Unrequited

The Donovans, Book 0.5

De: Martha Keyes

Narrado por: Penelope Rawlins

Elena MacKinnon has spent the last seven years training to become a proper English lady. When her childhood friend, Captain Theo Donovan, returns from serving in the Navy, he brings along with him Elena’s humiliation for the ill-advised and ardent love letter she wrote him before his departure, which he ignored entirely. Elena hopes to simultaneously stifle his memory of the letter and make him regret overlooking her, showing him just how fine an English lady she can be. The only problem? She is not English but a proud Scot—and her heart may be more enamored with Theo than ever.

©2023 Martha Keyes (P)2023 Dreamscape Media

Sweet story, great narration

Penelope Rawlins narrates this story so well, I just love the Scottish accent! The story is so sweet and the hero is so genuinely gorgeous I was really sorry when it ended. I highly recommend

Tender Love Story

Definitely a treat for the senses, this touches many areas that many of us face. Elena, a Scottish lass, has been taken in by her godfather as a promise to her late father. She’s grown up with his English children and also sent to finishing school with his daughter. The godfather is a successful seaman and expects his sons to follow.
The time has come to arrange a marriage for Elena and her suitor is obviously smitten. Elena,however, has loved Theo, one of the sons, since childhood. He is about to be made an admiral.
With everyone’s expectations surrounding them, how can they break free to choose for themselves, or even know who they truly are?
This is a delightful read and the audiobook is also very good.

Great plot and characters

I really enjoyed the story. I always wish there was more after the marriage but that’s probably because I’ve grown attached to the characters and want to know what continues to happen in their lives. That’s a sign of a good book!

I didn’t love the reader. Her female voices were good but her male voices all had a raspy tone to them like they were smokers. She did a great job with the accents and the female voices were all easy to recognize who was speaking. I just wish her male voices had been more to my liking.

I always like books by Martha Keyes! Well worth the listen!

Its good

I enjoyed certain parts of the novel but other parts not so much. Lots of it felt underdeveloped or just kind of forgotten about.
Maybe i had different expectations because this is more of a romance novel over a racism and prejudice novel but it was one of the main conflicts in the novel that would have been nice to develop more.
I did like the MCs internal conflict between being scottish or showing herself to be english, but lots of the time it was somewhat rushed. I would have like more developed, like her speaking in an english accent instead of scottish when her brother comes back, could have been a somewhat betrayal to him. Or maybe she could've also been found at the beach with the houses by the 2nd male lead and his parents, where she would destroy the homes to pretend like she hadn't made them, representing that she was betraying her scottish heritage to fit into english society. It could've even been that she had to spend more time with the 2nd male lead's mother so she couldn't rebuild or take care of the houses, representing how she's rather be accepted by english society. And then the ending could have included her rebuilding those homes to highlight how she accepts her origins.
I also would've liked more of her interest in travelling the world. It was touched upon a couple of times, but felt more like it was a way for the male lead and her to connect over something because he's a sailor. It could've included a scene of her collecting objects in England from around the world, or bonding over her passion with the Male lead by asking him countless questions of wheres he's been and what he's seen, being so excited that it causes her accent to slip. Not only would that be a good developing moment for their relationship, but it would connect the MC's struggle with her scottish heritage with that of her dream of travelling, while also allowing the Male lead to develop and show that he wants to sail for himself instead of in the navy.
It is quite a nice listen, but there are so many parts that could have been improved.