The Wild Child

De: Mary Jo Putney

Narrado por: Barbara Rosenblat

I met a lady in the meads /
Full beautiful, a faery's child. /
Her hair was long, her foot was light, /
And her eyes were wild.
(John Keats, "La Belle Dame Sans Merci")

Keats' famous poem might be describing Lady Meriel Grahame, the enchanting heroine of this passionate tale set amidst magical gardens. An equally appealing leading man, a thrilling love story, and a rich historical milieu make this novel positively irresistible.

More pagan than lady, Meriel spends her days running barefoot through her English estate, cultivating her flowers and her mystical connection to nature. She is mute and, according to most people, mad. But handsome Dominic Renbourne, who has been sent by his twin to court her, senses in Meriel a kindred spirit. He manages to inspire her trust, and against his better judgement, her passion.

Award-winning New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author Mary Jo Putney lives up to her reputation for creating strong, intelligent characters. Barbara Rosenblat's stimulating performance will awaken all your senses, if not the wild child in you.

©1999 Mary Jo Putney (P)2000 Recorded Books, LLC

Very pleased! Love it!

I cried, laughed as I listen I could imagine myself in those gardens….
Beautiful challenges relationships.
The action of real love!

Wonderful!

I loved this story! I have had and listened to The Bartered Bride for years, but I always wanted to listen to the first two stories in this trilogy. I was so excited to get The Wild Child and it didn't disappoint. Sooooo, where is The China Bride??? I hate having a series and missing books from it. I agree that the narrator wasn't that good but I enjoyed this story so much that I overlooked it.

Wonderful Narrator

Great story, and an award winning narrator. Its a match made in heaven. After listening to Barbara Rosenblat interpretation of akl tge characters in this book, its no wonder she has won awards for her work.


The story kept me engaged, the take of the twins being resentful of each other was something new to me. The tragedy of the FMC in her early childhood and the way it was revealed was also well done.

rude awakening

Review of audiobook borrowed through Audible Plus.
Possible Spoilers:
Originally published December 31, 1998, this story holds up because it’s more authentic to the period than many of the books I’ve read since then. The description of the period and dialogue is much better. Not Austen level, but no modern slang!

Kyle Renbourne, Lord Maxwell, bribes his twin, Dominic Renbourne, into changing places with him and spending time at Warfield, the country estate of Lady Mariel Grahame whom Kyle intends to marry. They haven’t switched places since they were children and Dominic doesn’t want to, but Kyle bribes him with Bradshaw Manor that D loves. As the second twin, second son, he has no expectations of inheriting anything. But D loves the land. In his arrogance, Kyle mistakenly believes no one will be able to tell the difference.
Lady Mariel lives a reclusive lifestyle, not meeting with or talking to anyone. She has not talked since she was 5 when her parents were murdered in India by thugs and their palace burned. It was thought she died, too, but Mariel was rescued and lived in a harem for a year before being returned to England. Her guardians are her uncles, Oliver, Lord Amworth, her mother’s brother and Francis, Lord Grahame, her father’s brother. Graham wants to institutionalize her, Amworth refuses. Mariel grows up on the walled estate of Warfield with two widowed distant cousins for supervision and elderly retainers to keep things functioning. At 23, she speaks to no one, she lives mostly in the gardens, loves her plants & animals, and she avoids almost everyone. Then Dominic comes and is knocked over by her beauty. He figures out how to lure her into approaching him. Just when they grow close, Grahame takes advantage of Amworth’s failing health and puts her in an institution. D finds a way to get her out but they will need to marry for her legal protection. It’s a rude awakening for Meriel that she isn’t totally protected behind her walls and she needs others.
Kyle has been out of the country hiding that he has taken his aging mistress back to Spain to die. He is deeply grieving and returns in time to feel betrayed by his brother. It takes the intervention of their sister and Meriel’s attempted murder to reconcile the brothers and motivate Kyle to find a new direction. If you want his story, you get to read The China Bride.
I don’t much care for Rosenblat’s narration. I don’t think her voice was a good fit for this story. Plus, too often it felt like she was emoting instead of disappearing into the story as happens with the best narrations.
Loved the author interview at the end!

Worth reading

An interesting story, good narration, and well-developed characters make for a good experience. I especially enjoyed the interview with the author at the end of the audible version of the book. Well done!