Wedded Bliss

By: Barbara Metzger

Narrated by: Pippa Rathborne

Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Robert Rothmore, Earl of Rockford, thinks Alissa Henning is simply delightful-exactly the kind of woman who'd make the perfect mother for his sons. But Alissa swore she'd spend the rest of her life scraping pennies together rather than wed the insufferable earl and become a glorified governess. Still, she couldn't very well let her own children starve - and there was no doubt that Rockford would give them all a good life. So, she reluctantly accepts his offer...but there's more to a good life than what's in one's pockets. And Alissa intends to find out what's in her new husband's heart.

©2012 Barbara Metzger (P)2019 Untreed Reads Publishing

Delightful!

I really enjoyed this story, especially the strong yet vulnerable female lead, the charming children, the puppies, the pig, and all the secondary characters. It was interesting to see the male lead evolve and finally let go of his rigid and wrong-headed determination to have only transactional relationships rather than emotional connections with the people in his life. Barbara Metzger is a writer I admire enormously; almost as much as I admire Georgette Heyer. She trusts in the intelligence of her readers. I hadn’t expected the book to be so funny and yet, it was often LOL funny. That is due, in large part, to the narrator, who is superb. Ironically, I initially hated her voice so much I almost didn’t get this book. But as it happened, she was the perfect narrator. She was somehow able to convey the humor of situations just with her tone of voice and her commitment to the drama. She was outstanding at portraying the sarcasm, outrage, pigheadedness, anxiety, patience, love, or whatever else was called for in the moment. I became a true fan. I don’t always love Metzger’s romances but this one was just fun from start to finish. This is not to say there were no evil characters, hardships, losses, or traumas. But there was so much else that the bad stuff never became too dominant or oppressive.

There Ought to be a Rule-Listen for fun

This book is a delight to read but even better to listen to. Pippa Rathbone's rendition is marvelous, after listening for five or more times I still enjoy her performing Lord Rockford's son Billy, who reminds me of Pig Pen from the Charlie Brown cartoons.
This is my favorite of Barbara Metzger's books, the second being "Lord Heartless".

Delightful story

I enjoy Ms. Metzger's sense of humor. Her stories are clean romances with simple mysteries or some other type of conflict to add interest to the romance.
What I enjoyed especially in this story were the children, particularly, the earl's youngest son. He was delightful and Ms. Rathborne narrated his character excellently.
I enjoyed the evolution of Robert, the Earl of Rockford. He moved from being a self-centered man to a good father and husband. Alissa is a strong heroine who did not put up with the the Earl's pompous and domineering behavior.
The story is funny, engaging and entertaining.
The narration is well done.
The book does not disappoint.

Barbara Metzger Delights Again

Wedded Bliss is a marvelous farce in the tradition of Georgette Heyer. Pippa Rathbone has the reading voice of an unsentimental great aunt, perfect for keeping minds focused on all the complex strands of love, peril, and relationship.
Listening has been exactly the distraction I’ve needed from the brutal realities of contemporary life.

Wonderful!

Delightful romantic comedy, with the most appealing young boys, especially irrepressible five-year-old Billy! Fans of Georgette Heyer will enjoy this (although this has some mild bedroom scenes). Parts of this are also reminiscent of the "madcap romps" of classic film comedies starring Katherine Hepburn and Carey Grant (although set in a different century).

What fun

So much fun with unexpected plot twists.. The character were wonderful. I cared about them immediately.

Best book I’ve read recently

You know how you keep hoping the next book you read will be the one that makes you laugh while making your heart feel all the feels? This humorous farce was it for me. Maybe I’ve read too many disappointing books recently, so my standards were lower, but probably not. The writing is witty with dry, subtle humor and the narration perfectly captures and conveys all of the characters’ emotions with varying voices and accents. All around excellent!

Delightful fun, strong heroine, grumpy but kind hero.

This is now my favorite regency romance!! The humor is delightful, made even more so by the narrator, especially in the voices of the grumpy Earl and his youngest son! An amazingly capable widow is the heroine, I appreciate the clean descriptions of passion, interesting supporting characters, and the humor throughout.

Giving up early

Only a fourth of the way into this, It’s already been tedious enough to skip over and speed read through many parts. It had a good premise for being a fun, lighthearted farce, but scenes and internal thoughts are long-winded, there’s no intelligent or interesting dialog, everything bad happens to the heroine at breakneck speed, and the H is a total arse. Going back to read reviews and spoilers, I can absolutely see that he is not, and does not want to be, redeemable. Blech. I’ve enjoyed Metzger’s books before, so thought this would be a sure thing. What a disappointment because well written and interesting stories are so difficult to find out there in the middle of the dreck.