Anne

Too Much ... And Not Enough

Reviewed: 06-21-24

This is so disappointing. I dearly love both Dolly Parton and James Patterson, but not this book.

1. It's just much too long! I'm on Chapter 63 and the pace of this thing is stifling. There are 34 chapters left and I feel like I know waaay too much about Rose's clothing preferences and Ruth Ann's food preferences and still nothing about whatever evil forces are clearly pursuing Rose.
Sadly, I don't much care any more.

2. It is also disappointing that, in a novel about country music showcasing a country music superstar and a rising country music singer/songwriter, all the country music songs they "sing" are SPOKEN instead of sung, including by Dolly Parton.

I don't recommend this one.

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Goddess of the Hunt

Reviewed: 12-13-21

This is the first time I've ever been disappointed in a book from Tessa Dare. I think this must be one of her earlier works. It's tedious and just failed to capture my attention or imagination. I don't think it helped that the narrator was just mediocre.

This should not discourage anyone from trying many of her other works. My favorite is either "Any Duchess Will Do" or "Girl Meets Duke". She's a clever, funny, skilled writer. This just wasn't her best work.

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Went on forever

Reviewed: 09-27-21

I couldn't stay with it. It started out fine, but it desperately needed an editor. I found it the storyline repetitive and the main characters can best be described as cloying. Eventually I simply lost interest. Most disappointing.

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Plotless. Pointless. Pitiful.

Reviewed: 01-21-20

I love Mary Balogh and have enjoyed her work for a long time. But this is the most pointless 11 hours and 25 minutes of nothing I've read or listened to in a long time. At best, this "story" about Viola and Marcel could have been told adequately in a two hour novella. Or a 40 minute short story. There is, in fact, no plot. Literally. Nothing happens for 11 hours except that they meet up in an inn, go to a fair, take off on a two-week ... er ... fling, get betrothed, break up, be sad, get back together. And the ONLY thing that drives that "plot" is their own introspection and endless litanies of stuff involving characters from previous novels. And then, of course, you know what happens in the end.

There is no drama, no excitement, no passion, no emotion... then, BOOM, there is a HEA and the end. Sorry, Mary, but this one goes back to Audible. Not even the estimable Landor's narration saved this. Not up to your usual standards and certainly not worth the credit.

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1 person found this helpful

Predictable with a capital-"P"

Reviewed: 12-28-19

If you don't see this one coming in the first 15 minutes, you should return your imagination for a refund. Boy meets girl/girl meets boy by funny coincidence. Instant dislike on her part but let's cooperate to lie to our families that we're "together" even though we annoy one another. Now what do YOU think will happen?

Yep, that's what happens and it's not only not surprising, it's not even particularly interesting or entertaining. York and Arndt do their usual superlative narrating work but otherwise... zzzzzz.

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Pefect Loretta Chase novel!

Reviewed: 12-27-19

LC delivers classic LC romance and it's a gem! Loretta Chase excels at clever plots, complex and interesting characters and sparkling dialogue set in historically accurate (or, as accurate as any period romance can be and still be "romantic") locales and situations.

'Silk is For Seduction' hits all those notes perfectly and it's wildly engaging and entertaining. I found the first half hour or so a bit confusing what with all the French names and places and the introduction of a lot of characters, but - hang in there - it grabbed me and ran fairly quickly.

Marcelline Noirot is a modiste who, with her two sisters, owns and operates a dressmakers' shop and they have grand ambitions and copious talent. They discover the impending betrothal of Gervaise Angier, the seventh Duke of Clevedon to the woman he's been promised to since they were children (Clara.) Marcelline and her sisters recognize that they have an opportunity to "hit the big time" among the ton if they can snare the custom of Clara, the soon-to-be-Duchess of Clevedon. However, their plan is a bit unusual in that, instead of pursuing Clara directly, Marcelline travels to France to meet the Duke and convince him to bring Clara to her shop to be "dressed" by "the best modiste in the world."

The subsequent adventures of Marcelline and Clevedon, and their growing attraction to one another sparkle with clever plot twists and the sharp dialogue that is a Chase trademark. Meanwhile we learn about fashion and the trials of being in the trades and the fun and fanciful life of Dukes and their ducal privileges. In addition, we meet some wonderful characters that add depth to the plot, especially Marcelline's sisters, Clara the betrothed, and Marcelline's daughter Lucy.

Marcelline and her sisters are commoners and thus she is "ineligible" for the Duke, But this is not a Cinderella story. Marcelline is smart and resilient and driven and strong willed and she confounds the Duke constantly, punching holes in his stuffiness and his ducal angst. The Duke, of course, is handsome and strong and smart and big and brave, but he's also bored and arrogant and entitled and can match wits well with the brilliant Marcelline.

Kate Reading creates wonderful voices for each character and her narration is, as always, nearly pitch perfect.

The chemistry between the H & H that Chase creates is sweet and hot and witty, and even though you know there will be an HEA, the journey is SO much fun!

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5 people found this helpful

The "warning" is late and lazy

Reviewed: 11-30-19

When Anonymous wrote h/er op-ed in the NYTimes, my immediate reaction was anger as I thought h/er claims to some sort of noble purpose in remaining behind the scenes to save us from our incompetent president were, at best, sneaky and, at worst, just cowardly. And I will also note that he or she doesn't appear to be particularly effective.

Then the book came out, right in the middle of the impeachment hearings, and I figured I should read it. I was wrong. There was absolutely NOTHING in this book that was new. There was nothing that I did not know as a person who follows the news pretty assiduously. In addition, there was such a scarcity of actual named sources for anything that this book registered in the red zone on my Skeptometer 3000. It's one anecdote after another mostly consisting of unsourced claims about unnamed people doing sometiimes non-specific bad things, or non-specific resistant things to mitigate the damage being done by our sociopathic narcissistic fool of a President. And NONE of it is new information!!

I'm 3/4 of the way through it and I can't finish it. All I want to do is ask this nameless coward, "If it's that bad, why don't you loudly and bravely RESIGN?"

Sadly, I didn't even get a good read out of this nothing-burger. It's just a boring rehash of old news that could have been written by anyone who is well-informed.

I don't recommend it and Audible is getting it back.

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1 person found this helpful

Potential squandered

Reviewed: 11-16-19

First of all, I have never heard Helen Taylor's narration before and I was impressed. She does an excellent job with both male and female voices and with the various accents in this book.

Having said that.... the book started out very nicely. The exposition of setting, characters and plot were all well done and I was enjoying the premise, the depth of personality the characters were given and the what-will-happen-next? setup of the plot. I was enjoying the banter and interplay of the characters when Colin and Lucy were getting to know one another and he didn't know who he was but was amusingly figuring out who he was NOT.

And then it just sort of went flat. Once Lord Drayson recovered his memory it seemed like the only point of the story (and the second half of the book) became how long will it take for them to get together and what will they do to pass the time until that happens? There was little suspense, little humor and absolutely no passion. It was mostly just rather boring.

Very disappointing. Other than the excellent narration, I don't recommend this.

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Rivetting human story

Reviewed: 11-08-19

The story Daniel tells in this podcast is as sadly human as any I've ever heard. It's about his mother and the day his half-siblings were taken away by his mother's first husband for a trip to the park ... and never brought home. It spans more than 40 years and half the globe and four generations. The story is told by the people involved through interviews and discussions with Danny Ben-Moshe, the producer of the podcast. If you read a novel about what happened to the people involved you'd be enthralled by the spider web of consequences.... but it's all true.

Thanks, Audible, for this wonderful "Original."

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Mediocre book made worse by narrator

Reviewed: 10-29-19

I'm on chapter 20 of this 36-chapter book and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to stick it out.
The plot, so far, appears to be non-existent. British soldier meets British woman in small (fictional) kingdom near Portugal (apparently about the size of your average county) where he and she organize the populous to rebuild damage done by French soldiers during war. The story is veeeeerrrrrryyyyy slow-moving.

Much information is provided about how to rebuild a bridge or repair a flour mill or restore destroyed vineyards or excavate a cave-in but I have yet to figure out if there is any plot beyond "will they or won't they eventually get together?" (It's a romance! Duh!!) There was definite potential but the book badly needs an editor.

Meanwhile we also watch the H & H fall in love with about as much passion as a pair of turtles nibbling on a lettuce leaf because the narrator pretty much delivers only one "pitch" and it isn't "passionate."

Ms. Crick has some very nice accents but only about 3 voices so that all dialogue quickly gets quite confusing if you aren't paying 100% attention to hear the "he said" and "she said". That problem is compounded by the fact that her voices are so far up her nose that it's a wonder she can breathe. Her voices are so strongly nasal that I was distracted by it about 75% of the time. It's also part of the reason there is so little emotional diversity delivered.

I don't think I'm going to be able to get through this.

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6 people found this helpful