Kindred Hearts

De: Rowan Speedwell

Narrado por: Paul Morey

Charming rascal Tristan Northwood seems to have it all: an ancient name, a noble inheritance, a lovely wife, and a son he adores. Women love him, men admire him, and it seems there is nothing he can’t do, whether it’s seducing a society wife or winning a carriage race. Little does society suspect that the name means nothing to him, the fortune is in his father’s controlling hands, and he has no interest in his wife except a very distant friendship. Society bores him, and he takes dares because he only feels alive when he’s dancing on the edge...until his wife’s brother comes home from the wars.

Decorated war hero Major Charles Mountjoy jerks Tris out of his despair by inspiring feelings of passion Tris had never suspected himself capable of. Almost as terrifying as those feelings for Charles are the signs Charles might return his affection - or, even worse, that Charles sees the man Tristan has been trying so valiantly to hide from the world.

©2011 Rowan Speedwell (P)2012 Rowan Speedwell

Pronunciation matters!

Would you try another book from Rowan Speedwell and/or Paul Morey?

Probably.

Would you be willing to try another book from Rowan Speedwell? Why or why not?

Perhaps-- depends on whether I'm interested in the topic or not.

What three words best describe Paul Morey’s performance?

god awful pronunciation

Any additional comments?

While in general, I like Paul Morey's voice & pacing, the pronunciation mistakes were so bad as to become ridiculous and distracting. Goethe, for instance, is not pronounced "go-eth." And having not one, but two characters supposedly fluent in German, actually making that fluency a part of the plot, means, probably, that they'd get that name correct.

That said, the story was interesting, in a regency m/m romance sort of way. Predictable as anything, but nice brain candy.

The performance, aside from the pronunciation errors, was enjoyable as well. Morey has a nice voice, calm and soothing. His character voices keep the story entertaining, and the characters are clearly distinguishable from one another and the narrative voice. Seriously, a little research could've made this performance much, much better. However, the place names, historical and literary names, French & German pronunciations.... all suck. If you don't mind that, go for it. It bugs the snot outta me, personally.

Amazing writing and narration

What other book might you compare Kindred Hearts to and why?

In genre it reminds me a lot of the late Barbara Cartland books, though that should not be set as a guideline for the story.

Which character – as performed by Paul Morey – was your favorite?

Gibson, I loved his accent. In general Paul Morey was excellent at performing voices, as they only changed slightly in tone, instead dialect and accent were used to describe the individual characters.

Any additional comments?

The story had a great diversity among the characters, Charlotte and Tristan were probably those with the best descriptions. The initial description of Tristan's life, not only as a child but also leading up to his marriage quickly stirred my sympathy. The changes that transpire for him through his life are well described and I love the initially slow moving romance.

Charlotte was a delight to listen to, though I often disagreed with her decisions she has a calm way of looking at things. During the first quarter of the book I often found myself smiling at her odd inputs. I might have continued to do that through the rest of the book, but when you do it all the time you stop noticing.

All the main characters had pretty well-developed backgrounds as you moved on through the story.

The stigma of sodomy at the time is handled very well in the book, both how society views it and how the protagonist deals with it.

The language is also generally kept in the right language, very few times is new slang used instead of the more proper form of speaking. It does not make the book hard to understand in any way, but it creates the atmosphere of that time. Only slips I noticed was during the sex scenes, which there weren't too many of. There was more focus on the romance and what it meant to their lives than the sexual part, which I found very refreshing from a lot of gay romance audiobooks.

very we written

there was a casting error made when an American English-speaking narrator is reading a queen's English written story. if you can get past the fact that the narration has been butchered, the story is very good.

Well Done!

I am a fan of Rowan Speedwell because she is able to present psychological problems in her characters very realistically.
I read this book before listening to it, Paul Morey was able to add to the story via character presentation.
Definitely recommended. I also recommend "Finding Zach" with the same author/narrator.

lovely novel, poor choice of narrator

Full disclosure, I did not finish this audiobook but instead read the ebook from Hoopla. There's nothing WRONG with the narrator, precisely - but he's American. reading a novel about British characters, living in England, during the Napoleonic Wars. it's jarring. he makes the barest attempt at dialects when they are specifically written out, but, for example, no attempt to make a specifically Scottish character sound any different than any of our English leads. it really didn't work for me.

The novel itself is wonderful and will probably be a reread for me, and I recognise that not everyone will be as thrown by the American accent as I was. but personally, while I wholeheartedly recommend the book, I'd only choose this method of enjoying it if I had no other option available.