Taken

By: Mary Anne Mushatt

Narrated by: Stevie Zimmerman

Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's Summary

Taken from her home as a young child, Elizabeth Bennet’s sense of self is shaken when the mystery behind her true identity is unraveled. Discovering her place as the daughter of a duke, she confronts reclaimed memories of her brutal abduction, while making her way in the alien world of Regency England’s high society.

Facing the ton is the least of her concerns, as her kidnappers remain determined to keep her from Fitzwilliam Darcy - the man who first professed his love by proposing she become his mistress. Humbled by her refusal, he returns to win her love and respect.

Together with her reunited family, Elizabeth faces her greatest challenges to both her life and her heart - reclaiming herself and finding her happiness.

©2020 Mary Anne Mushatt (P)2020 Quills & Quartos Publishing

Complex and engaging

It was a great idea to start listening to this book in the morning on my day off because I just had to finish it. The many plots and simultaneous narration took a moment to get used to, but I enjoyed how all the pieces were falling together. The original characters were very well written, the villains were evil and got their just deserts. I liked how Ann de Bourgh’s character was developed, she was her mother’s daughter after all.
The only thing I didn’t like was the initial treatment of Elizabeth by Darcy. I can never agree to him asking Elizabeth for less than her hand in marriage, but I can understand how trapped and powerless he felt in the web of his relations. He redeemed himself well enough and was again a Darcy I could love.
Stevie Zimmerman’s narration was as always extraordinarily. I love how she manages to bring characters to life and makes them easily distinguishable. Her portrayal of different personalities and display of emotions is superb.
Highly recommended.

Taken

I think Stevie Zimmerman is the best narrarator. I can see everything in my mind that she says. Keep up the great work. More authors should use this great narrarator. Great story as well.

So confusing.

I love “what if” P&P FF but this one was all over the place. It was trying to do too much and left things completely unfinished. I had to borrow the Ebook because I thought I was missing things. No, they just didn’t finish that storyline. What was the point of part of the Matlock storyline? Or Wickham’s? The Russians’? Even Julian’s to some extent? I think a good editor would have tossed out a third of the book as not needed or handed it back to the author to resolve some loose ends.

Huge Cast Of Characters

Oh my, this was confusing to follow initially. I may listen to it again just to be sure I have everyone straight.

The Bennett Family is even multi-layered with (minor spoiler) the 3 younger girls being sisters and the two older girls being “cousins”.

Then Darcy’s Family is very extended as well with aunts and uncles and cousins.

This is a good story if you can keep track of who everyone is so pay close attention.

Thank Goodness Stevie Zimmerman is such a great voice actor with the ability to make each voice unique.

Only Stevie Zimmerman kept me listening

I struggled to get through the first few chapters, but the always fantastic Stevie Zimmerman got me through until it improved enough to tolerate. It took a long time for the circumstances to be fully explained and the whole thing pretty much resolved just over halfway through.

Nearly everyone was either out of character or such an exaggerated caricature of what they should have been that it was hard to like anyone, including Elizabeth and Darcy. Some were needlessly vilified before being lazily dumped after a couple of hours of nonsense that could (and should) have been left out since it had so little impact. The last 4 hours was a complete waste of time.

There are slight spoilers from here.

The author killed off their "villains" in lazy and unsatisfying ways. I was kind of hoping for the redemption of a particular character, and it seemed it was going that way for a while until the author, of course, got bored or something and unceremoniously disposed of them. Even Mrs Bennett was turned into a bad guy and used as a figurative punching bag through this book. It was ridiculous. It only gets 2 stars because of the narrator.

out of character interpretations

The concept intrigued me, but Elizabeth and Darcy were very out of character. At first I was willing to accept it - thinking that the interesting plot and enough time would soothe the jarring of moments of "oh absolutely not. no way would (whoever) say that."

Unfortunately, by the time I got to chapter 9 it was just too much. I would get into to details for fear of spoilers, but both of them are far more emotionally expressive in this retelling than in the original work.

Listening to Liz have another emotional breakdown or Darcy carelessly fling around a potentially life-ruining and jealousy-based accusation for the 2nd or 3rd time was just too much. Maybe it eases up as the book progresses, but it was so overwhelming in thr first 8 chapters that I can't bring myself to spend the time finding out.

Great story, perfectly performed

Stevie did a beautiful job performing this rendition. I loved the story, it was so different than others. The characters all had their own journey and issues to overcome and the retribution was oh so satisfying. Definitely worth listening too.

Omg!!!

This was a favorite of mine years ago, did not know they put it to audible!! So happy to have it!!! Such a great book!!!!

Great story

Very well written and so detailed. I loved the new characters and the intricate woven story. A little bit angst but ODC has their HEA.

Somewhat disappointed

Parts of this book was great. Storyline jumped from one location to another at times which was hard to follow. Story itself was very, fictional to complete unbelievable.

Intriguing what-if

An intriguing, well-written what-if with just the right amount of drama and suspense. The narration is lively and fits the tone of the story well.

Very clever adaptation.

I enjoyed this story very much. it was a refreshing alternative and very skillfully included the much loved characters in new ways into the story. Nice long book brought to life by my favourite narrator. A joy to listen to when walking my dog. would highly recommend.

Overly convoluted plot

This book started off well & I enjoyed the first half. Unfortunately, it just keeps going & going & going with way too many irrelevant subplots and way too many characters that it was only through sheer determination that I finished it.
There is lots of excitement & action, but after a while, it was just too much & way over the top & much of it didn’t even fit or serve much of a purpose. I had a hard time getting through this.
The narration was excellent. I've listened to many Stevie Zimmerman narrations and as always, she did provided a very pleasing voice to the story.