• The Gift

  • Crown's Spies, Book 3
  • By: Julie Garwood
  • Narrated by: Susan Duerden
  • Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (1,284 ratings)

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The Gift  By  cover art

The Gift

By: Julie Garwood
Narrated by: Susan Duerden
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Publisher's summary

The New York Times best-selling author of Ransom weaves the delightful, sensual story of two lovers destined for high adventure and blissful rapture!

A child bride, Sara Winchester had grown into a winsome beauty, joyfully anticipating the day when her husband Nathan, Marquess of St. James, would return to claim her heart at last. Charmingly innocent, she dismissed the ancient feud that divided Nathan's family from her own.. .and she was totally unaware of his past exploits as the notorious pirate, Pagan. The man who now stood before her was perplexing, arrogant and powerfully handsome... a warrior-gentleman whose gentle touch aroused her to the wildest, deepest pleasures of love.

Nathan had never bared his soul to any woman, but he was soon utterly beguiled and exasperated by Sara’s sweet, defiant ways. Aboard his ship, The Seahawk, she was brave, imperious and determined to win his heart completely - yet upon their return to England, her love would be sorely tested as a vile conspiracy tried to tear them apart. With their future at stake, they would discover the true destiny of their passion... for all time!

©1991 Julie Garwood (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about The Gift

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A RIOTOUS REGENCY ADVENTURE ON THE HIGH SEAS

This is book 3 in JG's fantastic series The Crown Spies and, as usual, she delivers her winning formula for us Historical Romance lovers to suck up, revel in and enjoy in a storyline that includes adventure, fun, romance, sex, thrills, laughs, intrigue and of course, likeable H/H's who's endings are always tender, inevitable and predictable but it's the journey we all love to hear about and share in.

Nathan and Sara's story was filled with entertaining characters who are involved in a hilarious lol story that'll have people scowling and looking at you believing you've gone totally mad (but hey who cares). Nathan is handsome, arrogant, possessive, dominant, protective to loved ones and he growls and scowls at everybody especially when he captures Sara, his childhood bride, as he is finally ready to fulfil a bargain made years earlier and needs to both consummate and procreate to seal the deal. Sara, a delicate beauty who's naive, quirky, trusting, giving and loving but is also prone to screaming and crying...... and she's just the remedy Nathan doesn't realise he needs to break down the walls surrounding his heart.

Great secondary characters who help to make this one of the best in the series and I'm soooo looking forward to book 4 Castles which is Sir Colin's story - so please please Audible keep your listeners happy and add it soon.

Could easily be a stand alone listen but it does mention characters from previous books.

Worth a credit? It's definitely creditworthy, especially for the 12 and a half hours of listening pleasure it gives you, but it's an unbelievable bargain at under $10 - so save your credits for a more expensive, but maybe not a more worthy or enjoyable, listen.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Very Funny moments but not much substance!!!

The book was not as great as I had hoped. The heroin seemed simple minded and naive. She had a good heart and beauty but that's it. A bit disappointing so I can not recommend this book unless if you are willing to listen through this for the few funny moments here and there.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

The lead male character sounded like Voldemort!

Would you try another book from Julie Garwood and/or Susan Duerden?

Julie Garwood's historical books are always entertaining but the narration on "The Gift" was so distracting that it ruined the book for me.

What other book might you compare The Gift to and why?

"The Bride" also by Julie Garwood, was a better story and far superior narration.

How could the performance have been better?

There were two major problems with the performance. First, the lead male character sounded like Voldemort most of the time. There was a wheezy hissing quality that didn't sound anything like the masculine voice one would expect from a leading male in a romantic novel.

The other issue was that almost every non-dialog sentence was repeated in the same sing-song cadence every single time, regardless of appropriate tone (comedic, dramatic, etc). This made long stretches of text without dialog monotonous in their constant sing-song manner.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Romance on the High Seas

The Gift, by Julie Garwood, is the wonderfully, romantic story of Nathan, the Marquess of St. James, and Sara Winchester. I enjoyed this book, as narrated by Susan Duerden, and found it to be an absolutely captivating third installment to JG’s: Crown Spies Series.

Sara is young, and a romantic, at heart. Those of us who love a great romantic tale will fall in love with her and be able to relate to her “rose-colored-glasses” view of the world, where she wants to believe she lives.

Nathan, of course, on the other hand is a strong, possessive, warrior of few words; making them perfectly entertaining characters, involved in a funny, adventure.
Definitely Credit Worthy!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Hilariously entertaining!

I was in need of an uplifting tale when I picked this one up -- (we're in the middle of moving -- aaarrghhh!) -- so I was more than a little delighted with the silliness and high jinks in this adorable story.

Sara is a diehard idealist, and she's been in love with her husband since she was four years old. She's always known he would be perfect, so despite ample evidence to the contrary, her rose colored glasses stay firmly in place throughout their adventure.

Nathan hasn't seen Sara since the day of their marriage when he was 14 years old, and held the crying girl child in his arms, but he sets out years later to kidnap her and complete their marriage bond so that he can inherit a gift from the King. Then he's going to give her back to her family. Or at least that was his plan.

Nathan is as acerbic as Sara is sweet, and together they make an awesome counterpoint.

Sweet, sexy and so funny, this is a story to pick up when you need to giggle.

I loved it.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Narrator Ruined It

I really enjoyed the book when I read it, but the narrator gives every male character a harsh whispery tone that really turned me off. Ugh.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent story, but points off for narration.

Would you try another book from Julie Garwood and/or Susan Duerden?

Julie Garwood is one of my favorite writers so that's a given. I'd never willingly purchase a book because Susan Duerden is the narrator, as I do with other readers. However, if the story is a long time favorite, that might sway me.

What did you like best about this story?

Sara is such a hoot without trying to be you can't help but laugh. While aboard her husband's ship, which she calls a boat, newly married Lady Sara refers to Nathan's men as her staff and bends over backwards to gain their respect and approval. Inside two weeks, the lot of superstitious men are wearing cloves of garlic around their necks to ward off all the mayhem she accidentally causes. And Nathan bellows "Dammit Sara" so often she begins to think it's her new name.

What didn’t you like about Susan Duerden’s performance?

Based on her reviews Susan has a healthy fan base, unfortunately, I'm not one of them. All her female leads either shriek or sound childish and the hero's are darn near laughable. Susan attempts to deepen her voice for the hero but also lowers the volume too. Would you follow leader into battle who doesn't sound capable of herding sheep?The truly maddening thing is I like her natural voice that she reserves strickly for the third person narrator's point of view.

What would have made this romance irresistible?

A better narrator would have put the cherry on the top to a fabulous story.

Any additional comments?

I have to applaude Audible for gaining access the other Garwood early career favorites, but seriously have to question somebody's judgement when it comes to narrators. Why not leave well enough alone and stick with the original readers? I own the following books in original cassette form and for years have hoped someone would rerelease them because who in the heck uses cassette tapes anymore. These recordings are far superior to other editions added over the past year. Now I'm painstakingly transferring them to CDs before the tapes wear out and break. I wish listeners had the opportunity to hear these versions because they're missing out.By Author Julie Garwood:The Bride read by Martha Harmon PardeeThe Guardian Angel read by Mitzy FreelanderThe Prize read by Carol Jordan StewartRansom read by Paula ParkerThe Wedding read by Steven CrossleyThe Secret read by Jill Ferris (Jill Tanner also released a version of this that is nearly as entertaining.)

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

I don't remember so much whispering

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Kinda 50/50 I read the book before and J. Garwood has been a favorite author for a number of years But the narration had me cringing every time I heard a "whisper" The by play between the characters has always been good but I kinda wish I could comfortably read some books myself instead of listening.

What other book might you compare The Gift to and why?

The other books in the series. I will still get "The Lyon's Lady" even if it has the same narrator.

What didn’t you like about Susan Duerden’s performance?

The 'whispering' raspy drawn out. Probably trying for sensual but falling short. I don't remember so much whispering when I first read the book. Please Ms Duerden try something else when narrating. Perhaps there should be two narrators, one for male characters and one for female....

Did The Gift inspire you to do anything?

cringe. The by play still had me laughing " .. he calls me Damnit Sara ... " I was waiting for that part in the story and wasn't disappointed in that

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Very annoying heroine

Sara is the most annoying heroine I've ever read. Susan Duerden's narrating doesn't help AT ALL. She drags out the last word of every sentence she reads. Listening at a faster speed helps a little, but it's almost enough to give the book up completely.

Good luck getting past Sara's whining and "need to prove herself"...

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Who wrote this...what did they do with Ms Garwood?

What could Julie Garwood have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

This was a really weak story. There were too many subplots and side characters that I'm sure were supposed to lend to the story but they really just weakened it. The author could have removed 3 or 4 of the subplots and ended up with a much better book.I was really disappointed. I recommended this book to my reading buddy because I knew the narrator and a Julie Garwood is generally a pretty pleasant read. The story line seemed original. We both really tried to like this book but just finished it feeling very let down.I just kept waiting for something to happen and it never really did. Right up to the end everything and I mean everything got resolved in the last few minutes of the book. It was too much to resolve in such a short time and she gave the reader way too little reward after we had hung on for sooooo long!!

Which character – as performed by Susan Duerden – was your favorite?

The narrator does voices well so you can keep up with who is speaking in the book. That's really important as the listener. Sometimes her 'guy' voice for Nathan just made him sound sort of leering. I will definitely look for more books to listen to with her as the narrator.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I think Nathan and Sara were quite loveable. Sara is a bit air headed and naïve but Ms. Garwood does her in a believable and likeable way. Too bad she cluttered up their sweet love story with a bunch of plot distractions. I definitely caught myself smiling over some of Sara's silly antics.

Any additional comments?

Don't let this turn you off of Julie Garwood. I've liked a lot of her books and always thought her character development was her strength. I own several that I have really enjoyed.

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