Allegra

A Novel Set in the Italian Renaissance

By: C. De Melo

Narrated by: Brook Van Beuren

Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

16th century Florence, Italy: Allegra Castagno harbors a secret so big that it can ruin her life and her father's reputation. Exceptionally talented, yet banned from the Florentine guilds, she devises a clever ruse in order to secretly ply her beloved craft. In time, the exquisite jewelry designs of "La Castagna" are being praised in noble courts from Venice to Rome.

Resentful of the male-dominated society in which she lives, Allegra rejects all suitors in order to maintain her carefully constructed farce - until an embittered man with a tragic past melts her icy heart. Faced with a serious dilemma, she seeks the help of her scandalous friend, Bianca Cappello, lover of the powerful Francesco de' Medici.

©2017 Christine De Melo (P)2018 Christine De Melo

Ruined by the Narrator

Based on the Amazon reviews I took a chance on an unknown-to-me author. I spent two summers in Florence and have a love of fine crafts. Unfortunately, the reader so consistently mispronounced common words that I was too distracted to enjoy the story. Some Italian names were pronounced the way an Italian would say them, others were pronounced as if by an American. The pronunciations should be consistent. And the English mispronunciations made me wonder if anyone had listened to the audio before releasing it. I know I am a bit of a crank when it comes to my reaction to incompetent readers but they ruin what should be a pleasurable experience in the same way a printed book would if it were full of poor spelling, inconsistent punctuation, and a constant misuse of homonyms.
I hope to have other opportunities to listen to books by C. De Melo with better narrators.

Intriguing Renaissance Fictional Bio

An intriguing fictional biography of Allegra, a 1500's woman of Florence, Italy who negotiates a complicated Renaissance life amongst goldsmiths and power brokers like the De Medici.

Male dominance, greed. and betrayals

The struggle is real, and it still exists today!! The theme of this story of inequality and male dominance still reins today, but not as severely. Greed and betrayals abound. Poor Bianca and her spouse- what treachery and greed!!! I liked that Bianca remained a loyal friend to Allegra to the end. I highly recommend this book. I voluntarily listened to a free copy of this and am giving an honest review. The narrator did a great job.

Awesome Story

This one is my favorite so far. The audio was perfect and the narrator was flawless with bringing it to life. This one is epic and a must have

Wonderful Story!

I truly enjoyed this story. The Characters were well developed. The storyline me thought out clearly and presented well. I enjoy this type of historical Romance mixed with real players. and this was no disappointment. Even the narration was done in a creative and we'll differentiated way. Kudos🙂

Love the story behind Allegra!!

This was my first 16th century setting audiobook that I have listened to and enjoyed it very much. It took me a little time to adjust to Narrator but that is me.

The Worst Narration I Have Ever Heard!

I've been a member of Audible for many years and was shocked that they made a title available that has such poor narration. The first time I heard "soldering" mispronounced, it took me aback. But that was quickly followed by a ridiculous pronunciation of "coup de gras." I agree with the previous reviewer that the narration was a distraction to enjoying the story. Hard to believe that someone with such a poor grasp of language was paid to narrate this book.

Mispronunciations were a distraction

I’m sorry, but I finally gave up because I was distracted by mispronunciations. Examples: a ‘virile’ man was ‘viral’. ‘Proffering his arm’ was read as ‘preferring his arm’. Those were only two, but every time it happened, I lost some paragraphs trying to figure out what the writer had meant before I realized it was reader error. This is the first time I’ve encountered this problem in an Audible book, but it was enough to make me wonder about future selections.

Exciting!

Don’t miss this great story! It was a time when women did not have the same privilege as men. Allegra was an amazing woman.
Brook did a wonderful job narrating it. She had brought it to life as if you were watching a live play.

Story Good; Narration Painful!

The story itself was enjouable, but the narrator....Ugh. She used the same cadence and intonation for everything, and the attempts at "doing another voice" was laughable (not in a good way). The same person narrated the pre-curser to this book as well, and did not improve with practice. Unfortunately, it made the overall listening experience tedious.