Another week in lockdown in my part of the world – sigh. It comes to something when the highlight of the week is going outside to put out the bins and the recycling! Still, at least I’m getting plenty of time for books and audiobooks :)
Here’s what the Gals are listening to this week.
BJ
Narrated by Marisol Ramirez and Frankie Corzo
Caz
Narrated by Roger Wayne
Em
Narrated by Beverley A. Crick
Kaetrin
Narrated by Teddy Hamilton and Stephen Dexter
Melinda
Narrated by Joy Nash
Shannon
Narrated by Bahni Turpin
I started the week listening to A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles, narrated by Matthew Lloyd Davies. An amazing, gripping book and narration.
Next up was Slightly Wicked by Mary Balogh, narrated by Rosalyn Landor. And entertaining Cinderella story and about as believable, but well narrated as always.
Then I listened to Common Goal by Rachel Reid and narrated by Cooper North. I enjoyed it enough to give it a B, but there wasn’t much emotional tension in the story and any hurdles to the relationship were mostly in their heads. When push came to shove, those were easily overcome. I was very impressed by the slow, steamy love scenes, well written and well narrated. North did an overall great job with just a little weakness voicing some side characters.
Right now I’m finishing up The Proposition by Judith Ivory, narrated by Steven Crossley. This book hasn’t been what I expected so I’m still undecided how I feel about it. Edwina’s journey from a truly buttoned-up spinster to lover is recorded in minute detail and is at once fascinating and awkward. If someone wants realism in how little Victorian women knew about men’s bodies, or even their own, this is it. The author spends pages on single interactions between the leads, so this is a very character driven book. Crossley does a great job with the dialects as far as my uneducated American ear can tell.
Silas in A Seditious Affair is one of my favourite MLD charaterisations – he’s absolutely spot on – and while all her books are excellent, that one still stands out as probably the best of all of them in terms of just about everything; story, characterisation, romance and the historical background is superbly integrated.
I confess I haven’t ever read (or listened) to Judith Ivory. I know she’s widely beloved in Romancelandia, but she’s one of those authors who had stopped writing by the time I really got into romance, and I just haven’t got around to reading her. (There’s too much new stuff to focus on!) Maybe one day…