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Whiny Lead. Blaming the narrator.

Revisado: 05-09-25

I’m blaming this on the narrator as I read this series when it came out and enjoyed it. It’s an impressive feat for such a young (at the time) author. However, Doyle’s interpretation is awful IMO. He voices Aragon so that he basically sounds like he’s whining and throwing tantrums the whole time. Made it challenging to get through because it made me supremely annoyed with him.

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Irritating Delivery

Revisado: 06-08-23

As others have noted, lecture is delivered in a gossipy way that was kind of obnoxious and hard to take seriously. That along with her content makes this feel like its meant to grab the attention of jr high kids. First lecture was spent disproving some juvenile assumptions about the period. Next she goes on to the Knights Templar, which she pronounces as templer. Yeah.. no. DNF’d at this point. Will look for something else.

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Aggressive Narration

Revisado: 07-07-22

Story-wise think Outlander ultra-lite set in the 1920's. It was a bit too shallow to make it very compelling, but I found the story interesting enough to want to see how it turns out. However, my big issue with the audiobook is the narration. Bretton jams through her narration with the nuance and speed of a freight train (I had to reduce the speed to 0.9x) and bites off sentences like they owe her money. Not only is it obnoxious and stressful, it really takes away from the story. Finally threw in the towel at 3/4 in. Returning the audiobook to swap it for the kindle version, which may end up raising the story rating for me.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Narration Issue

Revisado: 06-14-22

Story was a light, sweet, HEA. Though I agree with the reviewer who said it needed an epilogue! Saskia is one of the few listenable female romance narrators IMO - versatile and solid. She’s great.

My biggest problem is with Sebastian York. I really don’t get his popularity. He is lispy, always sounds like a gross bored old man, and apparently can only do variations on NY accents. He doesn’t even try with his “British” accent here and ended up with a weirdo, inconsistent accent I can’t even describe and that just sounds stooopid. Truly painfully laughable and ruined a lot of it for me.

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Spazzy Narrator

Revisado: 03-25-22

That was one of the spazziest narrations I’ve ever listened to. I had to throw in the towel after 15m, so the performance is the only bit I can really rate. Too bad, the little I heard seemed like the story could be funny.

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Facinating Content. Awful Narration.

Revisado: 05-04-21

I really enjoyed learning about these “lost” Hollywood stories and hope there is a Part 2. It’s a fascinating peek at the evolution, rise and falls of the industry. However, it was nearly ruined (for me) by the awful narration by the author. Stilted, jerky, and at times stumbling over her own words. Riddled with odd pauses and weird pronunciation including sounding her t’s as d’s. It really distracted from the story and listening experience. If there is a sequel, I hope they invest in a professional.

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CD Recording?

Revisado: 10-18-20

This is another fun story, this time with Agatha on her own and with an all new set of characters.

My primary reason for this review is because it seems this is a recording of a CD, which I guess is fine except for the terrible editing. There are awkward, long pauses throughout, which I found disruptive and annoying. And at one point they left in “That is the end of Disc one” or something like that.

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Beware: Horrendous Squawking American Accents

Revisado: 08-22-20

Agree with everyone else regarding the narration. It's atrocious. Polly Lee's American accent is BAD, but her voicing of Annis and Harriet were bearable, if inconsistent in the case of Harriet (sometimes youthful, sometimes croaky to convey age?). Everyone else however? I've never heard anything so strange and horrible. I couldn't tell if she's just that awful or if it was an intentional insult because no one, especially a "professional", can s*ck that bad at an American accent, right? Imagine a parrot voicing all the Americans. It was weirdly like that. Fannie and Annis dad's voices especially made them sound stupid, loud, mean, and offensive, even when they were supposed to be acting nice. Her English male voice is terrible, too. I almost gave up several times based on this terrible narration. It didn't get bearable until like 60% in when it was mostly Annis and Harriet.

Story-wise, I liked it. It was an easy, light "read" that occasionally touches feather light on topics such as feminism, women's rights, and class.

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Tedious, Wrong Narrator

Revisado: 08-15-20

We all know how narration can make or break and audiobook. How it can completely change the tone of a book. Jessica Ball has a nice voice, but I think more fitting of Austen or Bronte.

This is written in a first person POV and there is a ton of tedious, repetitive inner dialogue and descriptions in the book. All this is narrated with a British accent while she reads the dialogue with a Russian accent, which immediately took me several steps out of the story. Also, she reads slowly and calmly even through tense or action scenes. These also being interrupted with the aforementioned tedious dialogue, which all made almost give up several times.

The story is ok, though long-winded and slow. The magic element is minimal and uninteresting. Not sure if I would have liked it any better if I’d read it rather than listened.

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A Whole Lot of Going Nowhere

Revisado: 07-01-20

I agree with Keith's review. 15-hours and about 90% was backstory and worldbuilding. What little there was of plot and characters ended up mainly being the basis on which to on and on about background and history. Let's ramble on about crystal formations, now let's ramble on about how volcanoes work here, etc, etc. I found myself drifting and 10 minutes later I still hadn't missed anything. What I assume is going to be the main story, did not really get going until maybe the last 30m. They should have titled this "A History and Guide to the Stillness" and offered it as an accompaniment or maybe a prequel novella.

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