Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn

Ten Things I LoveNarrated by Rosalyn Landor

I’ve been on a bit of a Julia Quinn audio-glom this year, having listened to Just Like Heaven, A Night Like This, and It’s in His Kiss in the last few months alone! I frequently turn to her books or audios when I want something light and a bit fluffy, which has plenty of humor and engaging characters, and I can say that Ten Things I Love About You most definitely fits that particular bill.

It may not be up to the standard of some of her earlier Bridgerton books, but in Sebastian Grey she has created a hero who can give any of the Bridgerton men a good run for their money! He’s everything one would expect of a romantic hero – handsome, extremely charming, and very witty, but he’s also rather a troubled young man whose distressing dreams lead to bouts of serious insomnia. In the midst of one of these bouts, he starts toying with the idea of writing a book – something we discover later has actually served him rather well.

I’m not quite sure what it is exactly, but there is something that sets Sebastian in a class apart from your usual handsome, charming, and witty hero; and the only word I can come up with to describe it is to say that he’s intensely loveable. He is suffering from PTSD as a result of his experiences as a sniper in the recent war, and although he controls it well, he still reacts badly to loud noises and is plagued by sleeplessness. He has the soul of a poet and a zest for life in all its colors that give him a vivacity not normally seen in those handsome men who edge the society ballrooms. But Seb is relatively poor; he might be the heir presumptive to an earldom, but has a less than auspicious relationship with his uncle, the Earl of Newbury. Newbury is spiteful and thoroughly unpleasant and sounds it – Ms. Landor is as good at performing pompous, smarmy old men as she is at voicing ingénuesJ Since the death of Newbury’s son, Sebastian is his heir and Newbury so hates his nephew as to be utterly determined Seb will never inherit and quickly finds himself a brood-mare from among the young ladies of the ton to provide him with another heir.

Annabel Winslow is the young lady upon whom Newbury has set his sights. Her lush figure and child-bearing hips (and the fecundity of her family – she is the eldest of eight and her father is one of ten!) make her the ideal candidate for Newbury’s breeding requirements. Her family is in dire financial straits since the recent death of her father, but the problem is – well, one of them – that Newbury is of an age with her grandparents.

Annabel’s grandmother, Lady Vickers, is another of Quinn’s formidable dowagers, but unlike her other creations of this ilk, Lady Vickers has rather a cruel streak – or so it seems. Ms. Landor’s vocalization of her is suitably sharp and without warmth, a huge contrast to Annabel’s softer, more modulated tones. Lady Vickers knows how little Annabel desires the alliance with Newbury, yet she pushes her toward him relentlessly, and her ruthless machinations threaten to destroy Annabel’s chance of happiness towards the end of the story.  She does redeem herself after a fashion however, and some of her risqué utterances are among the funniest in the book.

When Sebastian and Annabel meet for the first time, they are unaware of each others’ identity. As soon as Annabel realizes just who Seb is, she is horrified, but it takes him a little longer to discover her identity and that she is the young lady being “courted” by his uncle. Newbury is outraged and accuses Seb of all sorts of iniquity which leads to Annabel suddenly becoming a social pariah. Called upon to rescue a damsel in distress and help to right her reputation, Sebastian begins a mock-courtship of Annabel (with her agreement), but which soon becomes anything but “mock.”

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the developing romance between the two leads. There was a strong sense of connection between them, of both of them realizing they had found someone they could really talk to, and the sparks flew very satisfactorily. Sebastian is a very gentle man, good humored and even tempered, yet dangerous when pushed too far as his uncle discovers. He’s not a hero who runs from emotional entanglements; when he realises he’s fallen for Annabel, he wants to marry her rather than find reasons why it’s a bad idea. In fact, it’s Annabel who hesitates because she knows how poor her family is and that they’re relying on her to marry a rich man.

Annabel is less of a spectacularly well drawn character than Sebastian, but none the less likeable for that. She is young and wants desperately to help her family, and I found the part where she was thinking about all the things she would never have because she had to marry Newbury to be very affecting. Being rather well-endowed from a young age, she has grown up thinking her assets to be a burden rather than a blessing, as men have never stopped to consider that there was more to her than her boobs or her “childbearing hips” so it was sweet when Seb (by no means immune to the assets!) told her that he liked her for herself and she began to gain a little more self-confidence and allow herself to see that there was more to her than her womanly curves. I did sometimes wish she would stand up to her grandmother more, although to be honest, the old lady was a veritable dragon so I’m not surprised Annabel found it almost impossible.

While I enjoyed the story very much, and loved the sly pokes at the writing profession, I have one particular criticism, which applies throughout – I felt there was too much internal dialogue. Or rather, my criticism is of its placement rather than its inclusion. Seb would be talking to someone and then, mid-conversation, would drift off into his own thoughts. Now, I’m sure we all do that, and when it happens, those thoughts may only take a spilt second, but in a book, those thoughts take as long as it takes the reader to read them or the listener to listen to them, which is much longer than a split second. I wouldn’t say it reached the point of being annoying, but it was definitely noticeable. That said, however, I do think that audio has a slight advantage over print with something like this, because in the hands of a good narrator, that internal dialogue can be delivered in such a way as to make it feel part of the story rather than a digression, and fortunately, that happened here. Anyone who knows me and my audio tastes knows I would listen to Rosalyn Landor read the phone book; she makes these asides feel thoroughly integrated by maintaining the pace and, more importantly, the humor and overall tone of the story, which I think compensates for any frustration the listener might feel on having a conversation broken up.

As one would expect from this narrator, the characters are all appropriately and distinctively voiced, and the narrative is well-paced and beautifully read. It is easy to distinguish between the different female characters, all of whom are readily identifiable. My one criticism (and it’s really the only one!) is that it is more difficult to distinguish between Sebastian and his cousin, Harry (who was the hero of the previous book), as they are similar in age and attitude. Fortunately, however, it’s not really a problem, as Harry has only a minor role in this story – and they really don’t sound exactly the same; it just took my ears a little longer to make the differentiation because they sounded similar. Harry’s brother Edward, however, is a different matter and Ms. Landor does an excellent job of conveying that Edward is younger and less experienced than either Seb or Harry by a simple change of tone and slight roughening of her voice so there is never any question as to who is speaking in the conversations between them.

I thought Ten Things was a delightful story, brought to life with humor and intelligence by Ms. Landor, and would definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a fun, lighthearted listen.

Caz


Narration:  A

Book Content:  B+

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence:  Minimal

Genre:  Historical Romance

Publisher:  Harper Audio

1 thought on “Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn

  1. I loved this book, and was looking forward to hearing it but I am not (brace yourselves!) a fan of Roslyn Landor. I do agree that this beautifully read, but as a Julia Quinn and Lisa Kleypas fan, it’s been so difficult to listen to my favorites on audiobook, as I am not so much a fan of Landor’s voice.

    I agree with the reviewer about the amount of inner dialogue, it did make the story a bit sluggish, and even more so to a listener already struggling with the narrator’s voice to begin with. It’s a little hard to explain, so maybe this is completely just a “me” thing here, but I find the tone in Landor’s voice to be a bit on the deeper side, so when I listen to her characterization of these fun, young, charming heroines, I don’t feel like her voice matches the characterization or what I’ve pictured in my head. Then, when it comes to the male voices, they don’t seem to match the rascally but scoundrel I’ve envisioned. (And don’t get me started on the American rakes she’s portrayed in other books, lol. Ugh!). It is a shame that I’m “allergic” to the sound of her voice, but Bianca Amato seem do these Regency/Georgian historicals just right from a female narration, while Simon Prebble also has just the right balance coming from a male narration.

    Don’t get me wrong, I know that Landor is a wonderful, seasoned professional, but she’s not my cup of tea.

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