Promises and Primroses

The Proper Romance Mayfield Family Regency Series, Book 1

By: Josi S. Kilpack

Narrated by: Justine Eyre

Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Lord Elliott Mayfield has done his best to take care of his family, first his siblings and now his nieces and nephews. Unfortunately, he sees this new generation moving in the same direction of bad matches and scandalous relationships as the last. In hopes to change their course, he establishes a "marriage campaign" to motivate them to improve themselves through making respectable matches. With his heart in the right place, what could possibly go wrong?

Peter, Elliott's eldest nephew, thinks the entire idea is ridiculous. A widower with two young daughters, he simply needs a governess, not a wife. Julia Hollingsworth certainly has the credentials and the experience, but is altogether too young and pretty for such a job. So why can't he stop thinking about her?

Julia loves working as a governess, despite the objections of her mother, Amelia. As it turns out, Amelia has a lot to say about the Mayfield men - none of it good. But Julia dismisses the rumors of ruined reputations and instead concentrates on helping Peter with his children and his fledgling business in canine husbandry. His kindness and gentleness is endearing - and increasingly attractive.

But Amelia, whose heart was broken 30 years ago by none other than Elliott Mayfield, is determined to prevent any relationship from blooming either between Peter and Julia - or between herself and Elliott.

Hearts and history collide as both couples must face their pasts and decide if risking it all is worth the promise of new love and a new future.

©2018 Josi S. Kilpack (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Jane Austen is back!

Wonderful story in the vein of Jane Austen. No sex scenes, so if you're looking for that, go elsewhere. This is just lovely, romantic, and beautifully unfolded. Justine Eyre once again is fabulous with all the voices. Her voice is beautiful to listen to!

Great Book

Positive and uplifting. The characters were well developed making it easy to be drawn in. I loved it!

Horribly clipped narrator!

I almost couldn't listen to this book because of the way this narrator spoke! Ugh!
Petahhh... Juliaaahhh...
Eventually it became less obnoxious and I was invested in the story... but seriously Justine Eyre needs to have a stiff drink before recording next time to loosen up a bit!

I wanted to like it

I am usually a huge fan of proper romance stories, and I am sure that this one will speak to many. However, for myself, it was lacking chemistry. I don’t care for overtly sexual things in my books but this book was a little to proper for my taste and I felt the story dragged a bit with nothing but very slow build till about the last three hours.

It is not that it was bad, the narrator is very good, it was just not what I was hoping for.

loved this book

This was a well-written and well-read book. I plan on listening to the next one in the series.

This is a well-written, relaxing historical romance

Entertaining,though it may be, this novel is very predictable. It is a story about a family scandal, a guardian determined to re-establish family honor, a man in need of a governess and a woman in need of independence.
The characters are believable and the accompanying scenes are portrayed well. The Title and Book Cover are we’ll chosen. I did have some problem “connecting “ to it at first but it improved as it progressed.
Narrator, Justine Eyre, did a good job in her delivery of the characters and situations.

Two half novels do not one novel make…

I started this series out of order and read the second (Daisies and Devotion) first. I’m glad I did because I’m not sure I would have read it had I started with this one.
The blurb leads you to believe this book, Promises and Primroses is just about Julia and Peter. Nope. There is a significant portion—from first person narrative—telling the story of Amelia and Elliot (Julia’s mother and Peter’s uncle). Amelia spends 85% of the book as a narrow-minded harpy, determined to control her daughter and prevent her future happiness with Peter because of a 30 year-old disappointment with Elliot…even though Amelia went on to marry Julia’s father and had a full and loving relationship with him. According to Amelia, the past doesn’t affect her at all; she is justified in her prejudice because she loves her daughter and only… (pause for dramatic eye roll) wants the best for her.
I vacillated between not finishing or, looking forward to her comeuppance, which when it came was only some what satisfying because she just flips and like The Grinch, Amelia’s “heart grew three sizes that day”, prompting her to plead forgiveness to all in a rushed ending where everyone lives HEA…minus Whoville and the roast-beast.
The amount of time you spend in Amelia’s head massively distracts from the “main” characters. It cheapens the love Peter and Julia find because there is NO development of it.
So…I think I am just disappointed because of what might have been. I love “proper romances” because, with sex not included, the authors spend their time and talent on the romance—making it believable and, in my opinion, happy-sigh worthy. That is delivered and done well in the second book of the series, and sadly what is lacking in the first.

Delightful

In this lighthearted tale of historical romance, family conflicts are presented without too much trauma drama. Well written characters with plausible motivations make this an engaging read.

Romance & Puppies!

You really can’t go wrong with this one. Romance, widower and puppies! Seriously...melts your heart.

Engaging and entertaining, I promise.

First things first...I loved the performance by Justine Eyre! Her accent was immensely enjoyable. She switched between characters seamlessly.
The storyline was creative and beautifully executed.
The romance built gradually and ensured that each touch or glance was special and meaningful. I loved the swoony ending. On a steaminess level I would rate this a pleasant PG.
This book is definitely worthy of a repeat read!

An interesting idea

But I do wish writers did a little more research as the obvious errors about England and life in this period detracted from the flow of the story.
A few examples:
A governess was not an ordinary servant, they lived between the two hierarchies of servants and family. In a nobleman's house they would not clear dishes or do the children's laundry.
She would wear a hat, often a bonnet, when outside and her hair would always be bound up as only young girls wore their hair down in public.
I have lived in rural parts of England and never seen a natural field of primroses - wild English primroses live in woodland or under hedges. They also have a short life so could not be in bloom in both time periods they are mentioned.
And no one would buy half a rasher of bacon - that is a very tiny amount - or take cream in tea (a USA habit, we use milk).

Some oddities

It's irritating when authors don't do their research. Governesses do not wash their charges' clothing. Otherwise quite enjoyable. Justine Eyre narrates quite well but the affected drawl on words ending in 'er' is irritating 'Pet-ah'.

Not for me

I didn't like the narrator so I didn't enjoy the story, I couldn't listen to the end

Annoying Narrator

A lot of irritating pronunciations, really takes away from the story. The word is 'cravAT' not 'cravART' too irritating.

A pleasant story with a few mistakes.

The American origins and Canadian narrator of this book mean that there are a few things which grate on the sensibilities of the English listener. The circle Yard is in fact a lawn but a yard is always a hard surface in the UK. A wedding in the early 1800s would always have been in a church. The word calm is not pronounced colm in the UK and cravat has the emphasis at the end of the word. Primroses seem to bloom continually according to this story while their blooming actually stretches from early to late spring. To be fair the time of year is not alluded to much. Just the weather which is often wet so it could be spring I suppose.
It was though an engaging listen if a little predictable.

Potential limited by narrator

The premise of the story is not incredibly innovative, but it has potential. The narrator, however, sounds as if she is on the brink of laughing a cheesy laugh all the time, which makes no sense whatsoever. Another book that I cannot finish from this narrator.

Interesting story

Although the pronunciation of some words was a little off at times, I got used to it and the story itself was original and gripping.

Perseverance

Nearly gave up but once I had spent a precious credit I carried on. The narration was terrible with several words being badly pronounced very distracting

Nice story

Nice story but reader was annoying and detracted from the story almost making me dislike the characters

An okay story but…

The narrator has a great voice but ruins the narration with her strange contortion of the vowels. Her pronunciation is so odd. Lots of words are mangled:

Ball is pronounced bowl
Calm is pronounced cal-M
Edinburgh is Erin-burr
Cravat is crab-art

And many more besides.

Her regional accents are appalling and would have been better not attempted at all.

On the end the weird pronunciation decided me. Whatever the book, I won’t listen to anything read by this narrator again. So many good books on Audible are rendered unlistenable by poor narrators. Is there no quality control in place?