Delightful

What did you love best about Four Weddings and a Sixpence?

Delightful quick interwoven stories that led to 11 hours of pleasure.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Four Weddings and a Sixpence?

Most memorable was none of the stories suffered through being stretched to a full length book by use of dumb misunderstandings. The stories just marched on, most pleasantly.

Which character – as performed by Mary Jane Wells – was your favorite?

Love Mary Jane Wells, both her female voices, her male voices most especially and even her elderly voices. She's my favorite

Any additional comments?

I'll be listening to this one again. And checking out the books of the books of those authors new to me.

10 people found this helpful

Mosly a very good book and awesome narration..

About 3 1/2, really..

SOMETHING OLD by JULIA QUINN – The Prologue

This was nothing more than the prologue introducing Anne, Cordelia, Bea and Elinor, teenage girls in a finishing school. Together they find a “sixpence” in a mattress and that’s where the stories begin, almost ten years later.

SOMETHING NEW by STEFANIE SLOANE -2 ½ Stars

This is about Anne meeting Rhys in the library at a ball, where he overheard her talking to a mastiff about finding a husband in less than six weeks, before her twenty-first birthday or she’ll be sent off to the country by her uncle. A few days later Anne sees Rhys again when she and her Aunt Marguerite go to visit Lady Sylvia, Rhys’s aunt and he tells her he will help her find the husband she’s looking for. Which ended up being him, of course.

There was NOT an ounce of desire or wanting or thinking about sex THEN the last chapter he took her up against the wall. Yeah, not a very romantic way to treat your virgin bride-to-be. Nothing worse than sex but nothing that led up to it.

SOMETHING BORROWED by ELIZABETH BOYLE – 4 Stars

I really liked this story. Cordelia and Kipp were such a fun couple. She needed to “borrow” him so she could introduce him as her fiancé at a wedding she was going to, while he was on the verge of offering for another woman. But, since they’d known each other since childhood he decided to let himself be “borrowed.” It was so much fun with her aunts: Aunt Aldora, Aunt Bunty and Aunt Landon. And Kate was a trip too, as was Drew. Loved all the characters.

There was sex in this story but I didn’t find it as explicit as the last book, and again there was nothing that led up to it.

SOMETHING BLUE by LAURA LEE GUHRKE – 2 Stars

Most of this story was good but then the ending was coming along and it got kind of ridiculous. Lawrence knew that Ellie’s father had used tin when making guns and a lot of soldiers got killed due to the sub-standard material used. She always believed he was innocent but then she really asked her father and could SEE in his eyes that Lawrence had been right and her father was guilty. So she went to Lawrence and instead of being upset and crying she and Lawrence were laughing about some silly thing then had sex on the desk. Really? After finding out her father was guilty, the father she loved soooo much, THAT’S how she acts. That ruined the story for me. If I hadn’t been so close to the end of it I would have stopped reading. I read The Truth About Love and Dukes by Ms. Guhrke and I loved it. BUT this one just wasn’t for me. The sex was all wrong. Should have waited until the last few pages. Or left it out completely.

…AND A SIXPENCE IN HER SHOE by JULIA QUINN – 4 stars

This one was the best. I absolutely loved Lord Frederick and Bea. And I loved that he was flawed and Bea looked past it so easily. It was quite funny that Bea forgot Frederick’s hyphenated last name and referred to him as Lord Frederick Two Names. And Bea’s aunt Calpurnia was too funny, too.

This was the only one without sex and that made it perfect. I like sex in my books but not so much in novellas.

As to the narration: Love, love, love Mary Jane Wells. She did all voices brilliantly but I think Cordelia’s voice was the best. And she reads with so much emotion.

5 people found this helpful

Very entertaining

Fun, Romantic and a bit sexy. This was delightful. Mary Jane Wells is full of characters.

3 people found this helpful

cute and romantic and better than I was expecting

I subtracted one star for the performance of the second-to-last romance; the something blue story. I read the story and listened to it on tape. The story as written is charming and interesting, and I liked it very much. However, the way it is performed makes the lead man seem like a controlling horrible jerk, and I disliked him viscerally as he sounded nearly abusive the way it is performed. If you read the actual text, however, he is not like that at all. So I subtracted 1 star for that flaw in the reading, but the stories are all excellent, and I am delighted to have discovered the three writers who are not Julia Quinn. She sets a high standard, and they all surprisingly lived up to it! I will now happily read their other books. (P.S. my husband's name is on this account but I, his wife, have written this review. My husband does not read romance novels, and I find it mildly hilarious that his name is attached to this fluffy bodice-ripper in any way. Fortunately he has an excellent sense of humor and is extremely secure in his own masculinity, but it is only fair to set the record straight.)

2 people found this helpful

Surprisingly good!!

I really liked all 4 of these stories. I'm not a big anthology person, I like depth. These were well done, however, and the characters were likable and had chemistry. I thought the love scenes were pretty cheese ball, but other than that, I really enjoyed them.

Also, Mary Jane Wells is hands down the best HR narrator!

2 people found this helpful

Great Novellas

All stories were wonderful and brought a smile to my face. I loved the last one the most 6 pence one Her Shoe...

2 people found this helpful

a sweet, cute story-stories

typical, but that's a good thing. four novellas sewn into one seamless story. their finest

2 people found this helpful

Four weddings and a sixpence

I loved this book written by some of my favorite authors. And the narrator was superb.

1 person found this helpful

Partially good?

It’s so difficult to write a review for this book because the Julia Quinn story was the only one that was good. The others were very tiresome and annoying characters. Narrator was awesome as usual.

1 person found this helpful

The Perfect Valentine's Romance Book

This was a fun, light book of romantic tales. As I was reading, I thought this would be the perfect romance to curl up with around Valentine's Day. All short, sweet HEAs.

My favorite is always Julia Quinn and she's easy to pick out even if the authors hadn't been given. -She begins the book with "Something Old" describing the schoolgirls and sets up the story, describing their backgrounds and relationships -it's well done. The 5th book wraps up with Julia Quinn's "And a Sixpence in her shoe." This was my favorite story -Bea and Frederick are interesting, well developed, unique characters and their story flowed well. She makes them a believable couple in a short period of time. (and I love Bea -practical, forthright with a unique perspective on Frederick who can't help but fall in love with her.)

The second book, "Something New" by S. Sloane was a condensed version of "The Duke and I." While the story was cute, I was disappointed that it wasn't more original.

The third book, "Something Borrowed" by Elizabeth Boyle was a good, original story of Cordelia who has sworn off marriage due to her parents' volatile marriage, but told her aunts she is betrothed in order to get them to leave her alone. Unfortunately, she's given a deadline and she shows up at her childhood friend, Kipp's, house. Cordelia has lived the life Kipp wanted -traveling, seeing exotic places while he's been stuck at home as his father's heir. Cordelia brings joy back into his life opening possibilities while he shows her the joys of stability and the excitement to be had in every day life. It was well done.

"Something Blue" by Laura Guhrke and the fourth book in the series, was another good story though a little more frustrating to me. Elinor's ex-fiance, Lawrence, steals the coin from her to mess up her plans to marry a man that can help her father win against malicious lies to prove him guilty of murder. Lawrence is dead set on prosecuting her father, but without hard evidence, he's finding it difficult. Lawrence won't tell her what evidence he has or needs to convict her father because he knows she'll tell her father and give him a chance to ruin the case. She tells him over and over to show her proof, but he's upset because she believes her father rather than him? I thought that was a dumb premise. Her father has taken care of her and loved her -of course she believes him over her friend/ fiance if he won't /can't give her proof. The best part of the story are all of the mishaps that happen to her because she doesn't have the "lucky" coin.

All of the stories were good though my favorite was Julia's. I think the sex scenes could have been left out -I'm not against sex scenes, but they all seemed forced to me when the characters had such a short time to develop their characters and romances for us. I liked that many of the characters romances had childhood histories -long time friendships with their romantic interests or a previous courtship to make the short stories more plausible.

All-in-all, a fun listen!

3 people found this helpful