LR

Very readable! But also frustrating.

Revisado: 03-03-20

The objective positives:
-I found this book easy to listen to. It didn't take me a while to get into it and I read the whole thing
.-Also, frustrations with the plot aside, the book is a pleasant experience overall.
-I think, ultimately, it's well written and I leave with only good thoughts about the author.

Now, for the opinions.
-My overall gripes can be summarized by the fact that the author wanted a certain kind of setup - a woman who's about to leave her emotionally abusive husband but he dies before she can, who does she start anew? - without delivering on the reality of what it means to have met your emotionally abusive husband as a teenager, gone to the same college as him, married him, and then lost him. There must be some reason that was her life. But the book also wants Evvie to be an independent, take no prisoners kind of lady who quirkily threatens invasive reporters and pushes strangers to confront obvious emotional trauma right after meeting them. The one experience needs to inform the other. We need to be able to recognize her decisions.
-One thing that sort of tries to do that but also doesn't is the fact that she was looking to pack up and leave without a trace - just like her absent mother. But this isn't addressed, which is a disappointing in it's lack of self awareness.
-After a chapter or two it became clear this book wasn't going as far or as deep as I thought it would. The characters you meet at the beginning don't really change - in terms or personality, quality or intimacy between characters, what they're doing, or what they want - by the end.
-I was not a fan of the ~emotionally abusive~ husband. Evvie keeps remembering things he did that were somewhere between jerky and genuinely wrong, but why did she marry him? We get a sense of why she dated him as a 15 year old, but it's a lot to assume that after going far away to college, seeing the world, and also being irritated perpetually by his entitlement and gas lighting, she'd continue to stray with and then marry him.
-Evvie is shown to be an independent person who will speak her mind very freely. But she stayed married to someone she didn't like? Not only that, but she never said a word to him? She took everything he gave? It doesn't track. Obviously situations like hers exist - but we're not taken into her mind to find out why this was how she lived.
-I was really distracted by how little she did. It really seems like she hung out for a year, and yet experienced zero existential dread. I'm self employed and almost went stir crazy until I got a part time job. Obviously everyone is different, but it doesn't seem like the author knows this is weird, because the book doesn't fill out her world or demonstrate why this is satisfying or enough for her. (Seriously - she ghosts a clients offer of work for a year and it's just chill.)
-I was fine with the romance, except it didn't do much to build. Their conversations in the beginning were much the same as the ones towards the end. There's a classic misunderstanding to keep them apart for a bit at the end which I'm never a fan of, but it wasn't the worst. It was weird how unbothered she at least was about it.
-I didn't like how Andy wasn't properly mad at her for keeping her intention to leave her husband for a year. It's established he literally stayed with her for two weeks, dropping essentially everything (work, kids, etc), and then when he's a little pissed to learn she wasn't even mourning him all that much she immediately plays victim and he ends up apologizing to her. He's a person with his own life, and I think it'd be more fair to treat him as such instead of an extension of the main character. I liked him getting a girlfriend.
-This is a random thing, but USC as their alma mater?? Why? It's so expensive and far away?
-Also, the ages are weird, but she's supposed to be around ~30. It's established her husband is the fancy doctor in town, but aren't most doctors finishing up residencies around that age? It's sort of implied he went to USC and then came home to be the golden child genius doctor in a small town, but wouldn't their be medical school, residencies, etc? There's just no interiority to this dead, emotionally abusive husband that it highlights the various shortcuts the author took with developing his character and backstory.
-I can't believe it took her so long to sell the house. She establishes way early on that she never chose it and it's too big, and that she needs money. But it's like a year and a half later that she sells it.

Ultimately, I don't know how you sell this book to someone. It's not especially real, nor incredibly funny or twisty, or even all that romantic. I enjoyed it as a diversion but I did have to pause the audiobook because I was distracted by annoying details. The narrator was ok, obviously skilled, just not my personal taste.


Also, I really don't think it's fair to ding this book for swearing. It's pretty common in contemporary fiction, let alone common conversation. I understand personal tastes and that's fine, but the book didn't exactly sell itself as a squeaky clean read either. I thought it suited the characters and was used intentionally, so I hardly noticed it until I read reviews.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Fun Listen

Revisado: 10-04-18

I've listened to this book and its sister title, Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict, many times. Every time they are enjoyable and breezy listens. The performance here matches the tone of the book very well and the characters are spot on. Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable experience worth repeating.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Couldn't Make it Through

Revisado: 10-25-16

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I give audiobooks a solid 2.5 hours to get invested. Sometimes I book doesn't really hook you in till you have a solid relationship with the story, the characters, etc. But I got like 60% through this book and I was just dreading it. It wasn't fun, it wasn't interesting, it wasn't original or compelling. Of course it also wasn't terribly bad, but time well spent? No. So I had to stop.

What was most disappointing about Mary Balogh’s story?

I like the marriage-of-convenience trope, but the whole point is that they eventually fall in love anyway. At this point the characters have spent most of the book reinforcing their distaste for each other, and it's not fun to listen to. I'm sure they grow to "love" each other eventually, but it's not at all convincing.

Also, I don't demand historical accuracy by any rigorous definition - but there wasn't even the spirit of it here. The heroine seems to expect a modern (by 21st century definition) marriage and has no real understanding of propriety. This is kinda annoying, because the old fashioned ideas of the time are the only reason a marriage of convenience would take place. Their marriage is in name only, but honestly those sorts of marriages weren't unheard of or uncommon at the time and the two main characters would have still been expected to act like a couple. I just found it really frustrating.

The heroine is also a tad melodramatically saintly. She's independent, wealthy, and a caring martyr philanthropist with no character besides those facts. The hero is dull. That's it. He's a military man, but not tortured emotionally about it nor does he have any other goals in life. Together they are simply boring.

What three words best describe Rosalyn Landor’s voice?

She's a good narrator. Very proper sounding, perhaps a bit old for the title.

Was Slightly Married worth the listening time?

Nope. Couldn't finish.

Any additional comments?

This is a really unromantic book. But it's also no historically accurate, which is occasionally an excuse for not being super romantic. It's boring, unromantic, and uninteresting.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

FINALLY Audible has this fantastic book!

Revisado: 11-24-15

Any additional comments?

I've loved A Girl Named Disaster for a long time, but haven't heard it in a long while because FOREVER it was only available in out of print cassette tapes. I'm so happy Audible has it as I'm a huge fan of Nancy Farmer and her writing. Thank you Audible!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

I Love this book

Revisado: 05-12-15

Where does Austenland rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I think one reason I like the audiobook is because I know the book so well. I can see the words on the page and hear how I imagined the words as Kellgren speaks them. It's familiar, I don't know how I'd feel about it coming to it new.

What does Katherine Kellgren bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She's a tad theatrical in her reading, where I'd prefer something more wry and conversational - and while she's speaking in an American accent, there's something very British about her pronunciation which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. She's a skilled narrator, just maybe not the one I'd pick for this book.

Any additional comments?

I love this book and enjoyed being able to carry it around in my ears for a while.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña