Review: AudioBook Review: Stars:  Overall  4  Narration 5  Story 3
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 6, 2014
A Georgian era romance that starts in England and ends up in Charleston that focuses on the on again—off again betrothal between third son Christian and Jessamyn Stone pawn of the brother who holds the title and determines her future.  Christian is the third son and far out of the succession.  Not independently wealthy, his future fortunes laid in his mother’s bequest, and when that didn’t happen, Jessamyn’s brother, who has arranged a more fortuitous match.These two are bound to cross purposes almost from the start, and their lack of communication or basic honesty and the anger Christian holds for Jessamyn, even KNOWING that her life and choices are not her own were just over the top.  Too often his anger or their inability to pass two honest sentences between them was an oft repeated and far too overplayed element of the story.  BOTH of them need to be blind and stupid to not see the attraction between them, or to realize that they are in love.  And unfortunately, while Christian does NOT have to make any more statements than I love you for Jessamyn to disregard all of his nasty, demeaning and often duplicitous behavior to come running.  But, it was entertaining and enjoyable, with a nice sense of time, place and political agendas of the age.Narration by Laurel Schroeder made this AudioBook work for me and enhanced the enjoyment of a fairly predictable story.  She manages to distinguish different characters with small changes in her delivery and pitch, and she doesn’t seem to strain over the more masculine voices.  While there were some odd repeats in the story that were entirely production related: Schroeder’s delivery and performance would encourage me to seek out more of her work.I received an AudioBook copy of the title via AudioBook Jukebox for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility