Great wonderful book, the narration is absolutely marvelous such a great performance of the narrator! Wow it made me enjoy the book endlessly and place me with in the story. Thank you !

I kept waiting for this book to take off and move at a more rapid pace. It never did. The characters have all the makings of being enjoyable, but they can't overcome the slow-moving plot. In addition, the author does everything in her power to denegrate the main character, and though we are able to see her through the hero's eyes, even he looks down on her for most of the book. Obviously it's somewhat refreshing to encounter a more "normal" heroine than what we often see in romance novels, but the way the author berates the heroine by belaboring the fact that she is plain and somewhat ugly is a bit overdone.

I hate it when I keep hearing the narrator repeat the same exact phrase over and over again throughout a book. It seems to me that this is easy enough to avoid, the English language is filled with multiple words that can mean the same thing, it's also why we have Thesauruses, perhaps this author should try employing one. The story would have been okay except that it is fleshed out with boring, pedantic mewling dialogue. The heroine this time is NOT the most beautiful woman our hero has ever seen, in fact, she's quite plain. Well, she certainly is written that way and in case you missed it the first or second or third time, it's repeatedly drubbed into the reader throughout the book. Okay, we get it. The thing is that this could've been an interesting perspective but she is also a scold and somewhat delusional because she keeps repeating how she can "make" people like her because she just can, it's what she does. Nowadays we'd put someone like her on meds. This one is just ridiculous. Most romances are somewhat unbelievable, but at least they can be fun so that we want to suspend our disbelief. This one makes me feel like I just spent 2 hours in detention for being naughty in catechism class.

I normally like Mary Balogh, but this book disappointed me. I found the hero to be self-centered and dull, but kept hoping he would improve as the book went forward. Unfortunately, that did not happen. The heroine, while somewhat more likable, was tedious. I was unable to see what these two saw in each other beyond convenience.

Anne Flosnik's narration seemed unusually formal and stiff, but perhaps she was taking her cue from the humorless tone of the book. I normally don't have a problem with her performance.

I was so pleasantly surprised! I chose all 4 in the series.

The romance descriptions without the

This is my 1st Mary Balogh's books, but not my last.

You renewed my pleasure in romance novels, Mary. Also, Anne Flosnik did a great job of narrating.

I have listened to over 250 audiobooks and this was the first one I couldn't even finish. It just didn't hold my interest, I wont purchase any more of this authors books.

I bought this book a LONG time ago. So long, that I almost forgot about it. Now, I am really glad that I found this book, turns out I really liked it. (makes me wonder how many other books in my library I have overlooked......)

OK, back to my review:

One of the reasons that I found this book so interesting is that the heroine isn't you typical "the most beautiful woman in the world" that we find in so many of the other books in the romantic genre. No, she is plain, but because of her outlook on life, and her personality, she becomes one of the most beautiful characters that I have ever had the pleasure to discover through my "reading" of a book.

I would really recommend this book. It was like a breath of fresh air.
Enjoy!

Oh my this book was a waste of time. I only made it thru half it's completely confusing. I still can't figure out who the main character was.

Loved it.

I see a couple of pretty harsh reviews for this book so felt I needed to add another perspective. This book reminded me a lot of Pride and Prejudice...not to say it's the same story or the same quality but the character interactions are similar, there are even a few scenes that seemed reminiscent of P&P. I did find this book a little slow in parts but overall I really enjoyed it. I loved the Conn character but can't figure out if he shows himself in one of the other books in this series...it would be great to see his issues resolved. The "dowdy" heroine was a little strange but it was interesting to see it play out....that too reminded me of Mr. Darcy's first commentary on Elizabeth.