The Suitors

By: Cécile David-Weill

Narrated by: Kate Reading

After sisters Laure and Marie learn of their parents’ plan to sell the family’s summer retreat, L’Agapanthe, they devise a scheme for attracting a wealthy suitor who can afford to purchase the estate. For the sisters, it has become a necessary part of their character, their lifestyle, and their past. L’Agapanthe is the perfect venue to exercise proper etiquette and intellect, though not all its visitors are socially savvy - especially when it’s a matter of understanding the relationship between old money and the nouveau riche. And so the comedy of manners begins.

©2012 Cecile David-Weill (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc

Comedy of Manners, aka Rich People Problems

This was a pleasant listen; seems other readers were annoyed with the details, but for me, those meticulously catalogued particulars were what made the book enjoyable.

The plot is as thin as consomme, and the narrator sounds far too mature to be the voice of a young 30-ish protagonist, but I still relished it, maybe because I've personally been the unwitting guest at similarly-situated country house weekends. The author truly does capture the almost-silly atmosphere of high-status people gathered together pretending to be...normal?

If you're as fascinated with social nuances as I am, I think you'll like this book.

But if you're looking for a strong story, or a romance...you'll probably want to pass on this one.

An Awful Book About Awful People

Would you try another book from Cécile David-Weill and/or Kate Reading?

No.

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

No.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Kate Reading?

I don't know. Kate Reading has a lovely French accent, but her manner of reading is horribly affected.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Suitors?

I would have cut everything involving the characters. The house sounded pretty nice, if it had been empty.

Any additional comments?

I kept waiting for the main character to have an epiphany about her shallow, snobbish life, but in the time I wasted listening, she didn't. So I stopped.

Fabulous

Love this book Kate Reading is superb
My favorite narrator
I only choose books on audible by narrators
As a good book is ruined if there is a poor narrator

Boring!!!!!

What would have made The Suitors better?

The book needed a plot. The book is about 3/4 descriptive details about the house,dinners, napkins, food....so boring. Very little conversation, nothing exciting.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Boredom