In Pursuit of the Green Lion by Judith Merkle Riley

Narrated by Anne Flosnik

There are some characters that are simply unforgettable. Margaret of Ashbury, heroine of Judith Merkle Riley’s historical trilogy, is one such character. After finishing the first in the trilogy, A Vision of Light, I couldn’t wait to find out where life would take Margaret. It wasn’t long before I gave into temptation, and began listening to the second book.

In Pursuit of the Green Lion opens just after Margaret and Gilbert are married. They’re living with Gilbert’s father and elder brother. Margaret is not at all happy with this arrangement. Gilbert’s family is slovenly, to say the least, and they have no respect for Margaret. But what is an heiress to do? Master Kendle left her and their daughters a great deal of property and Gilbert and his family are intent on keeping it for themselves.

Gilbert hasn’t settled into life as a married man the way Margaret hoped he would. He seems to resent her for causing him to give up his vocation as a monk. I have to admit to being a bit confused by this fact, since, at the end of A Vision of Light, he seems quite willing to become Margaret’s husband. Now though, he’s sullen and often angry. He won’t admit to loving Margaret, something that bothers Margaret a great deal. She still mourns Master Kendle, but she is quite aware of her feelings for Gilbert.

Now that he’s married, Gilbert is given the opportunity to be knighted. Margaret is not thrilled by this idea and she’s even less thrilled when she learns that Gilbert will leave her and head to France with his patron. She begs him not to go, but her pleas fall on deaf ears and Gilbert leaves, only to find himself held for ransom. It’s up to Margaret to save him.

Narrator Anne Flosnik brings Margaret of Ashbury to life just as she did in the previous novel. She is presented with a large cast of characters and, as usual, she performs admirably. Her accents are flawless and Flosnik is most consistent. I don’t recall a single instance where one character speaks in another’s voice. Sometimes, narrators make small mistakes like that, especially when voicing a large number of characters. I definitely admire Flosnik for not falling prey to this common error.

I love the fact that Flosnik’s depiction of characters is consistent across books. Mother Hilda, for example, sounds exactly the same as she did in A Vision of Light. I would have been quite disconcerted if she had not. This did not happen with any reoccurring characters.

We are introduced to quite a few new characters in the second Margaret of Ashbury novel. Flosnik distinctly performs each – I was always able to tell who was speaking. Dialogue tags weren’t always used, but this was not a problem.

Overall, I enjoyed In Pursuit of the Green Lion. There were some slight inconsistencies between this and the first book. At first, these distracted me quite a bit. I tried to figure them out, but was unable to make sense of them. I finally had to let myself forget the discrepancies and enjoy this book for itself. Luckily, once I did, I was riveted.

Judith Merkle Riley certainly knows how to tell an excellent story, and no one could have narrated it better than Anne Flosnik.

Shannon

Narration:  A

Book Content:  B+

Steam Factor:  You can play it out loud

Violence:  Escalated fighting

Genre:  Historical Romance – Medieval

Publisher:  Audible, Inc.

In Pursuit of the Green Lion was provided to AudioGals for review by the narrator.