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

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.

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.

Excellent story! Ignore negative comments!

Very entertaining story! Of course Stevie Zimmerman always does an incredible job. Lots of characters but I found it very easy to follow. The myriad scene changes were very engaging and kept my attention easily. A very full and rewarding storyline. Definitely one to listen to more than once. After reading some negative comments I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it so much!

It's. Just. So. Long! (and DARK)

While Stevie Zimmerman's performance was solid as always (though the Spanish accent trended to mirror the Russian), the text she was reading just went on and on and on. Too may characters going too many directions. The author introduced scads of characters that showed up for one party or one event and never returned. Names, descriptions, histories, the works. And what was with the princess? Seemingly unnecessary plot lines. It became too convoluted to keep track of. And why would you include a 2nd character named MARY? Why was that 2nd Mary even included in the story??
Dark, dismal, too many references to some thought or emotion twinkling, shining, burning, in someone's eyes. If the book had been 1/3 or more shorter, I wouldn't have noticed. But after wading through rabbit trail after rabbit trail, I started to notice the redundancies.
Also, Anne? Yuck. Why? Blecky!

Also, what the heck happens to Fitzwilliam? Epilogue should have just been the final chapter. Then epilogue 5 years later or something.

Furthermore, Darcy just keeps being drawn to his own physical desire and not to Elizabeth's nature. He comes across as a hormonal teenager. Shallow!

Parts of this story i did like, but i don't recommend it unless you really just have time to kill.

yipes

struggle to follow you need a scorecard to tell who's who laugh out loud haha

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.

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.

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.

Couldn't get through the book

First of, Stevie Zimmerman is a wonderful narrator, so I have no complaints about the narration.
However, the book itself... As someone else said, the story started out well, but all of a sudden there was an influx of new characters, to a degree where it seemed Elizabeth and Darcy were the only characters originally from P&P. I certainly don't mind the introduction of new characters in JAFF, but in this one, I got a little overwhelmed and ultimately completely disinterested because there were so many new characters to keep track of and relate to. It seemed Elizabeth was completely drowned in new characters and, because of the plot, all of a sudden it was no longer Elizabeth Bennet, who I know and love, but some random woman who happened to have the same name (and not even that, cause she was kidnapped as a kid and all)... I ended up returning this book, as it just didn't manage to capture and keep my interest long enough for me to actually finish it.

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.