Strong Objections to the Lady

A Pride & Prejudice Variation

By: Jayne Bamber

Narrated by: Sarah Groarke

Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

A tale of intrigue and inheritance, meddling and manipulation, sisterhood and self-improvement.

When Lady Catherine de Bourgh learns of Mr. Darcy’s proposal to Elizabeth Bennet, her wrath sets in motion a series of events at Hunsford Parsonage, which embroil Darcy and Elizabeth in a family fracas that grows more complicated daily.

The shades of Rosings Park are soon polluted by the shocking transformation of its new mistress and her guests, as well as secrets of the past and schemes for the future.

Appearances and alliances shift amidst the chaos wrought by a well-intentioned house party, and Darcy and Elizabeth must finally face their feelings for one another despite mounting obstacles and misunderstandings of every kind.

Set chiefly in Kent and spanning the short space of just a month, this stand-alone variation begins the morning after Mr. Darcy's failed proposal at Hunsford. From there, chaos quickly erupts and the lives of three strong young women tangle together in a day-by-day journey of growth, sisterhood, and ultimately romance, in the wake of tragedy.

©2019 Jayne Bamber (P)2020 Jayne Bamber

Not exactly ODC focused, but highly enjoyable

This book seemed to be more focused around Anne, which I thoroughly enjoyed because everything affected her as well as the web of people around them. I thoroughly enjoy a tenacious and opinionated Anne as opposed to the weak, timid, and sickly Anne we all know from canon. I would enjoy listening to this book. My omly critique is the narrator makes a few slip-ups as well as a few technical audio reporiona wherein the same two seconds is played after itself like a skipped disc.

Great story with Narration Problems

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. However there are still issues with audio production even though the description indicates corrections were made (as of this review in Feb 2024). There are numerous places throughout the reading where the narrator stopped and corrected herself. However the person responsible for editing the audio did not make the corrections needed in these spots.
On the whole I enjoyed the narrator's speaking voice. The problem is that some of the voices she used for characters (primarily the Countess and the Colonel) were quite distracting. I will own that the excessive R trills for the lady were somewhat entertaining. But the lispy voice given to him was horrid and not at all in line with what I, as a reader, would want associated with him for this story line. Most of the remaining primary characters sounded almost identical. But I do give her kudos for Ann's voice.

Fabulous!

Definitely my cup of tea…I love lots of dialogue and witty conversations so rich it needs many listens to take it all in. I’m in awe of this author such sophisticated writing for a discriminating reader. Paraphrasing here but I lol’d when reading this line Bingley seems to have leased a manor with a “preexisting house party”. There are so many funny situations with a plethora of characters switching up the usual boring pairs and giving them much more suitable options. The narrator was very good, especially voicing Ann who is quite entertaining, but I would gladly contribute to a collection to hire Harry Frost to record this in the spirit he read “Nefarious”. I absolutely loved this book and wish there were more like it. It’s definitely higher quality with a level of professionalism not often found in this genre. My only complaint is that Elizabeth is Debbie Downer, like a wet blanket at a really fun party. Darcy was right, she could not be pleased. Jane and the Colonel are lots of fun. Worth the credit.

Good Lark

A good lark of a story. Fun read. The narrator has a talent for the dramatic and for the most part well done. I could not like the voice presentation for Colonel Fitzwilliam, however. He spoke in a foppish, lispy manner, which to me is the antithesis of the manly Colonel. Every time he spoke I cringed a little. I would toss that voice for future recordings. Caroline was a female version of the same.

Very Well Done Twist

This is my first story by Ms.Bamber, but I will be looking for more. Very lovely twists to the tale we all know and love.

A couple of comments on the narrator; a nice voice overall, but resorted to over the top affectations to distinguish one character from another. For example, Colonel Fitzwilliam spoke with a high lispy voice, not what we expect from him at all, and his mother rolled her r’s so hard there were at least 3 r’s for every 1.

The editing needed some help too with some words or sentences being repeated.

Interesting Turn of Events

I do love a long book, because I listen to them as I walk and do chores. While overall I really enjoyed this new perspective and works recommend it, it was a bit difficult to keep track of all the things that happened. I also agree with another review about the narrator who is very good in general but not in doing too many voices. The Colonel's voice threw me off the most and I kept trying to look past it. Those things aside, this was a lot of work for the author and I appreciated having something to listen to and keep me engaged for so long.

Another lovely story by Jayne Bamber

I loved this story very much. Great Jaff really. So much intriguing and folly. Great narrator as well.

Narrator choice of voices

Honestly I did not finish the book which is unusual for me. I got bored with the story half way through. Characters were portrayed in a way I did not like and the voices for some drove me crazy. I don't know if the narrator ment to do it but she gave some Characters lisps and other vioce pitches that just became grating to me. Also for some reason she would start whole paragraphs over again, though that may have been a glitch in the app.

Great story not so great narration

Well, this audiobook could have been amazing, except for the poor narrator choice. The only character that was decently narrated was Anne dB. Colonel FW was so horrible it pretty much ruined his whole storyline, sadly. It was a great story :(

The growth of Anne

Anne’s learning experiences were well written
Performance was good, but Richards lisp was annoying throughout,