All Is Mary and Bright

Belles of Christmas: Frost Fair, Book 2

By: Kasey Stockton

Narrated by: Jennifer Smith

Mary Hatcher traveled to London to procure a trousseau for her upcoming marriage. When she attends the Frost Fair and meets a different man that ignites her interest, she tamps down the unwelcome feelings. But when her host’s son arrives at dinner and she learns he is the man she met at the Frost Fair, she has a new challenge: She must spend the Christmas Season in the same house as him without falling in love.

Andrew Bright, the earl of Sanders, can never live up to his father’s legacy, so why bother trying? When he runs into a charming woman at the Frost Fair and later learns she is his mother’s guest, he is overjoyed. At least until he learns of her engagement. But friendship with her is better than nothing, until she threatens to push him into doing what he has long avoided—stepping into his father’s shoes.

This is the second book in the clean regency romance Belles of Christmas: Frost Fair series. This forbidden-love romance is a stand-alone novel and the books can be listened to in any order.

©2020 Kasey Stockton (P)2022 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Great story narration wasn’t great

Loved the story line. Love this author. Narrator had a great accent but the wrong inflections. It made it a harder listen for me.

Fun story

I liked the teasing and the games the characters played. Sweet romance with the typical problems. It would’ve been nice to see some unique circumstances. Characters were good.

I thought the narrator would be tolerable, as many get better as they get into the stories and used to the characters. But she seemed to get worse. Lines were delivered without much feeling, intonations a bit monotone, and voices too similar. I wanted to give her a four, but she distracted and detracted from the story with her less than enthusiastic performance.

Story is good, but narration is very bad

The story is reasonably good, but it is hard to tell since the narration is so very very bad! The sing-song voice is grating and makes distinguishing narrative from dialogue difficult. This is especially true when it’s meant for multiple characters to be interacting since they all begin to sound alike. Narrator also needs to learn to respect written punctuation and how perform dialogue more naturally, thereby avoiding the ‘run on sentence’ problems and awkward breaks in dialogue.

Light Christmas Fun

I enjoyed this book a great deal. The story is fun and charming and not predictable. To me, one of Kasey Stockton’s best.

I enjoyed the narration less so. The narrator’s inflections are often robotic, almost like listening to Virtual Voice. It’s a shame to have such a delightful book read so poorly.