Claiming Victory: A Romantic Comedy

The Shackleford Diaries Book 1

By: Beverley Watts

Narrated by: Mark Elstob, Colleen Prendergast

Full of romantic humour, Claiming Victory is a must for fans of funny love stories.

At thirty two, Victory Shackleford is arguably overweight, undeniably frumpish and the love of her life is a dog. She still lives at home with her father - an eccentric retired Admiral who she considers reckless, irresponsible, and totally incapable of looking after himself. Her father on the other hand thinks Victory is a boring nagging harpy with no imagination or sense of adventure and what’s more, he’s determined to get her married off. Unfortunately there’s no one in the picturesque yachting town of Dartmouth that Tory is remotely interested in, despite her father’s best efforts. But all that is about to change when she discovers that her madcap father has rented out their house as a location shoot for the biggest Hollywood blockbuster of the year.©2014 BaR Publishing (P)2022 W. F. Howes Ltd

The vocal rendition of the characters is superb!

The Shacklefords breed true. This book was uplifted by the presence of the Admiral! The ol'boy was superb. Victory spend way too much time drinking wine and worrying about the size of her butt. Although I would have loved to see the stick bug get her just dues. They handled her right. Why try to deal with someone that destroyed everything she touched because since she was old news.
Well read and well written!

You Won’t Stop Laughing!

This has to be the funniest book I’ve every read/ listened to. A very addictive storyline.

Familiar Trope

Author Beverley Watts' contemporary take on the eccentric family Shackleford lacks some of the hilarity of her Shackleford Sisters series, set in the early 1800's. Watts' skillful use of epithets and idioms, commonly used 200 years ago, helps to add the "je ne said quois" factor that sets her historical series apart from all other rom coms set in that period. She cannot create the same wow factor in contemporary language because we've heard it all. Good story! Excellent narration!

Not what I expected.

I did not care for the main character and to me the story like me was weak and not comical at all. I am going to reserve judgement on the female narrator as it may have been the character and story that made the narration vapid.

Boring

They called it a romantic comedy. I didn't find it very romantic or funny. Very Disappointing.