made her characters perform were so ott it was painfully obvious she was simply going for shock factor. Not good.

**Trigger Warnings**
Big Spoilers here


-Vivid description of tragic accidental death of a child.
-Narcissistic abuse/manipulation of a partner creating dependency.
-Lots of infidelity and victim shaming.

Definitely a ‘Do Not Recommend.’

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If you’re into abusive/submissive relationships

Revisado: 06-26-21

So, a lot of reviews have talked about how mean Cas is, and he truly is. Cruel. Demeaning. Manipulative. Demanding. But not enough is said about Clara’s submissive behavior. I lost count how many times she apologized. For things she didn’t do. For things other people did. For things she thought (but did not act on.) She’s so messed up, all he had to do was look sheepish and she not only forgave him for the many, many times he hurt her emotionally, but she instantly liked -> loved him. This whole book is about abuse, and what she has to go through to keep the (remember, abusive) guy.

***Major spoilers***
For those of you who might want to see for yourselves, let me give some examples in a synopsis.
-Clara drunkenly calls Cas to tell him she found incriminating info, but she intends to destroy it. He responds by showing up at her house (!) and proceeds to bully her into a fake relationship The premise is incredibly weak: she feels guilty b/c she thought about selling the info, he threatens to have her arrested for blackmail. Eye roll.
-He invitees her to dinner, says cruel, cutting, accusing things, and tells her to order before walking away. She sits there for hours. (!) He comes back, says he ate in another room, and it’s time to go.
-He has his driver stop to drop her off in the middle of nowhere, telling her to find her own way home. She has already apologized several times. For nothing.
-He takes aggressive posturing while belittling her.
-They have a moment, locked in a storage unit. He says he was just playing a part, practicing for a new role, and feels bad about it. She wants to comfort him.
-He’s nice to her for about a minute, then decides to feel betrayed again, then ramps up his cruelty. She apologizes again, for something she didn’t do. This is all about the escort list she found and destroyed. He says he thinks she will sell it, and this is the ‘reason’ for his mean, hurtful, damaging words. ‘She’s a user’ ‘She only wanted money’ ‘She had no conscience’ ‘She was a loser’ She couldn’t get a decent job’ and on…
-He wants to do a very public, very humiliating breakup. She agrees, and makes sure she shows up on time for it. Because, ya know, she deserves it and she is so sorry.
-He is given proof she’s actually been innocent the whole time. He wants to be with her. Her best friend (!!!!!!!!!) tells him how and sets it up.
-He apologizes, cries, she forgives him, they get the hea.
This book says it’s romantic to be in a massively f’d up relationship. It is the antithesis of romance

Also, the narrator wasn’t bad, exactly. She just made Clara sound like an entitled b-ch. It was over the top.

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Love the idea of this story...

Revisado: 05-14-21

...but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve listened to 4 books, sort of, on 2x speed (not because of the narrator; she’s great) and skipping through at least a third of each book. I like the idea of a struggling single mom getting caught up in weird ghost situations. I like the idea of a developing relationship with a guy who can sense the ghosts. I like the way the overarching story continues on with each book.
But... I hate the supposedly funny, demeaning situations Violet is constantly put in. She doesn’t know the word No. Not to her harassing coworker. Not to her spoiled snotty kids. Not to her clients. Not to her chauvinistic boss who literally dresses her up to use her as sexy advertising bait. And very much not to the local cop who harasses and verbally abused her every very frequent time he speaks with her. Oh, and the guy she’s ‘dating’ observes the harassment and quips a snarky joke to embarrass her. I think it’s supposed to be funny. As a plot device it is way way overused. Another overused plot device is the interruption technique. Pretty much every time crucial info is about to be disclosed, there is an interruption and we are left waiting several pages, or yet another looong internal monologue, to find out what will move the story forward. I’m kind of over it. And I am also over waiting for Violet, or one of her loved ones, to stick up for her and prevent her from being used, manipulated, publicly humiliated, or verbally abused.

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LOVE the idea of this story...

Revisado: 05-14-21

...but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve listened to 4 books, sort of, on 2x speed (not because of the narrator; she’s great) and skipping through at least a third of each book. I like the idea of a struggling single mom getting caught up in weird ghost situations. I like the idea of a developing relationship with a guy who can sense the ghosts. I like the way the overarching story continues on with each book.
But... I hate the supposedly funny, demeaning situations Violet is constantly put in. She doesn’t know the word No. Not to her harassing coworker. Not to her spoiled snotty kids. Not to her clients. Not to her chauvinistic boss who literally dresses her up to use her as sexy advertising bait. And very much not to the local cop who harasses and verbally abused her every very frequent time he speaks with her. Oh, and the guy she’s ‘dating’ observes the harassment and quips a snarky joke to embarrass her. I think it’s supposed to be funny. As a plot device it is way way overused. Another overused plot device is the interruption technique. Pretty much every time crucial info is about to be disclosed, there is an interruption and we are left waiting several pages, or yet another looong internal monologue, to find out what will move the story forward. I’m kind of over it. And I am also over waiting for Violet, or one of her loved ones, to stick up for her and prevent her from being used, manipulated, publicly humiliated, or verbally abused.

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Two stories are worth it

Revisado: 06-27-20

Two of these stories are worth getting this collection, if you have audible escape.

War of hearts: 1 star. Anna is a journalist, but knows nothing about Finland, and whines about the cold incessantly. She’s not exactly the hard boiled journalist of so many great b/w movies on TCM. Pete is a jerk who breaks up with Anna to pursue his own career, then tells himself he did it to spare Anna. They meet again in the midst of the Finnish war against Lenin. Anna pines, Pete second guesses, and I rolled my eyes. Sadly, the characters were made more unlikable by the narrator, who has a bad habit of portraying women as simpering idiots and men as unfeeling fools. Well, Pete wasn’t unfeeling, just spineless. And a fool.

The Earl of Oakley: 1 star. I listened to maybe the first ten minutes, then skipped through large chunks of the rest. Melissa sounded like such a featherbrained nitwit, and her actions weren’t any better. Painfully predictable. I couldn’t even make it through the last chapter for the hea.

Gift of Love: 3 stars. I didn’t like the premise, as the Countess (a convent raised virgin- shocker) sold herself as a brood mare and the Earl agreed to buy her. He was another real jerk at the outset, hoping she was a meek mouse, running off the moment vows were said, and basically being a self absorbed ass. This all changes, of course. I confess, I skipped through a lot of this book. Regardless of the outcome, women being treated badly is not my thing. Happily, this story was saved by a villain, a surprising dark deed, and a neat, if quick, wrap up.

A Lesson in Love: 2 stars. One star is just because this is an Eden book, and she is an excellent writer. This was not one of her better stories, tho I believe some may find it charming. Lucy is childish and Reed is yet another self absorbed jerk. They’ve been married for less than a year, come back to London for the first time since their courtship. She wants to relive their exciting romance and society, he wants to sit home, quietly enjoying *not* having to relive a courtship and avoiding society. Her family gets involved and it devolves into a hurtful battle, men against the women. Lucy gets her emotions and confidence trampled, Reed is just confused. None of the ‘adults’ thought to advise them to talk to each other. Of course, if they had, there’d have been no story. Cheap trick.

An Ocean Away: 4 stars. Cute story about an awkward young woman and a charming man. She climbs off her balcony to read in the hotel garden. He sees her, doesn’t judge, doesn’t laugh, is intrigued. Yay- he’s not a jerk! The fly in the ointment is the fact her father IS a jerk. He is a business rival and hates the hero, and determines he will not let his daughter near her heart’s desire. My only complaint is the ending, where the hero is a bit high handed. It’s a plot manipulation, so the heroine can say what’s needed, but it makes the hero unkind. Not terrible, but could have been done better.

What Happens in Venice: 5 stars. Sweet romance that made me smile throughout. Evangeline is an orphan badly used by her stepfather. The Conte, a passionate Italian, unravels her mystery and quietly comes to her rescue, but she does a fair amount of rescuing herself. The intrigue is in the secondary plot, not the romance, which is straightforward insta love. (It is a novella, after all.) I only wish we had an epilogue, just to see the stepfamily get what they deserve.

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Sweet story

Revisado: 04-25-20

The writing is good. The story very sweet. The characters equally sweet. Nothing terribly deep or new, but it’s a fair way to pass time, if you like this kind of story, which I sometimes do. With a narrator who doesn’t make the characters sound like caricatures suffering from head trauma.

I gave it a low rating because of the utter spinelessness of the heroine. Seriously, why cannot a woman be sweet and kind yet still be able to speak up for herself. This ‘heroine’ is yet another who lets everyone around her dictate her life to her while she waits for the man to cue her in to how she should behave, using the excuse of kindness or compassion. Sorry, sweetness doesn’t excuse manipulation.

So if you don’t mind a sweet, useless heroine, you might like this book. I prefer one with a backbone, one who is a little less manipulated by both hero and author. Excuse me now; I’ve got to go brush the sugar out of my brain...

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Heroine is an idiot

Revisado: 04-24-20

I selected this book based on the good reviews. I am sorry I wasted the credit.

If you enjoy a story where situations are engineered to make the hero a perfect man specimen, strong, intelligent, powerful, rich, confident, gorgeous, and an entitled ass, (sigh) and the heroine a strong-ish, brainless twit of a fool who enjoys humiliation, being saved despite herself, and fans herself when the lovely man tells her he wants to own her and make her his whore, then you’ll love this.

Every conflict between the two could be, and should have been, if the heroine weren’t such an idiot, resolved with a few pointed questions and answers. Instead, no realistic conversations were had in order to create false conflict and show how perfect the man was. Except for the whole “I will kidnap you and force you to have my babies because I said so” bit. Because, you know, he was such a gentleman otherwise, and she thought he was hot.

What bothered me even more was the author’s use of the children. The two young boys were mere foils to show how great the hero was, and how the heroine just didn’t understand what was best for her. Seriously, the family secrets they told this stranger and how they sided with him in conflict was so irritating I gave myself a headache with all my eye rolling. But then, the heroine is an idiot, so I guess it ran in the family.

I’m about halfway through, and I’m making up my own ending: the evil wizard cuts off the hero’s beautiful hair and hangs him with it, then the evil wizard steals all the magic of the heroine and condemns her to a mundane life in the mundane Broken, where her brain isn’t overtaxed, then the evil wizard eats the kids. Go evil wizard.

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Didn’t finish

Revisado: 04-14-20

I can’t comment on the whole book, because I couldn’t make it past chapter 7.

The first few chapters were about Clover. She’s a mess. She’s not a flighty fun wild child; she’s a clumsy distraught sort of pathetic girl who gets fired from a coffee shop. Nothing endearing to make me like her

The next chapter is about Cody, a nice general practitioner who works long hours and decides at the end of the day to break up with his on again/off again girlfriend. It was probably the male narrator, but Cody just felt bland.

Clover and Cody meet in a restaurant when Clover runs into a server and hits her head, offering Cody the chance to help her. He takes her to his clinic, and promptly gets a hard on while examining her head. Um, ew, creepy doctor guy. He thinks she might have a concussion, so rather than take her to a hospital (!) he takes her home, sets her up in his bedroom, and contemplates jacking off while thinking of her various body parts lying in his bed. Clover, lying in his bed, wearing his t-shirt, smelling his scent all over the place, is thinking the same. Did I mention they just met and she has a concussion?

Since this story seems to be simply a shoddy vehicle meant to deliver sex, I had to stop. Sorry, not for me.

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