Narrated by Susan Duerden
Julie Garwood has a widely varied range of stories to tell – she writes medieval and regency and contemporary romantic suspense. She’s even stretched her world across them, with Buchanans popping up in every generation. In Ransom, Brodick Buchanan is laird of the Buchanan clan and godfather to Alec Maitland, the progeny of the earlier book in this medieval series, The Secret. When young Alec and his friend Michael change identities, Alec is kidnapped, starting a chain of events that bring Gillian and Brodick together. In true Garwood fashion, there is the Greek chorus of elders who try to confuse and conceal, an overly protective and possessive alpha hero vowing revenge on those who hurt the ones he loves, and a feisty heroine determined to save everyone.
Garwood can be a hit or miss for me and when I read this one in print, it was about a 3-star read. I liked it but wasn’t totally swept into the tale. The confusion of the various plots – Gillian’s backstory of seeing her father killed in battle and losing her sister when she was a 4-year-old; the additional twist of Alec’s mistaken identity as Michael, who was kidnapped as revenge against a friend of Brodick’s; Gillian and Brodick’s relationship and then the various other relationships – those plots never seemed to become one cohesive story. They all seem to have a different motive – Gillian is looking for a treasure and for her sister and trying to save her uncle, but then it’s complicated by Alec, and by Michael, and by clan feuds and scheming women and in the end it’s complicated by King John. Even the publisher’s blurb is too confusing and doesn’t really explain it. As usual, though, when Garwood wraps it up at the end, I always seem to fall back in love with the characters.
Susan Duerden’s narration is the same for me as Garwood’s books – a lot to like but sometimes just not what I want. Her character accents are over-the-top and frankly I felt like I had to keep drying out my ears from all the spitting out of consonants that her Scottish elders did. Garwood has the characters whisper – a lot – and Duerden whispers those lines every time. I guess that’s appropriate but – [insert big sigh here] – I hope I never hear another audiobook whisper again. Ever. Whatever happened to sotto voce? But Duerden’s men’s voices are great – the hero-men that is. She has a wonderful, consistent low register for them. Her voicing of Alec as an inquisitive 4-year-old boy is wonderful, and her heroines Brigid and Gillian are also very well done. Her narrative voice is charming and easy to listen to – she’s truly a pro. If it weren’t for the excessive, spitting accents done mostly by the elders but also by some of the other characters when arguing and shouting (another common Garwood character trait), this would be an A+ narration for me.
Melinda
Narration: B+
Book Content: C
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Escalated fighting
Genre: Historical romance (Medieval)
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Ransom was provided to AudioGals for review by Brilliance Audio.
