The Handfasters

Lowland Romance, Book 1

De: Helen Susan Swift

Narrado por: Seylan Baxter

Coming from the Highlands to Edinburgh in search of a husband, Alison Lamont finds herself in all sorts of trouble.

Scotland, 1811. Thrown out of a fashionable ball for a stolen kiss, Alison flees from a riot in the notorious Old Town and ends up staying the night with Willie Kemp, an eccentric boatbuilder.

While she falls deeply in love with Mr. Kemp, her aunt wishes her to marry the obnoxious but rich John Forres. Alison takes drastic measures to solve her dilemma, including a long trip through the snow-covered Pentland Hills.

But who left the mysterious footprints outside her cottage, and what secrets is Mr. Kemp hiding?

©2016 Helen Susan Swift (P)2020 Helen Susan Swift

Quite Different

The book is actually a letter written by the MFC to the reader about her life after arriving in Edinburgh to find a suitable husband. Instead she falls in love with an engineer who designs steamboats. The entire story is so very odd to me in the way it’s written, but odd in a good way.
In my opinion, the Audible narrator is perfect for the story.

3.5/5 stars

Narrated by Seylan Baxter
Summary:
As an old lady, Alison tells her love story to her grandchildren.

Additional Comments:
- Predictable but decent. I enjoyed the end twist.
- The story moved pretty slowly. Not one bit of action happened until about the last hour of the audiobook.
- Since it’s written as if Alison is telling the story, there’s quite a bit of breaking the 4th wall as she directly addresses her granddaughters. Most of the side comments were amusing, but it kind of dragged out a tedious tale.
- I’ll be the first to admit romance isn’t my first genre choice. Guess I’m just used to there being more danger than her cousin running off with the first handsome fellow to look her way.
- It’s got a lot of reviews, so there’s certainly a market for this sort of thing.
- Content warning: A few awkward scenes where one or the other character walks in on the other naked.
- I liked the narrator’s accent.

Conclusion:
Relatively clean romance. If you can get around the proper lady this and proper lady that stuff, go for it.
*I received a free copy of the audiobook. I have freely chosen to review it.