E

Pride and Prejudice remains one of my favorite books. If you like the story, or this genre, you will very likely enjoy this. Ms. Reading has a lovely voice, and with subtle changes, she is able to represent the different characters. I've listened to this several times on long, tedious and sometimes turbulent flights. This is one of my most favorite flight companions.

The narration is simply brilliant. Richard Armitage has a wonderful voice, and does the individual voices perfectly. He really does capture regional and class and gender differences. I love listening to all of the various characters, and his female voices are really quite good.

I've not read Georgette Heyer before, and I have to admit I got this because of the narrator, but the story is fun. The story has a good bit of humor, amusing characters is really quite enjoyable. If you're a fan of regency romance, this is a great addition to your collection. My only regret is that it is abridged.

I enjoyed the story very much. It's my favorite Jennifer Crusie - it's funny, and sexy and the growing relationship between the characters is enjoyable. I genuinely liked the main characters in this story - they were nice people - I wanted them to be happy. And I loved that Min was a normal sized woman and Cal appreciated that. Some of the minor characters were a bit over the top, but it's a romance - you expect that and it makes it fun to read.

I didn't think the voices were terribly distinct, but it didn't matter- the reader has a lively voice, she does female characters well, and unlike many readers who over do the male characters - she doesn't try to make us believe she's a guy. Also, Crusie has so many tags (he said, she said), that it honestly doesn't matter.

Alison Larkin's performance is wonderful on this. She has a lovely voice, and is such a pleasure to listen to. This is one of those books that I think might be best in audio. The characters are engaging, interesting - a bit exaggerated, but because it's a first person work - we're seeing all of this from Pippa's view - it was ok and really very funny. In particular, the character of her (real) mother is funny and maddening, and also destructive but I see a lot of reality in there too.

The story is good too - we often try to understand ourselves by looking at our family and our environment. Pippa is neither perfect nor omniscient, and she tries to understand herself better by seeking out her birth parents, but she learns that there aren't any easy answers, and that we are a product of nature and nurture.

As a first novel, I found this excellent, and I hope Alison Larkin will continue Pippa's story.

I liked the story, it was amusing, the characters were engaging. It's light, breezy and fun. I got it because I wanted something light and the ratings were all so good. But I had a couple of problems with story in general and the audio book in particular.
1. I don't care for sports, especially American football. But to her credit, the author made these characters likeable, so that was a pleasant surprise, still there was too much sports in this book for me.
2. I think the book might have done with an edit to tighten it up - awfully long for a romance.
3. I really did not like the narrator. As another reviewer said, she doesn't do men's voices well. Her women's character voices, especially Annabelle were quite good. But her general narration was flat and I wish she would do narration with the same spark she did Annabelle. As far as men's voices, we know the narrator is a woman, she's not going to sound like a man - by forcing her voice so low, the men are hard to listen to.

Premise is absolutley engaging and original. Narration first rate, I thought. Makes a very nice distraction or beach read. It's a lot like Bridget Jones goes to Harvard - which could be bad or good depending on your perspective. I think the author is clearly a fan of Bridget Jones and Jane Austen and every romance where a sweet but somewhat ordinary woman attracts the mysterious, handsome male. Again, not a bad thing. I wish the characters had been a bit more developed, more interesting. Perhaps the historical romance part shortened up in favor of creating modern characters that have more depth. The modern leads were like chapter headings - I knew nothing of him, really - was he just another snobby cute guy. She had this amazing opportunity and I hadn't a clue about her feelings. The historical romance part was entertaining. I thought it went on a bit long. Loved the ending, however. I don't think it was completley true to the period in which it was set. Nevertheless, I wanted to know what happened in the next volume, so I've read that one as well...I suppose I wanted more to happen. Am I correct that there will be 6 (six?) volumes in this series?

This particular narrator is one of my favorites. Really wonderful work here, I thought.

All in all, I'd recommend it for an entertaining read - if you have a long flight or train ride, and as long as you don't expect to be enthralled. But it's fun, moves quickly and is very very light.

As a rule, I don't read many historical romances. But I liked this one - I found the characters engaging, genuinely likeable and I wanted them to be happy. There was some depth to them, and they were truly concerned with others - there's an interesting nod to estate improvement and a somewhat serious message about war - which is always a nice touch in a romance. There were touches of humor (Griffin and Alyssa's father are quite funny together when Griff asks for her hand) and I thought the intimate scenes were fine....I gave this 4 stars because I felt the pace was a tad uneven - I would have liked a bit more at the end - it felt a little rushed. Also, I think some of the language diminished from the regency flavor. It's not the most accurate representation of the Regency, nor does it intend to be, or even need to be. But it was a fun listen and I'll listen to it again, I think.

I love Jane Austen, and I've been in a book group, and so I looked forward to this book. I did not enjoy it. I found that I cared little for the characters - I just wasn't interested in their lives - I guess I didn't want to know them. Having said that, the author has a wonderful, wry humor - I just wish her characters were different.