La Danse de la Folie

By: Sherwood Smith

Narrated by: Heather Wilds

Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

This light-hearted Regency folly stars Miss Clarissa Harlowe who wants a quiet life - but falls in love with a smuggler, the marquess of St. Tarval.

Tarval's sister, Lady Kitty, is determined to write a dramatic Gothic to save her brother’s mortgaged estate - if she can reach London. Clarissa's much-pursued cousin, Mr. Philip Devereaux, is inexplicably intrigued by Lady Kitty, who is doing her best to encourage the match between him and Clarissa, except that Clarissa is now betrothed to...Lord Wilburfolde.

And so the mad change partners in the dance of love.

©2012 Sherwood Smith (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

respectably Heyer-like with added touches

If you like to relax or treat a head cold with a Heyer-like escape, you know how rare such reads are. I've given up trying authors who are supposed to Heyer-like; however, I really needed a break from reality when I saw this among Audible's new releases. This is the best-of-its-classification I've come across in many listens: "sweet" without being saccharine or too silly, well-written, and well-narrated. Although it has an expected plot and Regency-a-la-Heyer world - like Heyer, it's just very diverting and witty.

I was always uneasy with the undertones of family violence/threat of violence in many Heyers and Heyer-homages (Heroes who feel like "boxing ears" or "shaking" women); this novel is refreshingly free from such patterns. And the author manages to avoid remixing Heyer's overused cliches while including mixing reader favourites (and nods to Austen). I hope Smith has more like these! I am tempted to rate as five starts, just because it can't be easy to strike the right balance in these novels, and attempts at old fashioned Regencies are getting rarer, even with the explosion of contemporary stories cloaked in Regency clothes (often losing even the clothes).

A pleasant listen - regency soap opera

This book is quite nice to listen to if you're in the mood for light fiction. The narrator came to life when taking on the voices of the evil Balderson sisters, but failed to engage my interest in the principal characters. The story is very much in the style of Georgette Heyer, with a host of minor characters.

Performance and Story….Meh

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No - juvenile story and poor narration.
The title sounded inviting and the reviews were good!? However, the writing is more on the level of a fifth grader's fun and action-filled novel. The narration sounds like a fake British accent. Could not get past the first few chapters. The book seemed too silly to continue.

Good with caveats

An interesting story. It was nice to see some men with character and without the eye-rolling, aggressive lust and domination so common in this genre. I found the changing points of view difficult to follow sometimes but was able to figure them out quickly enough. However, it does jolt the flow a little. I also had to stay on my toes to keep up with all the young women, especially since several of their names had a "c" or "k" sound: Cassandra, Cassie, Kitty, Lucrecia, Lucasta. When all together in scenes, I needed fast-stepping brain work. A couple of the side, male character names seemed similar as well. The narrator is very good with dialog and voices. Her reading of the narrative, however, often digressed into rhythmic monotone, which wasn't as interesting as her voices and inflections, so I played those spots at faster speeds to make them more lively. Aside from that, she nuances the feel of the story well. As a side note, I would have enjoyed more dialogue between the couples rather than so much dialogue among sisters and female cousins.

In the Spirit of Georgette Heyer

Here is a fun Regency novel with complex plot and characters. The focus is on individual behavior and the traps of our human foibles. Written in a lighthearted Georgette Heyer style this one is a keeper.

Good story, terrible narration

The story is quite sweet, but rather spoiled by bad reading. The narration picked up somewhat by thecend, but I would recommend to read it in print.

Boring in the extreme

I struggled to get through this audiobook but gave up after four chapters. It's pointless.