It Happened One Season

By: Stephanie Laurens, Mary Balogh, Jacquie D'Alessandro, Candice Hern

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's Summary

HarperCollins asked readers what story they would most like to see from four best-selling authors. They responded....

A handsome hero returns from war, battle-scarred and world-weary. But family duty calls and he must find a bride.

A young lady facing yet another season without a suitor never expects to find herself the object of his affections.

It Happened One Season

Four amazing talents

• Stephanie Laurens
• Mary Balogh
• Jacquie D'Alessandro, and
• Candice Hern

have come together to create one of the most unforgettable events of the year. The results are spectacular—each story is as unique as a lover's first kiss.

©2011 Savdek Management Proprietary Ltd., Mary Balogh, Jacquie D’Alessandro, Candice Hern (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers

Another great one, but...

I loved this book, except for one thing...I took off one star for the female narrator. They should have let Simon Prebble read the whole thing instead of only 2 of the 4 stories, because (in my opinion) the woman who read the other two did a horrible job. You could hardly tell one character from another, and she over-acted everything. If you can get past that, you will enjoy it too.

Stories - Excellent / Narration - Halfway There

I love the premise of this collection, and for the most part it is well executed. The individual works are characteristic of the the four writers, and if you are familiar with and like them already, you will enjoy this. Simon Prebble did a nice job of narration as well. However, he only narrated two of the stories. The other two narrations were much less enjoyable. For some reason, the woman who narrated the Mary Balogh story said the word "lover" as if she was taking part in a Saturday Night Live sketch. It was distracting, annoying, and unnecessary. I took off a star for this.

Variety of Stories with the Same Theme!

All talented authors, but I liked the second story, by Mary Balogh, the best. The stories were enhances by the performances of both Simon Prebble and Anne Flosnik.

THE THEME: A handsome hero returns from war, battle-scarred and world-weary. But family duty calls and he must find a bride.

A young lady facing yet another season without a suitor never expects to find herself the object of his affections.

Mixed bag, bad organization.

I learned two things from this purchase. The first is that, from now on, I will avoid anthologies because of the way they are handled. Theoretically, these are four stories, separate and independent from each other. But there is no way to know where one begins and the other ends since the chapters are sequentially numbered as if it was all one book. If, for example, you want to go to the next story because you decided you're just not going to like the one you're on (and, trust me, this will happen!), you have to start skipping forward since you don't know where one ends and the other begins. This is a sloppy approach--easier from a production standpoint but to the detriment of the reader. Each section should have a heading and then the chapters within it should be numbered.

Frankly, of the four Balogh's and Hern's are truly worth reading. D'Alessandro's is OK and Laurens' is downright awful (unless you're a big Nancy Drew fan).

Another thing I learned from this purchase is that, basically, I prefer female voices reading the story. Granted, either way one gender has to 'speak' as the other, but I guess I'm used to female voices imitating male speech. But I found a male voice (regardless of how talented) awkward when speaking female dialog or narrating certain romantic situations. It's a personal taste, I think, but something I hadn't realized until I got this anthology.

Loved It!

I was very happy with this purchase! I own everything Stephanie Laurens and Mary Balogh have written so I knew I would love their stories. Was surprised and pleased with the other two authors and will look into purchasing some of their books. All the stories flowed very well and were very entertaining. I really liked finding out what 4 different authors did with the same set of circumstances. It was very enjoyable and a very easy listen. ENJOY!

Two narrators- one good, the other...

I must relay that the narrator Ann Flosnik breathy voice was distracting.
I like the concept of the four stories on the same characters. Listeners should pause between each, read or listen to another book.

The second narrator was bad I couldn't finish the

The first story was great and I am a fan of all of these authors, but changing from Simon Prebble to Anne ruined the whole experience. It was as if I asked the original Siri to narrate a book for me.

Wonderful!

I’ve barely begin listening, but the first story already has me engrossed and positive that I’ll get other books by this author. Hopefully with the same narrators. If you can’t get it now, put this book on your wish list.

A nice book of novellas

I enjoyed this group of novellas, although some more than others. The narration was good and easy to
Listen to.

Loved it!

Each one of these four stories are great. my favorite is the last one. Sweet and romantic.

Great fun

This is an interesting way to get to know 4 different romance authors, seeing how they each approach the same basic plot vehicle (picked out of a large number of entries as part of a competition) and take it in different directions. The result isn't great literature (and I was a bit disappointed that Mary Balogh reprised the plot of one of her other novels, albeit one I'm fond of) but it's very enjoyable. 3.5 stars would probably be more accurate than 4, but it's not an option on here.

The reader Simon Prebble (pretty good) actually alternates with Anne Flosnik, who is not one of my favourite readers, having a rather artificial, formulaic style of reading. But the stories were interesting enough that I managed to stop being irritated by her. Looking forward to the companion novel, It Happened One Night, finding its way onto Audible.

Narrator is male

Couldn’t get past the first sentence as it was read by a male. Being a blind female, I find it very difficult to listen to male narrators. Due to the fact that when I could see, i heard the books in my voice. I have tried to get past this hang up, only to find that I cannot concentrate on the story. Sorry, that I couldn’t get any further than the first line, I was so disappointed, as it had a good story line.