An Infamous Marriage

By: Susanna Fraser

Narrated by: Camme Tyla

Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Northumberland, 1815

At long last, Britain is at peace, and General Jack Armstrong is coming home to the wife he barely knows. Wed for mutual convenience, their union unconsummated, the couple has exchanged only cold, dutiful letters. With no more wars to fight, Jack is ready to attempt a peace treaty of his own.

Elizabeth Armstrong is on the warpath. She never expected fidelity from the husband she knew for only a week, but his scandalous exploits have made her the object of pity for years. Now that he's back, she has no intention of sharing her bed with him - or providing him with an heir - unless he can earn her forgiveness. No matter what feelings he ignites within her....

Jack is not expecting a spirited, confident woman in place of the meek girl he left behind. As his desire intensifies, he wants much more than a marriage in name only. But winning his wife's love may be the greatest battle he's faced yet.

©2012 Susanna Fraser (P)2012 Audible, Inc

Average or maybe less

I tend to get irritated with problems that could have been ameliorated by communication. Of course had Jack continued to carry on knowing what he was doing wrong,vcvk, it may have been worse, and it really wouldn't ha changed the plot. But at least he would have known why Elizabeth was angry. Then there's the timing. The War of 1812 ended in February, 1815, and the soldiers who had been stationed in Canada prior to the war would have been unlikely to have been sent home immediately. But let's say he did get on the first ship out, he spent time in London before traveling home. Then he had to romance the angry wife and all of a sudden they're off to Belgium in March or April to wait for Napoleon to march out of Paris to Waterloo, the battle of which occurred in June, 1815. This timeline just doesn't work for me. Cognitive dissonance. I think, if I decide to give it a re-listen, I'll do some research of the British wars of the early 1800s first. Okay, all that aside, I wanted to slap the stuffing out of Elizabeth because she got angry over something she read he said right after their unconsummated marriage of convenience he said to his last English bedmate. The narration was okay - I wouldn't avoid a book because of her narration. Overall though, I won't likely listen again.

A wonderful love story

Would you consider the audio edition of An Infamous Marriage to be better than the print version?

I very much enjoyed this story but I was disapointed with the narrator. I think her voice was excellent for Elizabeth but her husband's voice sounded almost identical. I couldn't figure out who was talking half the time and it was distracting and a little weird.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Elizabeth was strong and resiliant, an overall excellent female heroine.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Oh dear, the male voices were just terrible I'm sorry to say.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Parts of it yes, but I wasn't compelled to walk around with my headphones all day.

Unusual & Touching romance

What made the experience of listening to An Infamous Marriage the most enjoyable?

is is one of the best books in my library.
It goes off the path if the standard historical romance,
Jack Armstrong and Elizabeth Hamilton marry after Elizabeth husband of 1 week dies, and makes them promise,to marry each other so Elizabeth is taken care of.
Jack Armstrong is a soldier home from Canada where he is serving in the British Army during the war with the Americas. He never had any intention of marrying especially to this dowdy drab woman in mourning.
They marry, a week later he goes back to Canada, never consummating their marriage.
E Elizabeth is left to manage the,estate and care for his sickly mother for 5 years. Yes she doesn't see him for 5 years, . They only correspond through letters.
While she is waiting back in England, he is bedding as many women as he can.
But she finds out. While she is hurt and angry, he makes the decision to try to make his marriage work.
But it's not so easy when he comes home. Elizabeth has changed, and he wants her, but she wants him punished.

What was one of the most memorable moments of An Infamous Marriage?

The moment she finds out that Jack held one more important piece of information from her.

Which character – as performed by Camme Tyla – was your favorite?

Loved both Jack & Elizabeth

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Homecoming , Heartbreak & Healing

Any additional comments?

Get this book! This reads like a diary that has been found in an old mansion. Relationships are one of the many casualties of war, this novel takes you through the forgiving and healing process.
6 stars.

Story ruined by narrator

Is there anything you would change about this book?

It is difficult to imagine soldiers in battle or heated love scenes or anything else when all of the characters sound like a 12 year old girl.

Would you be willing to try another book from Susanna Fraser? Why or why not?

If it was narrated by someone else.

Would you be willing to try another one of Camme Tyla’s performances?

Absolutely not.

Did An Infamous Marriage inspire you to do anything?

No

it's a good idea for a book..

I ask myself if this is one of those books I'd suggest to someone. Well, if you were standing there with a copy in your hands and asked if it were worth reading I would probably say 'why not?'. If you asked if it were worth a credit I don't know what I would say.

This was such an excellent idea for a good book. But the reality of it fell short to be sure. The performance was mediocre, making the story line wobble about a bit when the voices suddenly sounded exactly the same just long enough to mess things up! Altho the voice remained pleasant enough the narrator just wasn't ready for this story.

There wasn't quite enough to it. I have to admit it was not unpleasant, I finished it after all. I have many on audio and not on audio that were never and will never be read or listened to until the conclusion. But the drama, the rises and fall, the climax of the story,,, were flat for the most part. I respected the heroine, and how they got into what they had. But the idea could have been magnificent!! but it wasn't.

Worth a credit? If you've run out of possibilities then maybe.

Not impressed

storyline was unnecessarily long narrator was dull and monoton she uses thesame voice for both genders. I am not impressed.

Terrible narration

It was hard for me to get through this book. The story is painfully slow and uninteresting. The writing itself is not engaging and wearisome.
In my opinion what made it incredibly boring was the narration. I can’t call it narration, it was reading. It was “read” in a monotone soft spoken voice. No discernible differences in voice of inflection for each character. It was absurd to create the mental image of a young male character, such as the hero with an incredibly soft mousy girly voice. The same voice used to read the heroine’s parts in dialogue therefore making it impossible to discern who’s saying what in conversations.
Just an incredibly dull and monotonous reading with awkward pauses when the reader lost her breath or just ran out of steam with no regard for punctuation.

Skip

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

Skip

If you’ve listened to books by Susanna Fraser before, how does this one compare?

Skip

Would you be willing to try another one of Camme Tyla’s performances?

Absolutely NOT. WAY TOO BORING -not performed but read in monotone. I never under-stand how such poor quality is produced when there are so many great narrators. Maybe someone is doing a favor for a relative!!

Any additional comments?

All purchasers of the audio should get a refund!

I Couldn't Finish It :-(

The story had a good theme--'boyhood friend promises to marry wife of dying friend to save her from poverty', but not written well, in my opinion. It wasn't just the over-much detail, but that the detail added nothing to the story-- like helping to transport yourself into the story or picture the surroundings...it's hard to explain.

On the upside, I liked the characters...but It would have been nice if the "Hero" soldier had not sounded just like his wife. It's hard to picture a tall, handsome, muscular man with the voice of a soft spoken women. The monotone narrater became irritating with no inflection in her voice, it was hard to tell who was speaking with her hum-drum voice.

Since it cost me a credit, I stayed with it for about 6-7 hours hoping it would get better, but....

This was my first Susanna Fraser book, and probably my last.

Couldn’t listen to it. A nightmare of a narrator

Could not get through the 1st chapter. This is a personal record.... be warned. It’s a female monotone. If you dislike that type... brrrr.