The Lady of Galway Manor

By: Jennifer Deibel

Narrated by: Heather O'Neill

Length: 10 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

In 1920, Annabeth De Lacy’s father is appointed landlord of Galway Parish in Ireland. Bored without the trappings and finery of the British Court, Annabeth convinces her father to arrange an apprenticeship for her with the Jennings family - descendants of the creator of the famed Claddagh ring.

Stephen Jennings longs to do anything other than make a career in his family’s jewelry shop. The past has taught him to no longer believe in love and the “lies” the Claddagh ring supposedly promises. How can he peddle what he now finds offensive?

The war for Irish independence gains strength, and the De Lacy family is caught in the cross fire. As events take a life-threatening turn, Annabeth and Stephen will discover that the bonds of friendship, love, and loyalty can only be made stronger when put through the refiner’s fire.

©2022 Jennifer Deibel (P)2022 Recorded Books

Engaging and emotionally hooking

I did not like the narrator. I didn't feel that the narrator was able to easily go back and forth between an English and an Irish accent.

Great Novel

I’ve always dreamt of visiting Ireland and this book puts me there. I can practically see the sights and feel the warmth of the people. I love how the author weaves in Christian theme.

Lady of Galway Manor

Anna's family came from Britain to Galway Ireland where she became an apprintese to Stephen and Shamas in their jewelry store. Anna's father was the landlord and overseer of the British army in Galway. What a wonderful story by this new author to me - Jennifer Deibel. It is exciting and heart wrenching as well as a beautiful love story!

Highly Recommend: The Lady of Galway Manor

Thank you for writing such an interesting, well written book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I do not come across gems like this too often, but this one is very special. The narrator’s performance was excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed learning and experiencing what life would have been like in western Ireland during this time period. I have visited Galway, Ireland and I fell in love with the people and culture of Ireland. The author described the town of Galway, Ireland so well and exactly how I remember it. I had enjoyed visiting the pubs with their lively Celtic music, ate their fish and chips to my hearts content, walked along the cobbled stone streets and visited the quaint shops, enjoyed the scenic river and I even went inside the original shop where the Claddagh ring first started. I did get a claddagh necklace with the region’s Connemara marble set in it from this shop. With my love for the Lord, my love of history and the Irish people along with an interesting, well written story and wonderful narration, I found this to be an excellent book.
I do want to mention that I learned about this book, The Lady of Galway Manor and the author, Jennifer Deibel, from the podcast, Christian Historical Fiction Talk with Liz Tolsma. I look forward to read any of Jennifer Deibel books after enjoying this one so much.

Perfect narration

The story was beautiful and very well written. The main reason I picked this book was for the narrator. I had listened to another book narrated by her and loved her character development. This time was even more impressive. The story literally came alive! There wasn't as much in the case of historical fiction that I wanted, but it also wasn't over the top with the romance or religion. I really enjoyed it!

Great Irish Story

I really enjoyed the book, it was interesting and told historical facts. the characters were well written. what funny is I'm planning a trip to Ireland and perfect time to hear this book.

Great story.

Very good story with wonderful characters and wonderful narration. I will listen to more books by this author.

Sweeping Irish star-crossed lovers historical romance!

“Love, Loyalty, and Friendship” I love the symbolism of the Claddagh Ring and the story that Jennifer Deibel weaves about its history. The Lady of Galway Manor swept me away to Ireland with it’s rich descriptions of the people, countryside, and traditions.

Set in the 1920’s, this is a star crossed lovers romance between an English Lady and a handsome Irishman in the midst of the Irish conflict for independence.

I loved the characters of Lady Annabeth and Stephen and how they came to appreciate and love each other despite their cultural differences. It’s a slow burn romance with plenty of twists and turns that kept me turning those pages! I also loved the inspirational messages of forgiveness, sacrifice, and love.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through JustRead Tours however, I loved it so much that I downloaded the audiobook from Audible. The narration is fabulous! Highly recommend it. The accents are done to perfection. I loved listening to that beautiful Irish lilt and at the same time the narrator does a fabulous English accent. Definitely recommend to audiobook listeners.

Historical romance and Christian fiction lovers will want to pick up this book. I can’t wait to read more by this author.

Incredible!

This book is wonderful! Wonderful narrator!! I learned about Ireland’s culture and struggles in the early 20th century, as well as the pressures of the English gentry. Most of all, the warmth and light of the characters leaves me joyful. I didn’t want the book to end. Excellent!

Not certain what I was expecting

…as I’d never before read this author who I believe focuses on “historical romance”, however I was hoping for more depth in both aspects in The Lady of Galway. Instead, I found this to be “history light and romance trite” … bordering on the insulting.

Jennifer Deibel chose as her story’s setting the incredibly rich, historically significant, fraught and beautiful setting of Western Ireland’s Galway in the early part of the twentieth century. But even this setting’s innate passion, people, charm and beauty are watered down. Her truly light — even trite, in my opinion — handling of an historically significant “moment” in the centuries long, ugly and murderous occupation of Ireland by England, her rather frivolous presentations of both Irish and English characters’ approaches to faith, family, love, men and women, occupation & rebellion I found to be irritating — even insulting. There were times throughout this book when I anticipated any of the characters, no matter the situations, to break into a Disney-esque song and skip off into the sunset.

In all fairness, I’d never read this author before and I see that she appeals to many readers, but for my taste, this obviously talented author chose too much “cutesy”, blasé handling of the passionate, serious situations the author describes her characters facing in this particular book. Likely, this was her desire: to deliver something written with a light hand, “palatable and pleasant”, for her fans. I appreciate that; her approach isn’t for me I guess and that’s okay. Because it is only my perspective & opinion, I allocated three stars, when I wanted to give fewer.

The narration, I thought, was a fine aspect of this book. Heather O’Neill did a good job of the Irish language and I appreciated that the author wrote in immediate translations of the various words and phrases; that seemed to work well enough rather than being a distraction.