Mr. Malcolm's List

By: Suzanne Allain

Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden

Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Now a Major Motion Picture

It is a truth universally acknowledged that an arrogant bachelor insistent on a wife who meets the strictest of requirements...deserves his comeuppance.

The Honorable Mr. Jeremy Malcolm is searching for a wife, but not just any wife. As the target of matchmaking mothers and desperate debutantes, he's determined to avoid the fortune hunters and find a near-perfect woman, one who will meet the qualifications on his well-crafted list. But after years of searching, he's beginning to despair of ever finding this paragon. Until Selina Dalton arrives in town.

Selina, a vicar's daughter of limited means and a stranger to high society, is thrilled when her friend, Julia Thistlewaite, invites her to London, until she learns it's all part of a plot to exact revenge on Mr. Malcolm. Selina is reluctant to participate in Julia's scheme, especially after meeting the irresistible Mr. Malcolm, who appears to be very different from the arrogant scoundrel of Julia's description.

But when Mr. Malcolm begins judging Selina against his unattainable standards, Selina decides that she has some qualifications of her own. And if he is to meet them, he must reveal the real man behind...Mr. Malcolm's list.

©2020 Suzanne Allain (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Suzanne Allain delivers a fresh, spirited take on the classic Regency romp. Mr. Malcolm's List is a delightful tale that perfectly illustrates the enduring appeal of the Regency romance. It's all here—the fast, witty banter, the elegant ballrooms, the quirky characters, the charming, strong-willed heroine and the dashing hero who has a thing or two to learn about love."—Amanda Quick, New York Times bestselling author

“A merry romp! Mr. Malcolm’s List is packed with action as one tangled romantic misunderstanding follows fast upon another’s heels—to hilarious effect.”—Mary Balogh, New York Times bestselling author

“This witty Austen-esque romp…is a sparkling twist on the Regency-era ballroom scenes and misunderstandings that litter historical romance…. Allain’s writing is wry and delightful, borrowing skillfully from Austen’s distinctive use of free indirect speech. The book is bursting with witty asides and droll commentary, a tongue-in-cheek discourse designed to have us both laughing with and at the cast of characters. Allain nails the style she’s paying tribute to and the novel is an imminently readable diversion…. It’s an amuse-bouche of a story that delights and tantalizes.”—Entertainment Weekly

I LOVED it!

I stumbled upon this book by complete accident, and only spent the credit because it was marked as "soon to be a motion picture", but boy am I glad I read it! It was absolutely delightful and the narrator did an amazing job. As someone who has read every Jane Austen book more times than I care to admit, I will be purchasing this book in hard copy and placing it amongst my favorites on the shelf. It had just the right amount of humor and romance, paired with just the right amount of despair as whether or not there would be a happy ending. If you're a fan of Jane Austen, or even a fan of sweet romance, give this book a chance, I promise it will become one of your favorites as well!

Fun, witty & wonderful narration

Great story and I love Elizabeth Knowelden. Fun turns & twists in plot and great characterization.

Just watched the movie

So much better than the movie! There was so much missing from the movie. I enjoyed this performance. Voice acting was great. Very expressive and entertaining.

Good clean romance!

Great story, a few twists had me laughing out loud. Great narration as well. Recommend!!

Charming

Everything about this one is charming; engaging and fun plot, characters, and clean romance. Excellent narration. A good choice for a break from serious fiction ( nothing very serious here).

Gets better as it goes along…

I’m picky about my books. I’m even pickier about my narrators. There are numerous books I’d like to listen to but I can’t take the narrator’s lack of feeling, breakneck speaking pace and lack of timbre in their voice so unless they’re re-recorded with better narrators I’ll be skipping those books.

I knew with this book I would be happy with the narrator, having listened to her narrate several books.

But this was a new author for me. I read reviews for the book. One reviewer said basically to “persevere” that it gets better after the first few chapters.

And so it did. I considered giving up on it but decided to hang in there. Glad I did. It ended up being quite enjoyable.

Silly

The book was silky and lighthearted, good for some moods. What made me rate it so poorly was the narration. The actor didn’t make a difference or even pause slightly between the different characters in the book.

Pleasing Short Book

Somewhat predictable, but delightful nonetheless. It kept my interest and made me smile many times. Well written and even more creatively performed.

Better as a movie ?

I liked the idea of this story, but the authors execution was less than thrilling. It started out good, but got a bit boring towards the middle and end. I Was getting annoyed by the main character Celina, as she lacked any kind of backbone until the very end, and Julia’s character changed too quickly and really without any support for that change, other than a paragraph thrown in randomly, probably due to an editorial suggestion that her about face needed to be explained. I know this is filming as a movie right now and will probably translate better as a film than the novel.

Malcolm was a jerk

The narrator matched the humor and energy of the story but read a littletoo quickly. The book started out very good and then Mr. Malcolm became very dislikable to me. If that was the author's desired effect then it worked. It made me truly angry to listen to him treat Selina that way. Not a great basis for a relationship...