The Lady Chosen

By: Stephanie Laurens

Narrated by: Jill Tanner

Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Stephanie Laurens' hot-blooded romances, including her New York Times best-selling Bar Cynster series, have earned her legions of loyal devotees. The beginning of an exciting new saga, The Lady Chosen introduces the distinguished war veterans of the Bastion Club, single gentlemen not entirely committed to staying that way.

©2003 Stephanie Laurens (P)2007 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Fans of Laurens's popular Cynster...romances will expect the high adventure and steamy, sensual love scenes that are her signature, and they won't be disappointed." ( Publishers Weekly)

I enjoyed the Bastion Club

The story is good and entertaining. It's the first (not counting a related prequel book, Captain Jack's Woman, that Laurens wrote much earlier, but whose characters appear as secondary characters in these books) in a series about a group of peers who come back from serving England as spies in France during the Napoleonic Wars and now have to try to fit back into regular English society. It's further complicated by the fact that the hero has to wed soon in order to obtain his inheritance. Unfortunately, the lady he wants has her own reasons for avoiding marriage. As the two try to work out their relationship, they also have to deal with a series of threatening events.
The narrator does a good job of giving different voices to all of the characters and with the British pronunciations. I enjoyed her narration of this book and look forward to hearing her narrate the audio version of the next book in this series.

the awfulness of the narrator

I really like this author. started with Captain Jack's woman and decided I would continue reading this series but I don't know if I can keep going if this stories narrator is going to read the next books. I just could not take her pauses and weird breaths and very sticky dry mouth sounds. it was very annoying and hard to listen to. other than that great story great characters great love great sexiness a wonderful story!

pretty good book

it was a pretty good book I'd listen to another but this author and reader

Much better played at 1.3 x speed.

The story is ok, but the narrator's long pauses between sentences are painful. Played at 1.3x speed it was a bit easier to listen.

Hated narrator pronounciation

The story was great, great romance, mysteries and fantastic female who aren’t wilting flowers. However, I grimaced every time the narrator pronounced the word”grimace.” It was agonising. She also pronounced “lived” as “liived “. Very tedious attempt to absorb the story. Narrator also seemed a little monotonous. Preferred McCallister Lee, from Captain Jacks Woman.

The Lady Chosen

I bought this story when it was first published. Over the years it has remained one of my favorites.. In fact I love the entire series.. I'm sure I've read/listened to them at least four or five times.

Interesting plot, gratuitous sex

This is my second or third reread of the Bastion Club series. What struck me this time is how little insight Loretta has. For a smart cookie, she acts really stupidly. She has decided she doesn’t want to get married, and yet over and over again she risks an unwanted pregnancy. She knows the score and knows what that would mean for her reputation. And yet she still blunders on! And there’s also this assumption that possessiveness equals love. The guy’s head over heels, so why can’t he just say so instead of all this game playing. I wanted to smack him! Hopefully, when we see them reappear in later books, she will have tamed him :-)
Jill Tanner’s reading was OK, but I had to speed it up to 1.2 because the long pauses in between each sentence were driving me crazy. Asked my English husband if any English accent includes grimACE, he said no.

Good story

I gave this audiobook 3 stars and think the strong points include an interesting plot with equally interesting characters. It got a little long towards the end, but overall, a nice story.

Start here, and don't miss this series!

The book begins with the former spies for the crown meeting after Waterloo and banding together as the Bastion Club to take control of what comes next in their lives.
The publisher's blurb gives clues as to the plot. This is the first in the series, and is not the strongest, but is a very interesting read, nonetheless. It does stand up to the rereading test, as well as the "filched by friends" test. I gave up and got the audio, so I could keep a copy.
Jill Tanner does a good job as narrator, but I would have preferred a baritone.

Enjoyed hearing the stories after having read them

I always enjoyed the Cynster series by Stephanie Laurens. Then I read the Bastion Club and found it also enjoyable. I recently purchased all the audio books of these two series and have really enjoyed listening. Listening brings a different dimension to the stories.
Although I still find Georgette Heyer far more interesting in terms of character dialogue and in many other areas, I do think SL has her good points.
I did not understand many of the reviewers comments about the narrator, Jill Tanner. I found her reading very effective. She has a very good voice which has been trained. I don't need many character voices, although I do enjoy other narrators who make the attempt to give characters certain voices. Sometimes this distracts from the story. Jill Tanner reads the story with good inflection at appropriate moments, but doesn't get carried away in an attempt to add her emotions in her narration. I prefer to be read to, not acted at. I would rather add emotion and intent from my own ideas as the story progresses.
I do still prefer to listen to the Georgette Heyer books. She could write so sex scenes were superfluous.