I loved everything about this book!

This book kept me captivated from beginning to end. The story wasn't your typical historical romance and I liked that......it kept it interesting. I recommend this book not only to anyone who enjoys romances but also people who like Native American stories.

I heard this narrator before and I really enjoy her reading. Many people complain when she whispers and I don't understand the complaint. She only whispers when the book says "she/he whispered". How can you fault the narrator for whispering when the author wrote that in the book?

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and its worth a credit (or better yet if you find it on sale like I did snatch it up quick!)

35 people found this helpful

Get a new narrator!

As a fan on Julie Garwood's books, I'm always excited to see one available on audible.com. This story doesn't disappoint... lots of romance, twists and turns... a nice distraction. The performance by Susan Duerden, however, almost had me turning off the book and scrapping the whole thing. Her portrayal of a child's voice was cringe inducing, and the voice used for the heroine was like nails scraping on a chalkboard... on the rare occasions she spoke above a whisper. In her defense, the author seemed to write a lot of, "she whispered", so I guess the narrator was only doing what was written, but it was so frequent that is was almost comical.

I disliked the narrator so much, the even though I want to hear some more Julie Garwood books, I just can't sit through this narrator ever again.

34 people found this helpful

Yes another 5 star rating!

The first book in the Crown's Spies series. Susan Duerden does a wonderful job of narrating this one. What I liked most was the unique plot. The prologue nicely set the stage for this, as well as for Christina's character, and Jessica's journal developed this plot nicely without interfering with Lyon and Christina's romance, which was rather whirlwind and angry, but tender and joyful as well. Christina being raised by Natives and then returning to England to honour her mother's request. Christina is one amazing character, and she never leaves one feel bored. Christina made me laugh. She's proud and strong willed and Lyon loves that about her. I love it when she divorces Lyon for shaming her. I love his reaction too. But most of all I love how she has everyone so damn confused, but so convinced of her sincerity that they'll do anything she asks, no matter how ridiculous it is from their point of view. And Lyon there is no words to describe him, he is gorgeous and very very stubborn but he is definitely not the only one. The witty dialog between the couple constantly made me laugh and smile. In fact, this book caused me to laugh a lot. If you are looking for an amazing love story with lots of funny moments than I highly recommend this audiobook.

35 people found this helpful

Shaking my head...

Any additional comments?

As a real life Dakota woman, the use of my cultural background is disturbing. It might've been nice had JG did some research instead of casually flinging stereotypes on the page. Seriously, I wouldn't have minded if she had at least tried to show some effort toward authenticity. I bought this book long ago and couldn't remember hearing it. Now I know why I didn't finish it. I've read other Julie Garwood books and they were good. This one just made me a bit angry.

Also, Susan Duerden's narration is truly cringe inducing. Her attempt at accents and the weird intonation she uses really irritated me. With other books she's read, I've listened at 1.25x and it was ok. This one was not.

25 people found this helpful

Narration irksome

This plot was so removed from reality that the characters' motivations rang hollow as well. I have been a fan of Garwood for many years and this was far too fabricated even for a romance. I like a historical romance to include at least some historical credibility. Jedediah Smith and about a handful of traders entered the Black Hills in 1823 and the draw of gold and contact with wagon train traffic did not take place for many years later... Although the narrator had clear diction, she shouldn't have even tried to cover all of the voices. I find that women trying to imitate men can make a hero sound way too boorish, and in this book the heroine sounded like a 10 year old child; when she was a baby she sounded like nails on chalkboard. Most irksome was the inflection the narrator employed for about four out of every five non-dialogue sentences. This resembled text to text-to-speech, with sentences rising in the same arc and ending on the same note, again...and again...

12 people found this helpful

If you like traditional Garwood,you'll enjoy this.

Julie Garwood is my favorite author, and this book didn't disappoint! If you've read and loved her other books then you'll love this one too. Also, I really enjoy this narrator. Susan Durden(sp) has a great voice and I thinks she does the characters spectacularly.

3 people found this helpful

Irritating narration

The story was good. There were times when I didn't much like Lyon. He was very controlling. Of course, like many heroes, he learned it wasn't that easy to control his heroine. However, I think my main problem was the way he was narrated. I did like his growth and realization that he couldn't ask for what he isn't willing to give of himself. I wish I had read the book instead because I've enjoyed all other Julie Garwood books that I've read. There were laugh out loud parts. But even the narration for Christina was troublesome. She sounded very young and very immature. So my advice is to read the book, not this audible version.

2 people found this helpful

Couldn’t finish even the first few chapters

Suspending belief about the premise of the book is hard enough. Add to that the bizarre and truly strange sing-song lilting narration and I gave up. Seriously the worst, WORST narration I have ever attempted to listen to. Never again. Period. Yuck.

2 people found this helpful

Love Julie Garwood AND this book!!

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed this book enormously. Julie’s books have a great storyline and she manages to mix that with sex that stems from passion. I enjoy passion in books and she certainly delivers it here. The female characters in her books are usually hesitant about getting involved emotionally and it is nice to read books where women are not always desperate (as I see played in real life).
This storyline is unique in that JG mixes the American Indian lifestyle and upbringing with the old British stuffiness. I like how she shows a strong Indian leader bending to his wife’s will to raise a child not his own during those times where white people were disliked so extensively by them. And then the strength in male character continues to show through in Lion as well. I just love the characters in this book. A nice mixture of good vs. evil.

5 people found this helpful

Ugh! Dissapointed to say the least.

Oh. My. Gosh!!!!! I LOVE JG, and I have listened to, and enjoyed, other books with SD, but this.... holy cow, I couldnt WAIT to finally finish it! I think the story was actually probably good, but SD’s narration was almost atricious. Christina sounded like an ignorant stupid young girl, instead of a foreign woman living in a new land. Oh and the whispers... ev-er-ey-one whispered! But they sounded like old men, even if it was a woman! Most people had voices that cackled, and pretty much everyone sounded super similar. I got about halfway through and had to speed the book up just to get it over. I definitely was interested in how the story played out, though it was really dissapointing ultimately. Really just pretty boring. Definitely feel like I wasted a credit. Especially since my expectations were that of what Im used to with JG.

If youre thinking of getting this book, dont. If you want a good JG book, get Ransom. It was SO good and SD was the narrator and did a MUCH better job on that one than she did on this!

4 people found this helpful