The Perfect Lover

By: Stephanie Laurens

Narrated by: Katie Carr

Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's Summary

Simon Frederick Cynster has a perfect life, one of enormous wealth and impeccable social status. His lean handsomeness turns the heads of naive debutantes, while his sensual allure ensures he never lacks for more sophisticated partners for a night of pleasure.

However, Simon accepts that he must find a wife to achieve true contentment. Someone who will spend her days as a member of one of England's most influential families...and her nights pursuing duties of a more private nature.

So he discreetly begins his search at a house party at Glossup Hall and is astonished that the lady who immediately captures his interest in Portia Ashford. Simon has never considered Portia as a potential wife, but a heated kiss abruptly alters the rules of their decade-long interaction. As Simon and Portia begin to explore the depths of their mutual passion, a shocking murder is committed, and it appears that the next victim will be Portia herself.

©2003 Stephanie Laurens (P)2003 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"Elegant writing flavored with wit, memorable characters, some superbly sensual and exquisitely detailed love scenes, and a plot laced with danger all come together beautifully in this wickedly fun, wonderfully sexy romance." (Booklist)

Fast read

This book is read very fast, no voice inflections, hard to follow and distinguish one character from another. very rushed, i am an hour into it and already regretting the purchase

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Buy the book, not this narration

I enjoy all SL novels, especially the Cynster stories. This story would have been as fabulous as the others if not for the poor narration. It is quite obvious that the narrator is no Simon Prebble. While her voice is very pleasant, Ms. Carr left a lot to be desired with the lack of inflection. The love scenes, the drawing room conversations and even the action parts were read with the same, monotonous voice. The hero and heroine along with the supporting characters all shared the same voice. Unless you listened carefully to each and every word, it was difficult to tell when something of import was happening and when the "filler" parts of the story were taking place.

Listening to this novel was incredibly boring. Not quite painful, but a very tedious listen. Unfortunate, as the story itself is very good.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

donna

Very nice mind candy for multi tasking

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Did not like that book seemed so short

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

There seemed to be a lot missing from the story, I thought I could get over but in the end I was not able to.

Has The Perfect Lover turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Katie Carr?

Ros landor

What character would you cut from The Perfect Lover?

None

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Ok

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Stephanie Laurens is a great story teller but the narration is TERRIBLE! I was expecting someone that spoke with an American accent but this was English from England. It was annoying and not what I imagined. Wish someone else would have told the story!

What did you like best about this story?

I love Stephanie Laurens and she writes great books

Did Katie Carr do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

NO! She was terrible. If I see her name I will not listen to that book!!

What character would you cut from The Perfect Lover?

Character... Katie Carr!!!

Any additional comments?

Katie Carr DOES NOT NEED TO NARRATE. PERIOD!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

The Perfect Lover

The book is good but I will never buy another book that is narrated by Katie Carr. I can't stand her voice.

5 of 7 people found this review helpful

Good book, wrong narrator

I love the story but I wish the same narrator that did the 9 books before, would have done this one. His character's voices make me believe I am in the story. Katie Carr's voice is nice but all the characters sound the same.

disappointing

The abridging removes most of the humour and all the subtle nuances of the evolving relationships and the reasons for a lot of the decisions made by the characters. If you have not read the original book it might be quite good but for me it had lost everything interesting.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Worth a listen

Quite a good story, well worth a listen. Their romantic encounters are steamy & well written.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Disappointing

Badly abridged. In places the story simply didn’t make sense and the humour was missing.