In Want of a Wife

By: Jo Goodman

Narrated by: Talmadge Ragan

Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Jane Middlebourne needs a way out. In 1891, life in New York is unforgiving for a young woman with no prospects, especially when her family wants nothing to do with her. So when Jane discovers an ad for a mail-order bride needed in Bitter Springs, Wyoming, she responds with a hopeful heart.

Rancher Morgan Longstreet is in want of a wife who will be his partner at Morning Star, someone who will work beside him and stand by him. His first impression of the fair and fragile Jane is that she is not that woman. But when she sets out to prove him wrong, the secrets he cannot share put into jeopardy every happiness they hope to find...

©2014 Joanne Dobrzanski (P)2014 Tantor

Critic reviews

"This first-rate tale easily measures up to its predecessors and will make [listeners] eager for their next visit to Bitter Springs." ( Publishers Weekly, Starred Review)

Love the story, not the narrator

What did you like best about In Want of a Wife? What did you like least?

I love Jo Goodman, she's a great author. I enjoyed the characters and their all written wonderfully. Lil Fin is a sweetie. Mrs. Sterling is a sweetie also. I love how she handles Morgan. Mrs. Sterling is a great motherly sort. Jane handles the change from her old life to her new life smoothly. The way she took hold of the changes and soared. Jane and Morgans love for each other is beautiful. The way she comforts Morgan when he tells her of his past and she takes him into her arms and loves him even more.

What i like least about the book is that it felt as if the book just kept going on, and on, and on and on. Not because the book was boring, IT'S A GREAT READ. But listening to Talmadge Ragan read the book caused me to want to throw my hand up and just loose a credit and stop listening.

What did you like best about this story?

The love story was beautiful, how it blossomed over time. The way they finally began trusting each other and shared their secrets and it only drew them closer.

What didn’t you like about Talmadge Ragan’s performance?

The performance as a whole! Her narrating the story made it very hard to listen to. I wanted so many times to end the book, but since I used a credit, I didn't want to waste it. Several times her words were jumbled together. The way she pronounced each and every word, I know your suppose to enunciate your words, but the way she pronounced each and every syllable made it a not very good listen. It detracted from the story, It was as if this was Jo Goodman's first book, and i know better than that. Every book of hers that I've read have been great reads. Reading this book was better than listening to it. Inflection wasn't good enough and you couldn't tell that Jane was from New York and Morgan was from Montana. Everyone sounded the same. There was no emotion as she read. It was as if she "READ" the book vs performing the book.

What would have made this romance irresistible?

A different narrator. I think Kirsten Potter, Joyce Bean, Xe Sands or Kate Reading would've been great narrators for this book.

Any additional comments?

I used a credit for this book because of the reviews that I read. Three out of four reviews were rave reviews and they really enjoyed the narrator. I'd read the book and really enjoyed it. So I wanted to listen to it and enjoy it all over again. It's amazing how you can read a book yourself and love it to pieces. Then listen to it and are crushed because you feel slighted. As if you were duped and an awful trick has been played on you.

He found a good wife!

I have never read or listened to Jo Goodman before. I will looking for more by her. Don't pass this western by.

The Narrator was really stiff

The narrator Talmadge Ragan almost ruined this book for me. She was so stiff and her voice sounded like a robot. She read everything flat with no inflection. It reminded me of the voice you hear on your GPS. Just sayin'!

Slow start but great book

Enjoyed listen to this book simple sorry not great high or lows but easy listening was what I was looking and I got it

Enjoyable Opposites Attract Story

Re: the narrator and the negative comments. I think she did a good job with what she had to work with. See my comment below about the lack of contractions in the book. That makes for some wooden dialogue and I imagine it's very hard for a narrator to get past that.

***Review

This was enjoyable, particularly the last quarter or so. The hero is very likeable. The kind of badass cowboy you'd want in real life versus the kind of alph-hole that's only fun to read about. The heroine was likeable as well. It's a nice opposites attract, mail-order-bride type of scenario.

Both have had a traumatic family life (especially the H).

At times I think it was a little too slow. Most of the story took place in dialogue/narrative with little to no action until the very end.

Also, I thought the lack of contractions was odd. I suppose possibly it was the heroine's strict, rigid upbringing. But, I also noticed that the cowboy hero used precious few as well. I know not everyone is from the South where we make up new contractions every day, but I think the near lack of them made for dialogue that sounded a bit wooden at times

Too much sex

Too muck sex didn't help a poor story. The narration was excellent. I struggled to finish.!

Pretty good

It took me a little while to get used to the narrators voice. Her voice was irritating to me. I felt like I wanted her to blow her nose or something or clear her throat.I did enjoy the story it. Sometime, I did get frustrated but the end I really really enjoyed it. I recommend this book.

Good story, poor narration

I liked the story line but I always do enjoy a good mail-order bride story. Morgan is the sexy but broken hero to Jane who is trying to find a life away from her oppressive extended family. I liked Jane's determination to be the kind of wife Morgan needs and I liked that he saw and appreciated her efforts. I also liked how easily forgiveness came to these two despite them both having secrets in their pasts they were hesitant to share.

I didn't love the writing, however. Every single detail was described. Every.single.one. I fast forwarded a lot, I will admit. It got tedious to hear about every movement Jane made when making breakfast or when Morgan handed her a picture or whatever. Sentence structure was basic and simple.

Compounding that was the boring narration. The narrator droned with little change in voices for characters. It was even hard to tell Morgan from Jane sometimes. There was almost no feeling in any of the reading and I got through 11 hours of it and threw in the towel. I felt like I was being punished with water torture between the stilted writing and monotone narration.

I don't know if I will try another Goodman novel. If I do, I will try to find one read by a different narrator.

Did not like the narrator

The narrator read to fast. I tried slowing down my MP3 and that didn't work either. Couldn't enjoy the book. Never got passed the third chapter.

Terrible narrative

While I enjoyed the story, I found the narrator to be stiff. It was as if reading a school paper.