The Flame and the Flower

The Birmingham Family, Book 1

By: Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

Narrated by: Ashford McNab

Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best-selling author Kathleen E. Woodiwiss's debut romance....

The Flower

Doomed to a life of unending toil, Heather Simmons fears for her innocence—until a shocking, desperate act forces her to flee...and to seek refuge in the arms of a virile and dangerous stranger.

The Flame

A lusty adventurer married to the sea, Captain Brandon Birmingham courts scorn and peril when he abducts the beautiful fugitive from the tumultuous London dockside. But no power on Earth can compel him to relinquish his exquisite prize. For he is determined to make the sapphire-eyed lovely his woman...and to carry her off to far, uncharted realms of sensuous, passionate love.

©2009 Kathleen E. Woodiwiss (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

They did this audio book justice

I first read this book back in the 1970s and absolutely loved it. I have reread it several times and it will always be a favorite. When I learned it was coming out in audible format I was so excited but concerned that the narration would not be good. But it was great! I bought several other of the audiobooks by this author now to listen to and I hope you will all enjoy them as well.

Performance ruined it for me

As a southerner, I was greatly offended by the southern accents. Egregious. Hard to get through a well-loved classic because of narration.

Perfect

Just as I remembered so many years ago. Ashford McNab, and Cassandra York brought the characters to life.

Yes !!!!!!;!!!

I loved this book !!! It was worth the wait. listening was joy. I'm so happy !

One of my favorites.

Such a beautiful historical Romance. Woodiwiss is one of my favorite authors & this one doesn’t disappoint.

I loved this book in my teens

and was so happy to find it here, but then the wait. I was so thrilled when it finally was available and will definitely be getting The Wolf and the Dove next. I think the narrator did a really good job but did notice that her English and French accents were better than her southern accents. She did such a good job, though that I immediately forgave such a small thing. All in all a great book!

I Love You Deeply

This is anther bok that taught me to love reading. My favorite part of the book was when Brandon realized he love Heather and could not do without her. I liked when they both realized they were working against what they both wanted.

I am and have always been aWoodiwiss fan.

In 1974 a friend of mine asked me if I had read Kathleen Woodiwiss’ novels yet. I said, “Who?” She went on to explain that Woodiwiss was a fairly new author of women’s romance novels. “And she is wonderful! She is a woman who writes novels for women. She knows what we like and she writes for us.” Let’s put this in historical perspective: The women’s movement officially started in 1980 but, in truth, it had already started by 1972. I had just graduated university in 1971 where my original major was aerospace engineering. At that time at Iowa State University, a major engineering school, there were three women majoring in AE, a senior, a sophomore and a freshman, me. The year was 1966. Women in engineering were unheard of. I didn’t finish in AE but that’s another story. My point is that young woman were trying to break out the traditional working roles of nursing, teaching and secretaries. We wanted to do what the men were allowed to do! We wanted to be engineers, astronomers, astronauts, architects, lawyers/judges, police, firefighters, soldiers, pilots, etc. In other words: Anything men can do women can do too. Maybe better. Woodiwiss’ writing was breakthrough in its approach, plot, character development, character actions, sexual approaches, etc. Her characters (both men and women) were strong, independent, intelligent, provocative individuals. If the women started out weak and afraid we could see how they developed into motivated, strong, fearless individuals. It was so refreshing! And she was the right writer at the right time. She wrote 15 novels in her career and we lost her talent too soon when she died at 68 years old, much too young. She was called “the Mother of the Modern Romance Novel”. And she still is. Her books are ones which you read over and over again as the years pass. Her characters are real. As to performance, when the audio first began I thought that Cassandra would be a good reader but as time went on her performance went downhill. Her various character voices became inconsistent. Brandon started out with a slight Southern accent but once he got back to the Carolinas his accent went away. Same for Louisa. I don’t know if she got tired, couldn’t remember the voice she used or what but it did disappoint by the end. I’ll have to see how she does in the other books.

My favorite book of all time

I read this book in 1972 when I was in college. I can’t count how many of my friends have named their children Brandon or Heather because of it. It is and will always be my favorite book.

EXCELLENT STORY!

I love this book and it is great that is is finally available in audio. However, the narration leaves much to be desired. Why does the narrator try to impose some fake and unpleasant voice and accent for each character? Brandon and Jeff each have a feminine sounding, fake southern accent, Heather just sounds wrong with an occasional fake English accented word or phrase, and Thomas Hint sounds like a screeching old woman or witch. The narrator should just read the story and let the reader/listener “hear” the character’s voice. Dual narrators is preferable, but if it is only one, the story should just be read by a pleasant voice and let the listener hear the story as it is printed.