Welcome to our first Currently Playing of 2021! Given the events of the past week, talking about there being no way 2021 can be as bad as 2020 is starting to feel like jinxing it, so instead I’ll just say Happy New Year! and invite you to join us for another year of reviews and great listens! So to kick all that off, here’s what the Gals have been listening to this week :)
BJ
Narrated by Rosalyn Landor
Caz
Narrated by Gary Furlong
Em
Narrated by Kate Reading
Kaetrin
Narrated by Charlotte North
Melinda
Narrated by Jennifer Mack
Shannon
Narrated by Cynthia Holloway
As each of these listens sounds like something I’d like, I can’t wait for your reviews! So far this year I finished The Two Lives of Lydia Bird, which I liked, but which reminded me how much I had enjoyed Silver’s earlier work, One Day in December. In a Holidaze finally came up on my library queue, and I liked it, but didn’t love, love, love it. I wrote “finished” above because while the year is still young, I’ve already DNF’d two audiobooks and would dearly like to do the same for the one I’m currently listening to, but can’t, since I promised a review.
The Hogan is awesome – it’s my third or fourth listen so far this year, and is (so far!) the best of the bunch! It isn’t up at Audible yet (I have it from Author’s Direct) but it will be soon. Book one, First Impressions is available and well worth listening to, if you haven’t yet – I’m sure it’ll end your run of DNFs!
Since the last listening check-up I’ve listened to two popular books that didn’t do it for me: Take a Hint, Chloe Brown and Romancing Mister Bridgerton. Both got a C rating from me. After a palate cleansing listen to Faro’s Daughter narrated by Eve Matheson, I listened to several very good books.
Prince of Secrets by AJ Lancaster, excellently narrated by Flinty Williams. This is book 2 of a fantasy series with some romance. Lots of fun.
Scandal Wears Satin by Loretta Chase, narrated by Kate Reading. Book 2 of the Dressmakers series. Fun and frothy, and Kate Reading always pleases.
A Fashionable Indulgence by KJ Charles narrated by Matthew Lloyd Davies, book 1 of the Society of Gentleman series. Very good and the series is free with Audible Plus.
Right now I’m listening to book 3 in The Dressmakers series by Loretta Chase, Vixen in Velvet. I think I should have waited a while to listen to this one, because the characters are starting to all sound alike. Leonie’s internal thoughts mirror Sophy’s from the previous book, just as Simon is sounding a awful lot like Harry. Still fun, but not as fresh.
I liked Colin’s book more than Benedict’s, which is one of my least favourite in the series. I had review copies of a couple of the Dressmaker books (which have only recently come out in the UK), so I listened to them as they came out rather than all at once. My favourite of the set is the last one, Dukes Prefer Blondes, but I think even with someone as good as Loretta Chase, it can be a bit much to binge whole series!
A Seditious Affair (the next book in the KJC series) is one of my all time favourites of hers; it remains the only book I’ve ever given an A+ at AAR.
I’m glad to hear you say you enjoyed Dukes Prefer Blondes. I want to see Clara get her HEA. I’ll wait a coupleof months or so to listen to it though!
I haven’t read or listened to Benedict’s book and I’m not sure when I will. I don’t want to buy it,so I’ll see if the library has it if I decide to listen. I haven’t read books 6-8, so I haven’t read your favorite, When He Was Wicked, but I’ll get to it eventually. I’m very curious about it.
To be fair, When He Was Wicked ties with The Viscount Who Loved Me and To Sir Phillip With Love for the top spot :)
Dukes Prefer Blondes was a DIK for me at AAR. But yes, I think a break would be a good idea before you jump in!
Got it! I loved The Viscount Who Loved Me. It’s still my favorite. I enjoyed Sir Phillip With Love except for that one caveat. It’s definitely my second favorite so far.
I don’t know what’s going on with the Dressmaker series in Audible UK. I got Books 1-3 in September 2016 but Book 4 wasn’t available then and, as far as I’m aware, hasn’t been since. I’ve just looked today and the only one available now is Book 2! Neither of the 2 books in the new series are availabe either. Grrrrrrrr!
I admit that I got them either as review copies or from my Audible US account, but if I hadn’t been able to, that would have been more sales lost. I still find it hard to believe, in this day and age, that there are STILL some audiobooks not available worldwide. Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series isn’t available here in audio, and it’s only since they’ve been re-recorded that Lisa Kleypas’ Hathaway books have become available in the UK. I think it just encourages people to look for… alternative ways of obtaining them that aren’t necessarily legal.
I’d love to understand why there is a problem releasing books in the US and Great Britain at pretty much the same time. I suppose it has something to do with each country trying to protect their own industry, but that doesn’t explain it all. You’d think they’d want the added audience. However, if American companies are being bullies, then perhaps it is understandable.
As far as I know – and bear in mind, my knowledge comes mostly from the music industry – it’s all about legal rights. An author who is traditionally published sells their book to a publisher. That publisher may buy the print rights only or the print and (what we used to call) mechanical rights (which back in the day were recording rights). What I believe used to happen would be that publishers would buy print rights but not the others because back then, audiobooks weren’t the popular thing they are now, so those audio rights would languish unsold. OR, the publisher would by print and audio rights, but do nothing with the audio rights. ALSO – publishers may only purchase rights for certain territories, because – and this is supposition – they may be cheaper than buying worldwide rights. (Tantor used to publish almost nothing outside the US, although that’s changed recently).
So basically – and as far as I know – it comes down, as it always does, to money. And while some publishers are catching up and actually buying mechanical/audio rights with the intention of using them, some obviously aren’t or aren’t doing it for certain books. That may be because there are contractual clauses that prohibit them from doing it straight away or something (as with the Dressmaker books which only came out in the UK last year), but that, again, is only speculation.
Given the insanity of the past few days, I retreated to a comfort listen and re-listened to Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall. I really need more Joe Jameson narrating in my life.
He narrates under another name as well – I won’t mention it here but if you want to email me (bookish29@gmail.com) I’ll give you the info so you can find some more of his work.
Thanks, will do!
Since the last time I’ve finished listening to Rachel Grant’s ‘Catalyst’, which I enjoyed and will listen to the next in the series as I’m interested in hearing Savvie and Cal’s story. Great narration by Greg Tremblay.
Next I listened to ‘The Mysterious and Amazing Blue Billings’. I enjoyed it but it’s not favourite by Lily Morton or Joel Leslie. I loved the MCs but I’m always going to prefer a non-ghost story to a ghost story. I think LM is currently writing the sequel and I will definitely get it though. I’m a very pedantic person and, if the author writes that Blue has a hint of an Irish accent, I expect him to have that, not a really heavy Irish accent. This really bugged me……….
I’m currently listening to ‘They Told Me I Was Everything’ by Gregory Ashe which is amazing. Brilliant narration by J.F. Harding.
I’ve just bought the audio of ‘A Friend in the Dark’ by GA and C.S. Poe, narrated by Garrett Kiesel so I hope that will be good too.
I suspect that maybe Joel is trying to find a way to make Lily’s characters sound different from book to book – and there are only so many ways one single person can do that. He could have gone with a milder version of the accent, but I think it’s probably worth bearing in mind that sometimes it’s harder to do a mild accent than it is a strong one and that it’s easier to “get it wrong” when you’re not going full-on. I don’t know – those are just random thoughts I had when I listened. Also, it might be worth noting that those of us not from these shores might not have been able to pick it up had JL toned it down.
I’ve got the Ashe/Poe as well and will be reviewing it. I’m nervous about a completely new narrator, but we’ll see. TTMIWE was awesome and J.F Harding completely nailed it. I said to Greg on Twitter that he’s found HIS narrator, the one who really “gets” his work, and I know he’s absolutely delighted with the way it’s turned out. Jem & Tean are on the way… and I can’t help thinking that JFH would have turned the Hazard and Somerset books into 5 star listens.