The Diary of Cozette

By: Amanda McIntyre

Narrated by: Amanda McIntyre

Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Passion knows no status or wealth....

"True, I am but a mere maidservant from a great house, snatched from a wretched existence of poverty and desperation to serve noblemen of wealth and privilege.

"And yet....

"While I am indeed of lowly rank, I am also a young woman who allowed herself to sample life's greatest pleasures in the hands of these titled men. My tales overflow in this journal, penning my journey to becoming a woman of power of the most base, yet stimulating, breed.

"Unmarried and 20, yet betrothed to no man, I would be considered a spinster by most, yet this is of my own ardent intention. With my unabashed lushness and wisdom regarding a man's most vehement cravings, I am not lacking for suitors or proposals given in the heat of passion. No, I have yet to meet the man who will challenge me, satisfy me in all ways, not only of the flesh.

"For where passion and desire are fleeting, my heart continues to beat...."

©2008 Amanda McIntyre (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Interesting (not)

This book predictable and uninteresting. It is basically just a book full of sex scenes. It was boring after the first few chapters.

Interesting, steamy, and a satisfying ending

I liked the book, it has a good story, fun charictors, funny moments, steamy parts. I look forward to more from this author!

Sexy and engaging

Enjoyed this book. The book starts a bit slow, but gets better steadily as it progresses. Not your average love scenes from any romance novel - more mature and still sexy and seductive. Some good plot twists and believable character development.

Halting Grind

This books does it's best to revive the victorian, first person, bawdy-underclass-coming of age romp and it achieves a fairly faithful addition to the genre.
Unfortunately - this isn't the Victorian age, and there's a reason we no longer pay by the word. The pace of this book is deadly to begin with and the funereal reading by the narrator just makes things unbearable.
The heroine of the story is supposed to be lusty, bold and clever - the reader sounds depressive and dull. This kills any hope of pleasure I might have had in the tail/tale, which annoys me. I keep going back to it, hoping it was just a bad day that spoiled the last bit for me, and instantly I'm re-frustrated that everyone seemes to have been sedated but me.

At the moment, I've made it to the end of the first half, and I'd like to see what happens with the groomsman, and find out if she rejoins her true love at last - but I'd rather flip through the pages in a bookstore than subject myself to the aggravation of listening to that sad sorrowful voice drone on.

The wrong kind of Dickin's, I'm sorry to say.

Disturbing beginning

I thought this might be a sensual romp like Fanny Hill, but it's more of a character study of a liberally minded female in a very stringently male dominated 19th century England.

What I found disturbing and probably accurate to the period was the wholly unappealing realities of the day for a woman with no protectors or prospects. The first quarter of the book the protagonist finds herself at the mercy of greedy, perfidous orphanage managers who deal in the trade of child slavery to lecherous pedophiles, cadaver-robbing, the inside view of prostitution and the licentious privileged who simply saw the underprivileged as outlets for whatever their needs. It's bleak and disturbing.

Cozette is resourceful and rises above her situation to lead a relatively happy existence though the ending where she confronts her ex-lover was really confusing to me. She seemed to be mildly intrigued by the man until he became wealthy? So in the end I stopped rooting for her and found her unlikable. Also, I found myself wondering all the time about the fate of the other unfortunates she meets in her situations.

I liked the reader's very much and she kept me engaged and NOT annoyed in the way a bad reader voice can. I also liked the intelligent writing and ironically was able to appreciate that she would include the darker realities of the day in her writing to add weight and authenticity.

Cozette is an intriguing character with pluck and a powerful sexual obsession with a couple of men, but the read was unpleasant in the beginning and dissatisfying at the end.

Really good!

Though some reviewers mentioned a slow pace and a bad narrator, I disagree. I thought the narrator was great, and though it's not a story full of adventure or action, I didn't feel it was a slow pace. I enjoyed it. I think if you like Jane Austen you'll like this. And I liked the diary format for telling the story. It gave insights into the thoughts of the main character that I really enjoyed delving into.

Anticipation

Listened with much illustrative anticipation of next action but greatly disappointed sequence or activity.

Love this book!

I did not want this book to end! And the narrator was excellent. Can't wait for more from this author!

great narrator just not enough storyline

my title says it all. narrator is excellent. story is steamy without being too much. i just felt that it never goes anywhere , well written but no direction but still enjoyed it.

IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME....

I decided to venture into this book since I was in a reading rut and couldn't decide on what to read/listen to next. I adore the narrator Ashford MacNab, and that's another reason I chose to plunge into this book.

I was ready to listen to something within the regency romance genre which was slightly gritty, realistic and nontraditional. Well, I definitely got that in this candid story with tragic elements of a woman fighting to survive in a world where women have very few advantages in society.

The development of the story line is different since the actions of the story are explored as a diary experience and through the heroine, Cozette's perspective. The book does work toward an HEA, with mild injections of humor, much tragedy, tough life lessons, pain and ultimately survival.

Cozette and Earnest have been separated, as late teenagers living in an orphanage, and have promised to find each other. Earnest is an absolutely gallant hero who protects Cozette and sacrifices so much for her. But, you don't really know the full extent of that sacrifice until the very end of the book, might I add after Cozette has experienced various trysts with other men. On that note, one of my biggest worries throughout the book was all of this unprotected sex Cozette had with various suitors....OMG talk about taking BIG risks when engaging in casual sex, in that time period!!!

Even though this book is well written, secondary characters are interesting, and there is an HEA at the end, if you are a helpless romantic as I am, you can't help but feel that there was a lot of wasted time and unnecessary heart-ache that could have been avoided altogether (but then, if that heart-ache was avoided this would be a very different book).

3 STARS FOR THE BOOK, AND 5 STARS FOR A GIFTED NARRATOR THAT CAN MAKE ANY BOOK COME ALIVE.