Isabelle

This was my first venture into Dumas. It was far from my first listening to Simon Vance's narration. I liked the old-fashioned feel of the story, and the narration was good. If I didn't appreciate that it's such a classic work, I might have given it three stars instead of four. To me it had a campy Jules-Verne type feel.

I enjoyed this one. I liked the span across generations, and the story unraveled in a way that kept it interesting.

There's been a fairly steady decline in this series. The first book or two were good guilty pleasures, but it's gotten a bit stale since then, and this book was probably the low point so far. They're too old for the steamy sex now, I guess. Diana seemed so inspired early on, but this story really dragged. It feels like she out of ideas. The pacing is too slow.

One specific dislike: her writing loses its way when she switches to other character's points of view. When she writes as Claire in the first person, that seems to work. When she writes as Roger, etc., it's much less absorbing, for me at least.

Davina Porter, however, is still fantastic.

A good book. It started being fun about half way through. It's dark, but the story works pretty well. I recommend it.

Very sexy. The heroine is a firecat. Great narrator. Great story. I want more. I have a crush on Charley.

This book is dark magical realism. I almost want to give it only three stars because it's so hyped and the story is disturbing at times; but at other times it's an entertaining.

I thought the lecturer did a decent job. She made me curious about the authors. She could have done more to explain why she excluded other authors; how she narrowed it down.

Tina Fey is likable, so listening to her narrate anecdotes was amusing. I recommended this book.

I love reading about Elizabeth the First. This narrator was not not very good, but not terrible. The material of the story is great, and the authors note at the end was really good.

The narrator was unnecessarily obnoxious. On top of that, the story wasn't really a story. It was a disjointed history book, with a pompously obnoxious narrator.

The narrator is really good, and the characters are ok, but there's a campy, Jules Verne quality to the story that makes it feel lightweight, and forgettable. I do not plan on continuing with the series, although I don't rule out the possibility.