Narrated by Marian Hussey
I’ve been eyeing this series for a while and I’ve heard good reports of Marian Hussey’s narration so I finally decided to dive in with The Lady Traveler’s Guide to Happily Ever After. It took me some time to appreciate (almost until the end of the book in fact) but it seems to be a prequel of sorts. I gather that the other books take place a bit later and this story shows the kind-of origins of The Lady Traveler’s Society. Possibly had I read/listened to the other books first, I’d have understood more quickly who the septuagenarian women were when they suddenly appeared in this book. However, apart from that initial confusion (ie – who are they and why are they in the book?) the story stood alone very well.
The prologue sets the scene: James Branham, nephew and heir to the Earl of Ellsworth has just married Violet Hagen. Not long before, at the ball which was to announce his engagement to another woman, he had been caught kissing Violet. She and his would-be-fiancée were both wearing blue gowns and both have red hair. He claimed it was a case of mistaken identity. However, the damage was done and there was an emergency wedding to save Violet’s reputation. As it happened, James knew full well that Violet was Violet; he just didn’t want to marry the other lady and thought this would be a good way to get out of it. He was 24 at the time and this was presented as him being young and foolish but to be honest, I’d have thought that by that age, he’d have known better.
21 at the time, Violet had been crushing on James for some time. When he kissed her, she hoped it was because he had finally seen her.
The morning after their hasty wedding, Violet overhears James talking to his uncle and saying that he wasn’t ready for marriage. Violet, hurt, says she never wants to see James again and thus begins nearly six years of estrangement between the couple.
The main story picks up then, after the death of the old earl. James has ascended to the title and Violet has been called home for the reading of the will. Uncle Richard had long believed Violet and James belonged together and he therefore put some significant stipulations in his will to try and force the couple to realise it. They are to live together and be seen in public (at least 3 times per week) and not to cause any scandal for just under three years. If they meet those terms, James inherits the money and properties. If not, he only gets the title. (Apparently there is no entail.)
The old ladies come into the picture in that Richard asked his old flame, Effie, to oversee the terms of the stipulation. Effie, ably assisted by her dear friends Gwen and Poppy, (I gather these three women subsequently form The Lady Traveler’s Society) is delighted to take on the project.
One thing might well be a dealbreaker for some listeners: during the nearly six years they are separated, James is not celibate. For the first few years he continued to live as if he were single and had various dalliances and flings. Yes, that’s right. James is a cheating cheatypants. The listener, as well as Violet, needs to overcome that to have any chance of getting a HEA. James is a bit of a problem generally, actually. It’s not always easy to like or respect him, even apart from the infidelity. To his credit, he does apologise sincerely and had had reformed himself years before the main story commences so I was not worried he would ever cheat on Violet again. Still, there were times I wanted to shake him.
Part one of the story is set in London, with the second part involving travel to Paris, Florence and Athens. Part one moved very slowly indeed. There was a lot of nothing happening. It could have been cut by two thirds without missing anything important. Things got a bit faster and therefore more interesting in part two but still, there wasn’t a lot of conflict and my mind wandered often.
The narration was very good but it wasn’t enough to stop me being a little bored, particularly in the first half of the book. The audio comes in at just over 12 hours. I recall checking the “time remaining” at one point, thinking I must surely be close to the end on account of that the couple seemed to be imminently ready for their HEA and being dismayed to find there were more than seven hours left.
This was my first experience with a Marian Hussey narration. I’d certainly be happy to listen to her again – though perhaps with a book which moves faster than a glacier. She has an excellent range of accents. In this book she displayed English, American, French and Italian accents and they were all great. She didn’t have the deepest male character voice I’ve ever heard but it was certainly distinct from any female cast member and it was easy enough for me to accept and enjoy it.
Ms. Hussey’s voice occasionally got a bit squeaky, particularly when she was portraying female outrage, but it wasn’t unpleasant.
I was impressed with the way she was able to convey the ages of the various cast; Effie, Gwen and Poppy certainly sounded like they were in their 70s. I don’t think Ms. Hussey had the best material to work with here, unfortunately. She made the best of what there was, but it was not enough to make this book a success for me.
Kaetrin
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I had much the same reaction to this when I listened to it a few weeks ago. I kept falling asleep, never a good sign! The narration was good and the blurb for the story had sounded promising. But it was a yawn fest. Literally, in my case. I would have given it a D.
It sounds like we had the same problems with it even though we came up with different grades.