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The Reluctant Widow

Gossip, scandal and an unforgettable Regency romance

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The Reluctant Widow

By: Georgette Heyer
Narrated by: Daon Broni
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Brought to you by Penguin. 

One of the best-known and most beloved historical novelists, Georgette Heyer, as ever, captures a whole new audience's heart.

Stepping into the wrong carriage at a Sussex village, Elinor Rochdale is swept up in a thrilling and dangerous adventure. Overnight the would-be governess becomes mistress of a ruined estate and partner in a secret conspiracy to save a family's name. By midnight, she is a bride, by dawn, a widow.

A typically thrilling and sweeping tale of romance and tragedy, The Reluctant Widow is Georgette Heyer at her best - the undisputed queen of historical romance.

©1946 Georgette Heyer (P)2021 Penguin Audio Historical Historical Fiction Military Regency Regency Romance Romance Heartfelt
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I love this story and still enjoy my previous version on it.
This version however has a more believable end, in the way it is portrayed by the narrator BUT : you have to get used to him first.
I spent the first few chapters trying to work out if he could only say words in groups of 3 or 4, regardless where the punctuation marks are or if he was only able to read a few words at a time, and he had not taken the effort to read each chapter before actually recording them. The errors in pronunciation of such words as "quiet and quite" are alarming if you like the story to flow rather than go back to see what was wrong with what you heard.

I did think about returning it, but if he does have a speech problem, he has made a fairly good job of it.

Along with others : most of these latest penguin books by GH not up to previous versions I have purcahsed.

Has narrator got a speech impediment?

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This is a brilliantly funny book which has none of that evident in this narration. The narrator has plenty of expression, but it isn’t always appropriate expression and a lot of it is disjointed. Does nobody brief the narrators? So many of them read the books as pretty poor, simple stories when Heyer was full of humour. I’m literally having to find the humour for myself… even when Bouncer is preventing Eleanor from moving! It should be laugh out loud but isn’t. A good actor who should have prepared better.

Love the book, narrator fails.

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Poor Georgette Heyer must be spinning in her grave! I have, sadly, become inured to her wonderful books being badly read but this one is absolutely the worst I have so far struggled through.
While this is definitely not one of her strongest plots it certainly deserved better!

The appalling performance

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A brilliant book, and a prime example of Heyer's genius.
However, I found the narration did not do the book justice. The narrator often speaks far too quickly. He does not highlight the humorous elements in any way. His voices are good, but when reading the prose, has such a strange way of speaking. He emphasises the 't', issues an unusual cadence and seems to be trying to speak RP English when this isn't necessarily natural to him. I found it jarring.
I still love the book, though.

A slightly disappointing narration

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A spirited heroine, a masterful hero and credible villains. Heyer's gentle wit and irony supported by great writing as always.

Another charming Heyer Regency

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