The Flame and the Flower

The Birmingham Family, Book 1

De: Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

Narrado por: Ashford McNab

New York Times best-selling author Kathleen E. Woodiwiss's debut romance....

The Flower

Doomed to a life of unending toil, Heather Simmons fears for her innocence—until a shocking, desperate act forces her to flee...and to seek refuge in the arms of a virile and dangerous stranger.

The Flame

A lusty adventurer married to the sea, Captain Brandon Birmingham courts scorn and peril when he abducts the beautiful fugitive from the tumultuous London dockside. But no power on Earth can compel him to relinquish his exquisite prize. For he is determined to make the sapphire-eyed lovely his woman...and to carry her off to far, uncharted realms of sensuous, passionate love.

©2009 Kathleen E. Woodiwiss (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

They did this audio book justice

I first read this book back in the 1970s and absolutely loved it. I have reread it several times and it will always be a favorite. When I learned it was coming out in audible format I was so excited but concerned that the narration would not be good. But it was great! I bought several other of the audiobooks by this author now to listen to and I hope you will all enjoy them as well.

Performance ruined it for me

As a southerner, I was greatly offended by the southern accents. Egregious. Hard to get through a well-loved classic because of narration.

Yes !!!!!!;!!!

I loved this book !!! It was worth the wait. listening was joy. I'm so happy !

Perfect

Just as I remembered so many years ago. Ashford McNab, and Cassandra York brought the characters to life.

One of my favorites.

Such a beautiful historical Romance. Woodiwiss is one of my favorite authors & this one doesn’t disappoint.

Sweeping Romance

I loved filling the love story of the Birmingham’s. The historical setting makes this books a wonderful historical romance… highly recommended

Suspense and love

The story line was very good, it had suspense, action, love, and strength of the main characters.

ignore the woke “foreword”

it’s a shame that the producers felt the need to begin this long awaited audiobook with 15 minutes of apologies for every aspect of this book, breaking it down into gender, class and race tropes. when this was written, artists valued authenticity over political statements, not offering sterile, one dimensional works as happens today but instead writing freely with an eye to how it really may have been over how it should be.

th that said, this is a classic that was worth the wait. i first read this as a teenager decades ago and was swept up in the epic beauty of it as i still am today. woodiwiss is to me the best historical romance writer of our time.

the narrator was fair but disappointed she wasn’t better and is doing the other books. her brandon voice got annoying and she wasn’t really the voice for either of them i’ve always had in my head.

narrator and i tri aside, it’s worth the credit! a beautiful story, freely told with adventure, heart and soul.

This is a classic but narrator isn’t the best choice

Obviously this is a classic and I was so excited for this to come out on audible but the narrator made this tedious to listen to at certain points. I really couldn’t get over the American accents, it honestly would have been better to just stick with the English accents or chosen an American to narrate

The OG Historical Romance

The Flame and the Flower is the original historical romance. Brandon and Heather’s story definitely has problematic parts. The settings went from rural England, to London, to a ship sailing across the Atlantic, and Charleston. The story begins with Brandon raping Heather, then he keeps her captive until she escapes. Then there is a surprise pregnancy, miscommunication galore, other woman/man jealousy drama, and Brandon is a slave owner in Charleston. Oh, and Heather commits murder to stop a potential rape before meeting Brandon. There is also a lot of blackmail. This story is so messy, but it was written in 1972 and modeled of Valley of the Dolls. The mystery subplot was interesting. I did like how the story wrapped up, and once Brandon and Heather stop being problematic with each other, their romance was pretty good.