What the Lady's Maid Knew

Riftmagic Saga Series, Book 1

By: E. E. Holmes

Narrated by: Mary Sarah

Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

London is a powder keg...and Eliza Braxton is the match.

Imagine a London where magic is real...real, but feared. This is Eliza Braxton's London, and she has always accepted her place in it gladly. As one of the Riftborn, her magic has relegated her to the servant class, where she dutifully serves as the lady's maid in one of the most powerful households in the country. There, she uses her remarkable powers of persuasion to keep Elder Hallewell's rebellious daughter in the path to an arranged match of power and prosperity. Eliza has never questioned her loyalty...until now.

Currents of discontent are roiling beneath the city's surface, and Eliza's comfortable existence is about to be caught up in the tide. A resistance is building, a resistance that covets Eliza's talents above all else. But can Eliza betray everything she's ever known for things she never dared to dream?

©2020 E. E. Holmes (P)2021 Tantor

Didn’t like the narrator. Strange way of speaking.

I liked the story, but not the way the narrator speaks. I will be listening to the next book though.

Good story

Lots of suspense and intrigue. Well written and expressed characters that are relatable and believable.

A Good Story

This story is good. I like the build-up of the main character and the supporting characters as well. And its one of those stories where you want to see how the conflict develops and grows. The only problem is that the narrator is sooo BORING. The slow drawl with each word the high to very low cadence she takes every single sentence will put you to sleep. it takes considerable effort not to fall asleep, so much so that you're excited when she stops narrating and starts voicing the characters themselves. It's the only time any type of emotion is actually heard or felt. If you can manage not to fall in a trance of tranquility, then you will enjoy the story.

Sloooowly it goes

The narrator has a delicate proper voice that doesn’t quite fit all the range needed to move the story along. It is an excellent voice for jessamine or a fine lady, but as a narrator it seems overly prim and cold.

Story then felt like it moved too slowly; I tried reading the book at the same time as listening and it was painful to wait for each page to be narrated so I could turn the physical page too.

Magical

Another great book by my favorite author! Now onto the sequel. Oh… I love Sully… she kind of reminds me of a Fiona/Savvy mix from The Gateway.

Speed

I had to set the speed of the narration to 1.3 or 1.4. It was sooooo teeedioussss.

Good story but

This is a good story and I love this author BUT I had to restart this book SEVERAL times because the narrator had a slight speech impediment and that made it hard to get in to the book.

Took awhile…. Then I LOVED it!

Lots of harsh negative comments. It took me awhile to ‘get’ the old accent, then it fit. I couldn’t stop listening after awhile. Fascinating them!

Distracting and annoying narration

Very fun story, good writing. Mystical. However, I got so distracted by the narrator that I wound up buying the book. I couldn’t stand the “th” and weird lilting of the voice after every sentence. It was very difficult to get into with the narrator. I recommend the physical book!

VERY SLOW START…

This story starts slow, mostly background setup. It doesn’t get to the heart of the story till nearly 3/4 done, but that’s when it picks up on the guts of the story. I have changed the speed of the read which has helped me not to snooze thru the chapters.