Splendid

Blydon, Book 1

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 best-seller 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.

©1995 Julie Cotler (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

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.

Awful narration

I love Julia Quinn but o have not been able to make my way through this book because the narration is awkward. The character voices are grating.

save me this book is so boring I can't continue.

this is not like JQ's normal novels ...so tedious my ears started to bleed... save yourself and don't bother loosing a credit

Just not the best narrator for the book.

Loved the story but the narrator made it hard to listen to the whole book. I ended up purchasing the hard copy of the other two in the series because I couldn’t handle the audible version. Her voice wasn’t terrible but just not right for one of Julia Quinn’s books.

Love it!

great story with a great narrator. very strong romance that's follows some nice characters

Please Get Another Narrorator

I enjoyed the story a lot. I loved Emma and belle and their relationship. I thought it was funny and cute, much like quinns other books I've listened to. but good grief, the narrators voice and acting is god awful. the high pitch of the women voices, the American accent is terrible. it hurt my ears. Rosalyn, who narrated the bridgerton series, should have narrated this one it would have made it a lot more enjoyable.

Good story but poor narrator

Enjoyed the story but the narrator was hard to listen to. Besides other things she pronounced Emma as Emmer throughout.

American accent???

This is one of my favorite books by Julia Quinn. But the narrator’s American accent is completely awful.