Just Like Heaven

By: Julia Quinn

Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor

Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Honoria Smythe-Smith is:

A) a really bad violinist
B) still miffed at being nicknamed "Bug" as a child
C) not in love with her older brother's best friend
D) all of the above

Marcus Holroyd is:

A) the Earl of Chatteris
B) regrettably prone to sprained ankles
C) not in love with his best friend's younger sister
D) all of the above

Together they:

A) eat quite a bit of chocolate cake
B) survive a deadly fever and the world's worst musical performance
C) fall quite desperately in love

It's Julia Quinn at her best, so you know the answer is...

D) all of the above

©2011 Julie Cotler Pottinger (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers

Very enjoyable!

Another fun Quinn story and a wonderful start to a new series. The plot line in this book stands well on its own, but if you are familiar with several of Quinn's other series, you will enjoy the subtle references and tie-ins.The only thing that bothered me (and then only slightly) was a bit of a change in the heroine's point of view about her family's musical at the end. I'm looking forward to the next books and hoping that Iris and Sarah all get their turns. :)

I enjoy listening to Rosalyn Landor's narrations. She's done the narrations for many of Quinn's books and the narration for the one book that Landor didn't do drove me nuts. I'd like to point out that contrary to a previous review: if you liked the narration of Ten Things I Love About You or What Happens In London, you'll enjoy this one too -- it's the same narrator and just like always she gives the story that extra little quirk that makes it fun to listen to and will keep you smiling.

One of My Favorite Authors and Narrators

This is a sweet, "quiet" read without the thrills and chills required by some readers. In the style of a Georgette Heyer this is a wonderful character study full of family situations and the wit so wonderfully written by Julie Quinn. Rosalyn Landor is one of my favorite narrators, in the top echelon of narrators, and her work here does not disappoint in any way. I loved her work on this book and as always was so awed by her talent and ability. I look forward to future books by Ms. Quinn about some of the characters in this book and hope that Ms. Landor is the narrator.

Wonderful!

I couldn't disagree more with the previous review. I think Rosalyn Landor is a perfect narrator for this genre and have thoroughly enjoyed listening to her narration of several Julia Quinn and Lisa Kleypas novels. She may not be a good fit for contemporary romance, but she does the regency era like no other.

This book was funny, warm and exceedingly enjoyable! I recommend it without hesitation.

Delightful!

A delightful, fun and feel good kind of book just the Bridgeton series.
We get to find out what goes on with the performers of the SMYTHE-SMITH musical in which many memorable scenes took place in Julia Quinn’s other novels. The book doesn't have a serious angst, a melodrama nor is a nefarious plot with a villain. What it has is a heartwarming romance between two nice people surrounded by fun secondary characters. If you want to have a nice fluffy romance that will make you feel good and let you forget about all the headaches of the daily life, this book is for you.

Excellent!

If there were other stars I would have rated this book higher! I love Julia Quinn's book but this one if off the charts. She did an excellent job with the story telling and Rosalyn the narrator did an excellent job. I hope that she goes further and gives us "Daisy" and the other girls story.........I am so looking forward to that.

The best part of the book was the narrator

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I didn't love this book, and had to push myself to finish it. I thought it would get better, but it was only mediocre.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Rosalyn Landor?

Rosylyn Landor is my favorite reader, so I always look for titles that she narrates.

Any additional comments?

I don't think I'd purchase another by this author.

My most favorite book!!!

One of the must enjoyable stories! I completely fell in love with Honoria and Marcus! It is the perfect love story. One of those books that you will listen to over and over because you cannot help but smile while listening.

Great book, Highly Recommend, Excellent Narrator

Thought this book to be really entertaining. I have all Julia Quinn and loved them all. She is witty and made me laugh quite a bit.

Nice clean listen...

I very much enjoyed this book and finished it in two days. The story is entertaining and the romance is slowly developed. This is a clean listen since there is no descriptive sex. It is mentioned that it happens at some point towards the end but it's barely a mention. So if you like clean sweet love stories the this one is for you. Also the hero was a nice man with no experience as well so that was refreshing. I really liked it and will listen to the next installment. The narrator is magnificent!

Really cute book

Love Rosalyn Landor and this was a pretty good book. I loved finding out about Honoria and the musical group. I laughed out loud a few times in this book. It is just a light read so don't expect too much but it was very enjoyable.

Boring

I struggled to finish. I like hot and sexy romance, passionate, slutty, chilli hot, eager

Confused: enjoyed but frustrated

EDIT 2 years later.... Having listened to many, many more HR books since my original review, I came back to this series and the Bridgerton series with fondness!! There are many worse offenders of English language out there and in fact, the humour in both these sets of books draws me back to re-listen again, so I have amended my rating accordingly.

Original review 2017: I'm in a quandary with these books. I like the stories by Julia Quinn in general and I do like Rosalyn Landor reading them. But PLEASE the grammar and language is so often ALL WRONG! I get that you are American and I get that you have an American audience that may not even appreciate these things, but if the story is set in ENGLAND and in a particular period of time where language was important, then surely it would be at least appropriate to speak as they spoke?

If' you're going to talk about their clothing and call them by their correct name, why wouldn't you use other correct language too? For example they should look out OF a window, not look out a window! Grr! I know that it tickles the Americans that the British say "bloody" as an expletive, but really do you need to use it SO often and I'm sure gentle-women wouldn't have used it, even if they were the feisty women that frequent these types of stories! The list goes on!

I don't know how these things get through various spelling & grammar checks, proof reads and not least the narrator! I get you might think I'm being pedantic, but if a British writer wrote about the American cowboys I would expect them to use the correct language too. Constantly saying OF every few minutes when characters were looking out OF a window, really spoiled this story for me. I have listened to many of Julia Quinn's books and this one was one of the worst, I wonder if it was an early one..? Overall I was disappointed

Just sweet!!!

Worth the credit!!! Very enjoyable and lovable characters that make smile and laugh with them.

Good ol' Julia Quinn

Any additional comments?

I've read pretty much all of the Julia Quinn books and loved them. Whilst this one may not be the most exciting or have the most plot twists I still found it entertaining. I really enjoy the world which Quinn has built up for her characters and the fact that in all of the books you'll come across characters that you know from other books. It's great seeing them through the (sometimes jealous) eyes of the characters in this book. I would say that it is worth reading/listening to Quinn's previous books first as you get a much better idea of the setting for this book! Particularly the dreaded quartet.

Well below par

Good things first. Rosalyn Landor brilliantly reads this novel. She skips from being a 6 year old little girl to a stuffy butler to several disperate women. What a pity she had such poor material. I have really liked many of Julia Quinn's novels but the last few have been disappointing. Listening to this one on my ipod as I walked must have made passers-by stare at my eye-rolling, groans and sighs. (Just like Heaven? More like the other place!) Honoria, the heroine and Marcus the hero were uninspiring characters I thought. But oh the dialogue ... it went on forever. And getting nowhere. Just planning a lunch took many (boring) minutes. The story is fairly linear - girl knows boy all her life, thinks of him as brother until he is at death's door when they both make discovery that lurve has entered the building. I skimmed a lot so forgive me if there are gaps but read Julia Quinn's earlier novels and miss this one. (By the way I added one of the stars because I hope for better things from JQ)

Period Romance

It is a charming period romance and love story - an easy and feel good listen