Susan

This is the first time I have ever felt so motivated to write a bad review. The narrator was so irritating that I found it hard to listen to the story. She did improve slightly by the end of the book, but it was painful.

There were also recording issues with this book, a couple of places the story either skipped the end of a sentence or repeated it.

I LOVE Jane Austen and this was really disappointing.

The narator is dreadful and overpronounced every word. Story was also slow. Deadly combination

The book was really engaging and the characters are interesting. It was a little slow in the middle where the author got bogged down in war details, but it picked back up at the end. A good book overall but not as good as Pillars of the Earth.

Loved the book. The naration was fantastic. The story flowed and ebbed pulling all my emotions as the characters went through their daily lives. I am from the South and there is such truth in each word and phrase. It made me recall, good and bad, how things were then. Awesome....

Best Tami Hoag I have read yet. Great characters!

I am a fan, but this one was a disappointment. The story jumped all over and it was hard to follow. The character development in some areas was too much and not enough in others.

This is a great story set in a difficult time in Chinese history. It was very descriptive of the culture and of the practices of the time. People have said that the narrator is slow, but that I believe that it just underscores the fact that everything moves much more slowly in China. Everything is done at a different pace and the traditions and customs are most important, whether or not they are practical.