Untamed

By: Elizabeth Lowell

Narrated by: Anne Flosnik

Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

A hero of the crusades, Dominic le Sabre has returned in glory and in triumph to claim his reward: the beautiful Saxon bride awarded to him by the conqueror king. But Lady Margaret of the Blackthorne cannot yield to the bold Norman invader.

The beloved daughter of a sacred tribe of the Celtic mystics, she fears an ancient curse that could bring further turmoil to her battle-scarred land...and sorrow to her marriage bed.

With a word, the lady could turn her wedding into war. But there awaits in the noble knightￜￜs embrace a promise of passion unbound - and a love that neither violence nor treachery can tear asunder, a love both invincible and...untamed.

©2008 Elizabeth Lowell (P)2008 Brilliance Audio

Critic Reviews

"Wonderous....Riveting....Powerful and Sensual....sure to thrill and captivate her many fans." ( Romantic Times)

Perfect!

Lowell's 1993 Untamed just produced in audio is outstanding. Narrator Anne Flosnik is fine. She gives it a big reading darn near Shakespearean proportions and provides excellent voice to a large cast of characters with great enthusiasm.

Feminist to the very core of me, I'm not the least bit embarrassed about how much I love this book. This is the take-me-away fantasy done just right. Warrior Dominic Le Sabre (no phallic symbolism here) storms in on his destrier having been awarded a wealthy estate and a virgin bride for service to the hated English king. There are all the familiar Lowellisms here in spades. Heroine Meg is only 19, a humble and selfless healer, beloved by the estate vassals for her selfless devotion to them. Dominic is a scarred warrior who (of course) doesn't believe she's still virgin and scoffs at the Glendruid legends even in the face of some pretty convincing evidence. He does the pet name thing -- calls her "witch" when he's angry and "small falcon" when he's in the mood for love. His big idea to "tame" her is to use the falcon method -- locking her in her room, securing her in gold jesses, and feeding her only by his hand. And, oh dear, he can't love her, and values her only as vessel to provide him many sons. Trouble is there's a catch -- no Glendruid bride can conceive sons without true love in the lovin'.

The audio production is enthusiastic, over the top, and melodramatic to the max. It's a sweeping medieval epic and a most satisfying love story.

I loved every toe-curling moment of it.

29 of 30 people found this review helpful

Well done.

I’ve read this book in hard copy and really liked it. I was curious to see if the listen would measure up. A lot depends on the narrator, and I have listened to Anne Flosnik before and not been impressed. I am happy to say this is one of her better reads. Her performance of the dramatic and pivotal scenes in the book was well done. I will be looking to more listens from her. Hopefully, we will be offered the 2 other books in this trilogy, Forbidden and Enchanted.

15 of 16 people found this review helpful

Everybody loves Lowell!

Although this is book 1 in a Midevil Times series, the second book is a stand alone story, as I anticipate book 3 will be as well. However, some story-line items do continue and reading them in order will no doubt be helpful.

I love Lowell books because she gives enough detail for you to "see" the story but not so much that you are bogged down with the mundane. Her books are entertaining, don't require deep thought or analysis, although historical in setting it isn't a boring history lesson but just another scene prop.
This is yet another wonderful, easy, relaxing Lowell read.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Terrible narration, so-so story

I really wish I'd paid much better attention to the previous reviews. The narrator is absolutely TERRIBLE! She not only struggles horribly with the male voices, making them sound like grunting, rasping, evil villains, she struggled with the female voices as well. I actually found it hard to keep up with the very simple story line at times because the voices could be so different for the same character from one sentence to the next . It is awful! Really, really awful!! I highly recommend listening to the sample before downloading this. The story itself really wasn't that great, but the bad narration makes it close to painful to listen to.

7 of 9 people found this review helpful

Great series

I really enjoy this trilogy. Very romantic and at times very explicit. The explicit part was unexpected but did not ruin the story. The collection seems separate from the others but at the same time refers and includes to past characters. After I read the first one it seemed as though they could not go forward with the story unless it was for the next generation. But the author had gone with another twist. Deferent but a nice change when listening to series.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

The narrator spoiled the book

I read this book when it was first published and despite a tendency towards purple prose, it was an enjoyable read. The audio version destroyed the charm of the book. The narrator's male character voices were awful and the lead female character, supposedly 19, sounded like a 40 year old from the east end of London at times. I would rank the text of the book a 3, the narration a 1.

8 of 11 people found this review helpful

Beautiful story

Loved the story line. Some of the love scenes were a bit too graphic for me, but I could fast forward through them without spoiling the story!

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Good performance, ok story

I'm ambivalent of how I feel about this story. The story was good, I won't deny it. But my eyes were rolling A LOT while I was listening to the story.

Too many similes for my taste. The falcon metaphor was pushed a bit too far and became annoying after a while. And the way the author wrote about the woman's "precious jewel that needed polishing between the gentle folds of her... bla bla" (I'm obviously paraphrasing here but you get my meaning), was just eye rolling and preposterous!

I honestly laughed out loud a few times (when it wasn't supposed to be funny). It wasn't like there was any witty banter between the main protagonists in the story like Johanna Lindsey writes for her characters. But I digress.

Not my favourite. There are better ones out there, for sure.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Not the best, but not the worst...

I found this book to be a bit repetitive, Glenn Druid this and that...okay listen in pieces, but not meant for a housecleaning day, or day by the pool. The narrarator is always one of my favorites, and without her, I would have lost interest. I would still recommend it, but on a 40% off sale.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Needs a different narrator.

I read the trilogy when they came out in paperback and loved the books. I thought the different voices the narrator used were a little off. Meg was supposed to be young and sounds like an older woman. I could understand an english accent but not an older one. The normans came from france but were just deep guteral voices. These books are so worth the read but the narrator almost made me want to turn them off. I did keep listening because I knew the books were so good but wish different accents had been used.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Great book

Anne Flosnik and Elizabeth Lowell what a combination !!!