A Terrible Beauty

What Amazon Readers Say About "A Terrible Beauty" "...on the level of the late Kathleen Woodiwiss" "...a true full-length novel with a sweeping story" "...engaging, entertaining and very well written" Nurse, Annabelle Winslow, returns to London from the Crimean War to face the misdeeds of her past. Five years ago she ruled the ballrooms of fashionable society as Lady Arabella Winslow, The Incomparable Araby, a singular beauty who rent hearts and hopes at will. Facing her past means facing the man who betrayed her – the man she loved who in exchange for her heart, ruthlessly stripped away her pride and her dignity for the sake of revenge. Michael Lassiter is handsome, wealthy, powerful and a natural rogue. Still, Araby captivates him like no other woman until her thoughtless words devastate his younger brother and destroy his future. In his anger, Michael sets in motion a chain of events that will alter all of their lives and five years later force him into a confrontation with a young woman who continues to haunt him, who he has never been able to forget, nor forgive. "Mrs. Lady - Season of the Furies Book 2" AVAILABLE NOW!

Entertaining story, terrible narration.

Good character development and storyline, but the AI narration is awkward and distracting to the emotional buy in while listening to.

Well thought out plot, intriguing characters.

Ms. Patterson’s storyline was compelling and main characters were intriguing. Araby/Belle developed into a woman who was brave enough to face her flaws and the injuries she had caused, and not continued to seek solace in the victimization that too many individuals - real & fictitious hide behind. Most of the threads of the story were tied up nicely, and the epilogue sets up her next novel.

HOWEVER, it took me 3 attempts to complete her book because of the horrifically distracting cadence of the virtual voice! While the voice itself was pleasant, it paused frequently where I am sure no comma was in the manuscript, it ran some sentences together, and often did not place emphasis on the correct parts of the sentence which in effect changed the meaning of the prose. These characteristics often made it difficult to distinguish between the characters in dialogues & necessitated rewinding the book to follow the story.

I would love to have this book re-recorded with a strong narrator, which would definitely increase the rating up to 4 - 4.75.
I hope her next book is not recorded with the virtual voice as I do not think I will be able to listen to such a distracting narrator again.

Storyline

The storyline was captivating. Characters had depth and they had their own story. Never judge a person without knowing their past or present struggles. love a good love making description where the man and woman reach a sensational climax. Patterson does a good job in describing both partners sensations. I hate a book that leaves the woman desiring a climax and not having it. Peterson allows the reader/listener have the finishing moment complete.