Splendid

By: Julia Quinn

Narrated by: Lucy Rayner

Based on the phenomenal growth of Quinn's popularity, and her four-week stint on the New York Times bestseller list with Romancing Mr Bridgerton, it's the perfect time to revisit Ms Quinn's 'splendid' storytelling.

American heiress Emma Dunster has always been fun-loving and independent with no wish to settle into marriage. She plans to enjoy her Season in London in more unconventional ways than husband-hunting. But this time Emma's high-jinks lead her into dangerous temptation...

Alexander Ridgely, the Duke of Ashbourne, is a notorious rake who carefully avoids the risk of love...until he plants one reckless kiss on the sensuous lips of this high-spirited innocent...and condemns himself to delicious torment. Little does he know that his passion has touched the very soul of the lovely enchantress...and committed them both to a lifetime of splendid ecstasy.

Disappointed

I've really enjoyed Julia Quinn's books in the past, but this one for me was really lacking. The dialogue at the beginning was trite and somewhat irritating, nothing like I've seen from Julia Quinn in the past. For me, the two main characters just didn't mesh and the heroin was annoying and a total contradiction. The consistency problem Ms. Quinn has been having with her other books appears to be continuing in this one as well. For example, Alex never acknowledges he's courting Emma and never formally asked to court her, but later in the story he says he's courting her, but doesn't want to marry her. At that time period, in England, if he said he was courting her, then he had stated his intention to her guardian and he would have had every intention of marrying her. I actually stopped the recording twice to see if this WAS actually the author because it didn't seem like her at all. Her last few books totally lack her personality and I miss the Julia Quinn who wrote Romancing Mr. Briderton. I just hope the author goes back to her original writing style because I don't think I'll be purchasing any more of her books if they're anything like this one; she just seems like she's writing them to meet a deadline. I'm sadly disappointed, because this used to be one of my favorite authors.

Interaction between the Duke and Emma.

Hang in there. A little slow at first. But I really loved the love story.

Good

I didn’t like the reader, her different voices got messed up at times. That is all that was wrong. Story was good.

Great Read

The story flows perfectly. Is well worth the read and the setting described fits wonderfully for the era it is written. I hope to continue reading more of Julia Quinn's work and look forward to her stories.

Love Julia Quinn loath the narrator

The narrator ruined the story automatically. I couldn’t get through the first chapter, and I have listened to 15+ audiobooks from Julia Quinn.