All a Woman Wants

By: Patricia Rice

Narrated by: Caroline Kinsolving

Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

"Mac" MacTavish impulsively steals his late sister's neglected children, only to discover it's easier to handle a clipper in a hurricane than steer two ornery brats. What he needs is a nanny until he can take the children back to his parents in America.

Knowing herself to be too plain and large to attract a husband, Bea Cavendish has settled for a quiet life of feathering her father's nest - until he dies, and she's left with an estate she doesn't know how to manage. Alone and terrified, she doesn't know what to make of the very big, very angry man appearing at her door with two adorable hooligans in tow.

Does she take in this ill-tempered stranger and his children in exchange for learning what she needs to know? Or is she in danger that this recklessly ambitious man might teach her more about life than which fields to plant?

©1992 Rice Enterprises (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Good stand alone Patricia Rice novel

There are several themes going on with this historical romance set in Victorian England.
First there is the hero “Mac” who is American. He’s here on a business trip ( shipping ) and decides to check on his sister who married a Vicount. He discovered she’s dead ,her children sorely neglected and injured, and their father a drunken sot. Mac promptly “rescues” the children and goes in the hunt for a nursemaid whose willing to sail back to Virginia with him.
Caught in a storm with the children, he stops at Bea’s estate for shelter. Bea is in mourning for her father. She is 28, has never left home, is incredibly shy and ignorant of the most basic things. But she has raw intelligence.
Here are our themes.
Mac is a huge man and has always considered himself awkward and unfashionably large. Bea is a very tall big woman with big breasts that are mentioned often. She considered herself ugly.
As an American in England Mac is a fish out of water... and stuck on a farm instead of on his ship, he’s LITERALLY a fish out of water.
Then we have the kidnapping, and how that’s going to be resolved.
Then we have the education of Bea... in all things.
And of course the romance.
There’s also subplots involving mysterious relatives, another kidnapping and falling in love with 2 adorable children.
So this book is very entertaining!
I just wish the narrator differentiated between male, female and children’s voices better. But her voice was pleasant.

Shaky performance of a run-of-the-mill story

So. She thinks she's unattractive because she's too tall and voluptuous with porcelain skin. He likes her because she has boobs. (He thinks about her boobs a lot.) He's "incredibly masculine" which means he's very big, yells at people, and occasionally punches them. Neither of them talks or listens very well.

In other words it's your basic bodice ripper, which might be ok with a great narrator but this one had problems. She has an American accent, which is a strange choice when the setting and almost all the characters are English. Then add in odd phrasings, misplaced stresses, and a lot -- a LOT -- of mispronounced words. ("Awed" as two syllables??) In the end, I wished I hadn't bothered.

Couldn’t finish 😩

Only made it a few chapters in and gave up. The narrator tried her best but Beatrice is just too whiny and annoying she cannot be redeemed by decent narration. I hate when authors portray women as helpless and clueless. She claims to want to learn to manage the estate yet resists at every turn because of her feelings 😖
Why why why???

One of my favorites!

Patricia Rice is one of my new favorite authors. Her plot lines are excellent with unexpected and unpredictable twists and turns. She is a master with dialog. Going in search of the next one to download. I also liked this narration. I don’t like it when readers try to make certain voices when nasty lords end up sounding like shrews. The written word stands well without theatrics. I’ll be looking for more read by Caroline Kinsolving.

Good read

I don’t know why there are some reviews that are unappreciative . I thought it was fun and romantic.

Fun

Narration is smooth but not good with accents. Wouldn't mind if the story was based in the colonies.

Good story

The story was as good as any by Patricia Rice. it's the narrator who very nearly ruined the whole book. I'll be watching for and avoiding any books performed by Ms. Kingsolving in the future.

Wonderful story .Excellent narration!

Story well crafted. Characters engaging plot intriguing. Narrator perfect for story. Excellent portrayal of characters. Very enjoyable read.

Virgin English rich girl meets unkept American

It was not the most intriguing story. It’s seemed hackneyed and predictable to the point of yawn, but it was well read which made it a little more interesting. The heroine seems confused- at one point she wants to be strong and I dependent, but then she meets the right guy and submits to being a housewife. I much prefer story lines where the events stay true to the intention of the characters. Strong independent women leads are one of the better things about reading romances...

Ah, now I'm addicted to another author.

I've listen to all but three of her books & have loved all! More! More!

Good but mispronounced places names !

Most of the real English places names were repeatedly mispronounced, as was a key title - viscount. It became irritating and spoilt the story.

Adventurous ~Romantic !!

Great story loved it from start to finish think the adventure would of been better gained if it hadn't been to the bedroom which became deep as the episodes carried on but guess that's true love ❤ so a real historical romance !

Boring

struggled to finish it, fell asleep 😴 💤 which helped, I don't know why I try to listen to these sort of books I never enjoy them

loved it!

Great narrator and a great story line.
Loved every page. Highly recommend for a romcom reader.

Finally giving up at Ch28

The story drags.
The heroine wants to learn about estate managing. She does not want to be told to concentrate on finding a husband and leaving everything to him. Well, she has done just that. The hero is actually adorable, but the plot and the crew of characters in general is just boring. The children are really plot devices, with no character whatsoever.
The narrator did not manage the pronouncing of words such as “viscount” and “Warwick” until well into the story. I cannot figure out why. On the other hand I quite like her way of voice acting, although sometimes she makes me confuse who is speaking.
Still, the character building is so boring that I could not even bother to finish.

Nice but slow !

Nice story but it was so slow; there were times when I wanted to physically push it. Also, one /two things struck me as not good e.g. Bea hitting Sebastian with an iron bar. Sorry about the spoiler but this was excessive.Yes he was wrong but to me he needed help big time. Also, her aunt was not great in the help department either-or and should have done better than simply making her presence felt.
The hero was lovely but his story is now told....to my mind a story about Sebastian woul be interesting . We would find out whether he learns from past mistakes.

Great read

Loved it had me laughing in some parts
Kept ne enthralled
But beware quite racy lol
The reader was fantastic and easy to listen to

This is a long drawn out story.

The narrator is hopeless and let's the story down, some of her pronunciations were so bizarre I was left guessing.
The plot is mainly about the heroine, who has been conditioned by her father to act and behaviour in a certain manner. She has never left her village and rarely her house. This I found odd as ladies of her rank were usually found involved in charitable works in their village and with the tenants wives.
The hero has stolen his neice and nephew and is in hiding. He is an American, with good English connection, and everything the heroine isn't, ie keeping up with progress.
There is a drunken father, a bossy loud aunt, a half-brother acting as a footman and other secondary characters.
Though free; I found it tedious, the heroine wants to learn, but dose everything the same, wants a husband, but will not bed him and so on and on and on.
Then suddenly it all stops, the drunken husband becomes a friend, the children are safe and the American gives up his life to live happily every after in her world

Enjoyable story which was narrated well.

Enjoyed the book American English was used a few times by the author and I know this might annoy some (it is supposed to be a novel set in historical England) however for me this didn't detract too much. Carolyn narrated the story very well with just a few mistakes. Viscount pronounced Vy-cont instead of Vy-count and Warwick as War-wick instead of Warr-ick (although she did correct the Warwick pronunciation half way through the story). Overall though I still give it 5 stars.

Good story WRONG narrator

Goodness - if you can get past the narrator the book is enjoyable. I would suggest reading rather than listening.
Why would a American narrator be selected to read a novel set in England - the mis-pronouncement of so many English words made me cringe, we were three quarters the way through before she mastered the word “Warwick”.
I made it to the end but will avoid this narrator at all costs.