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The Bloodletter's Daughter
- A Novel of Old Bohemia
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
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Publisher's summary
In 1606, the grand city of Prague hides an ugly secret: the emperor’s bastard son, Don Julius, is afflicted with a madness that pushes the prince to unspeakable depravity. Banished to a remote corner of Bohemia, Don Julius comes under the care of a bloodletter who works to purge the vicious humors coursing through the young royal’s veins. When the prince meets the bloodletter’s daughter Marketa, his madness sparks a frenzied - and dangerous - obsession. He believes Marketa embodies the women from the Coded Book of Wonder, a priceless manuscript from the imperial library that was the young prince’s only link to sanity. As the prince descends further into the darkness of his mind, his acts become ever more desperate, and Marketa, both frightened and fascinated, can’t stay away.
Inspired by a true murder that rocked the Hapsburg dynasty, The Bloodletter’s Daughter is a dark and richly detailed saga of passion and revenge.
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Set in the vibrant fourteenth century of Chaucer and the Black Death, the story features knights fighting in battle, serfs struggling in poverty, and the magnificent Plantagenets—Edward III, the Black Prince, and Richard II—who rule despotically over a court rotten with intrigue. Within this era of danger and romance, John of Gaunt, the king’s son, falls passionately in love with the already-married Katherine. Their affair persists through decades of war, adultery, murder, loneliness, and redemption.
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my favorite novel brought to life
- By Heather on 10-04-23
By: Anya Seton
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Beauty and the Highland Beast
- Highland Fairytale Series, Book 1
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- Unabridged
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Powerful and dangerous Highlander Dair Sinclair was once the favored son of his clan, the Sinclairs of Carraig Brigh. With Dair at the helm, Sinclair ships circled the globe bringing home incredible fortune - until one deadly mission drives him mad. When a pagan healer predicts that only a virgin bride can heal his son's body and mind, Dair's father sets off to find the perfect wife for his son. At the castle of the fearsome McLeods, he meets lovely and kind Fia MacLeod.
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A great read all around.
- By victoria porter on 08-31-17
By: Lecia Cornwall
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Cold Magic
- By: Kate Elliott
- Narrated by: Charlotte Parry
- Length: 17 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The Industrial Revolution has begun, factories are springing up across the country, and new technologies are transforming the cities. But the old ways do not die easy. Cat and Bee are part of this revolution. Young women at college, learning of the science that will shape their future and ignorant of the magics that rule their families. But all of that will change when the Cold Mages come for Cat. New dangers lurk around every corner and hidden threats menace her every move. If blood can't be trusted, who can you trust?
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Absolutely Brilliant Fantasy!
- By bluestatereader on 08-14-13
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Son of Avonar
- Bridge of D'Arnath, Book 1
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Magic is forbidden throughout the Four Realms. For decades, sorcerers and those associating with them were hunted to near extinction.But Seri, a Leiran noblewoman living in exile, is no stranger to defying the unjust laws of her land. She is sheltering a wanted fugitive who possesses unusual abilities-a fugitive with the fate of the realms in his hands...
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Great Series!
- By Bob-o on 08-30-16
By: Carol Berg
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The Moon in the Palace
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- Unabridged
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There is no easy path for a woman aspiring to power. A concubine at the palace learns quickly that there are many ways to capture the emperor's attention. Many paint their faces white and style their hair attractively, hoping to lure in the One Above All with their beauty. Some present him with fantastic gifts, such as jade pendants and scrolls of calligraphy, while others rely on their knowledge of seduction to draw his interest. But young Mei knows nothing of these womanly arts, yet she will give the emperor a gift he can never forget.
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One of the most annoying narrations
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The School of Mirrors
- A Novel
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- Narrated by: Ell Potter
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- Unabridged
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During the reign of Louis XV, impoverished but lovely teenage girls from all over France are sent to a discreet villa in the town of Versailles. Overseen by the King’s favorite mistress, Madame de Pompadour, they will be trained as potential courtesans for the King. When the time is right, each girl is smuggled into the palace of Versailles, with its legendary Hall of Mirrors.
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Fascinating but pedophilia nonetheless.
- By Barbara W. on 05-10-22
By: Eva Stachniak
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Knight of Desire: All The King's Men Series, Book 1
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- Unabridged
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His surcoat still bloody from battle, William FitzAlan comes to claim the strategic borderlands granted to him by the king. One last prize awaits him at the castle gates: the lovely Lady Catherine Rayburn. Catherine risked everything to spy for the crown. Her reward? Her lands are declared forfeit and she is given this choice: marry FitzAlan or be taken to the Tower. Catherine agrees to give her handsome new husband her body, but she's keeping secrets, and dare not give him her heart.
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Stong Heroine.
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Green Darkness
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- Unabridged
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The marriage of the Englishman Richard Marsdon and his young American wife, Celia, slowly turns tragic as Richard withdraws into himself and Celia suffers a debilitating emotional breakdown. A wise mystic realizes that Celia can escape her past only by reliving it. She journeys back four hundred years to her former life as the servant girl Celia de Bohun during the reign of Edward VI - and to her doomed love affair with the chaplain Stephen Marsdon.
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A different narrator would have made all the difference.
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Grave Mercy
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- Unabridged
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Escaping an arranged marriage, 17-year-old Ismae finds sanctuary in the St. Mortain convent, where the sisters worship the gods of old. There, Ismae learns that the God of Death has special plans for her—a destiny that will one day compel her to betray the man she loves.
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Slow Start but Finished Strong
- By The Mankers on 10-12-12
By: Robin LaFevers
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Entreat Me
- By: Grace Draven
- Narrated by: Stacey Holmes
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Afflicted by a centuries-old curse, a warlord slowly surrenders his humanity and descends toward madness. Ballard of Ketach Tor holds no hope of escaping his fate until his son returns home one day, accompanied by a woman of incomparable beauty. His family believes her arrival may herald Ballard’s salvation...until they confront her elder sister.
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Not For Me
- By Hope on 04-21-19
By: Grace Draven
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The Scar
- By: Sergey Dyachenko, Marina Dyachenko, Elinor Huntington - translator
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Sergey and Marina Dyachenko mix dramatic scenes with romance, action and wit, in a style both direct and lyrical. Written with a sure artistic hand, The Scar is the story of a man driven by his own feverish demons to find redemption and the woman who just might save him. Egert is a brash, confident member of the elite guards and an egotistical philanderer. But after he kills an innocent student in a duel, a mysterious man known as “The Wanderer” challenges Egert and slashes his face with his sword, leaving Egert with a scar that comes to symbolize his cowardice.
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Highly, highly, Highly Recommended
- By Robert on 08-13-12
By: Sergey Dyachenko, and others
What listeners say about The Bloodletter's Daughter
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- April
- 03-05-13
Not for the lighthearted
Is there anything you would change about this book?
Yes, some of the characters seem to have psychic abilities and there is a hint of a supernatural story line. I would expand on these areas more.
What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)
I thought it ended as it should. I made the mistake of getting curious about the real life events in the story and read about them half way through the book. It totally ruined the second half of the book for me. Read the story and then if you are curious read the history afterwards-it's not exactly the same anyway.
How could the performance have been better?
There are some editing problems with the narration and some of the voices seem off. Having said that, these items do not significantly impair the story.
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
No.
Any additional comments?
If you are looking for a brooding romance where a misunderstood prince is rescued by the love of a coy maiden this is not your story. The historical backdrop is fascinating but there are some very sad and shocking parts to this story.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-17-16
Entertaining
I found this book to be enjoyable and most of the time easy to follow and believable.
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- K. Hallett
- 07-29-14
LOVED this book
Any historical fiction that is so interesting I have to go look up what really happened is good historical fiction. I enjoyed this book thoroughly. I loved the main character, hated her, then loved her again. Other characters also invoked strong emotion as well. The reader did an excellent job also!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-08-15
historical fiction, were does it start and end. gi
memorizing. loved the AHa moment ,I had. at the end. Brilliantly written and read. leaves me wanting more .Felt I was in the now and present.
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- Teacher / music lover / book lover
- 03-29-15
Good story!
It took a little to get used to the Dracula-like voices of the performer, but after a while that didn't bother me so much. The story is well crafted and rich in historic detail. Worth a listen and read!
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- Lucy
- 03-01-16
Excellent Author. ...seamless from act to fiction
Amazing. ...traveled to Chesky Kurmlov. I was in awe and so happy I listened to this book twice. I recommend the book, author and narrator.
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- Kindle Customer
- 06-22-17
Interesting read
I had no idea it was somewhat true to history. I found it to be very interesting and fast pace for most of the book.
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- Tango
- 02-03-13
TMI - Great Research/Poor Editing
This book is set in a period (early 17th century) and place (Bohemia) that is fascinating and has been little used for historical fiction. That combined with good ratings motivated me to give this book a try. The story is based on a true incident of the obsession of the violently insane Don Julius, illegitimate son of King Rudolf II, with a bathmaid, Marketa. In telling the tale, Lafferty also weaves the Renaissance push/pull of culture and folklore vs. science and psuedo-science into the plot and the setting to mostly good effect.
You can quickly tell in listening, that Linda Lafferty has done her homework - most scientists of record and major political figures of the time are all tossed into the book, but there is little or no connection with many of these figures and the actual plot of the story. In fact, Marketa's personal story that drives the plot has little to do with the great events of the time and what tenuous connection the author makes often seems contrived. Lafferty has a whole chapter on Keppler who plays NO ROLE in the plot at all. A man who was a great mathemetician and both an astromer and an atrologer (can you imagine??) is surely a character any author would love, but this was totally off track in the novel. The extraneous characters and world events simply slow the plot, bloat the novel, and break the tension the author wants to create.
However, my greatest aggravation with the book is the characters. They almost have a fairy tale stereotypic quality to them - the loving but passive and ineffectual father, the wicked stepmother (really a mother who acts like a wicked stepmother), the big bad wolf (Don Julius), the virginal and beautiful lower class maiden (Marketa - but think Cinderella), the fairy godmother/good witch Glenda (Anabella), and the dashing young prince (well in this case, he's a doctor). In addition, the dialog is wooden and unnatural. Without exception the characters are lacking complexity and I felt no empathy for any of them. This is a dark story, but when you simply do not care about the characters, any suspense in the novel just evaporates.
Carrington MacDuffie as the narrator was reasonably good. Her voice is a good match for the story and I really liked her delivery in the narrative passages of the book. She's also pretty good at being able to read male dialog without making me wince. Two complaints that would be more editorial and production related rather than a cut on the narrator. 1. Every bit of dialog in this book would have been spoken in a language other than English (mostly Czech or German) so I don't really understand the point in giving all the characters an accent. Especially when the accent used is basically the same for all the characters and lends no nuance to the reading. Just read the English with a normal voice and trust me to understand that these people are in Eastern Europe and don't speak English. 2. Several times within the recording a sentence is repeated - probably when the narrator has taken a break. Not a huge thing, but any time that happens, the listener is pulled out of the story briefly. For what audio books cost, I believe there's no excuse for sloppy production on them.
Sadly, although this book was clearly well researched and I did learn some interesting things about this historical period (both from the book and from having my curiosity picqued enough to look further), the book is just not well written. The prose is flat, the book is badly under edited, and the characters are dull and unmemorable. If you'd like a look at the late Renaissance period from a rather fresh perspective, you might find this book worthwhile, but if you are looking for real great historical fiction, look elsewhere.
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15 people found this helpful
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- Pita
- 08-11-14
Surprisingly different historical fiction offering
Where does The Bloodletter's Daughter rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Historical fiction is my favorite genre. This particular novel is more fiction than history but I would say it still belong in the genre. I have many favorite historical novels and would include this one among them.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Bloodletter's Daughter?
The final chapters are memorable. The plot picks up and you cannot put the book down.
What about Carrington MacDuffie’s performance did you like?
The narrator stayed out of the way of the story. The narration added dimension to the characters but did not distract.
If you could rename The Bloodletter's Daughter, what would you call it?
I would not change the name. The blood letter and his daughter were my favorite characters. Character development was excellent .... The characters' flaws made them very believable.
Any additional comments?
The book is set in Eastern Europe at a time and in a location that have not been exploited by writers of the genre. It is obviously very well researched. The author brings the physical setting to life and incorporates a local legend into the novel. I understand this is the first book for this writer. I hope she keeps on writing.
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2 people found this helpful
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- mommy5drst
- 06-21-17
Loved It!!!
What made the experience of listening to The Bloodletter's Daughter the most enjoyable?
This is a great story - well written and of historical importance. Enjoyed it.
Who was your favorite character and why?
The crazy prince was one of my favorite characters as well as the young Marketa.
What about Carrington MacDuffie’s performance did you like?
Great voice and great characters. Really enjoyable
If you could rename The Bloodletter's Daughter, what would you call it?
The crazy price and the young girl
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