Barbara

I loved the characters in this, and they have stayed with me. Maybe not the most smoothly edited novel here and there, but the story and characters made up for it.

This could have been an interesting listen, but the narrator was not right for it. This needs someone like the narrator for the Harry Potter series, someone who uses inflection and emphasis and wit and differentiates among characters. But this voice churns along with the same tone, on and on. Too bad.

The characters, the sense of place, the plot combined to make a world that engrossed me. It is long, but I didn't want it to end.

I was intrigued throughout this story. It was smart, often funny, evocative writing. Much about the characters seemed real, especially the dysfunctional Irish family. As the mystery unfolded, I gained insights into how the lives of people in a family are forever intertwined, for good or ill.

I bought this book because I absolutely love "The Help." The premise for this story is really interesting, about an Irish orphan girl who lives and works with slaves on a plantation. But I had to stop listening to "The Kitchen House" because it devolved into a series of awful, terrible, sickening events--and dread about what horrible thing would happen next. Yuck, give me a break.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and the earlier one, Pillars of the Earth. I learned so much about life in medieval times and was really caught up in the plot and characters. The sex scenes were too vivid for my taste, but the story lines and political intrigue of village life and church hierarchy made up for it. Interesting and engrossing.

This book might be good, but the reader is not. He seems like he is reading the news, rushing through the sentences, all in the same cadence (except when he does an accent). If this book plot is nuanced as the reviewers say, why not get a nuanced reading? Or at least some expressiveness or variation in tone or inflection. If I had a slow speed on my iPod, I would use it, just to get through the book. But after about an hour of straining to keep up with his reading, I have lost track of the plot and I have absolutely no connection with the main character. This is a disappointment. I wish I had not bought this one, but I got sucked in by all the promotion.