Tried Again and Failed❣️

I previously attempted to listen to this book a year ago and couldn’t get past the first chapter due to the dire narration. I tried again and gave up a few chapters in… the mispronunciation of key names and places was beyond my endurance.

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STORY GOOD, narrator bad!

The narrator has a habit of lifting her voice at the ever now and again. This makes it feel like she is questioning every sentence and the story does not flow. Very hard to listen to!

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2 people found this helpful

Not a bad story, shame about the performance.

ASSUMPTIONS AND ABSURDITIES by Cinnamon Worth, audiobook performance by Nikki Delgado

First of all, there are two HUGE clues in the title as to the tone of this book. Don't go in expecting a serious, angst-ridden variation of Pride and Prejudice. If you're a Brit, like me, and are old enough to remember the Whitehall Farces, on stage and/or TV in the 50s, 60s and 70s, then you'll have an idea as to what you're in for. By the way, that is by no means a derogatory statement. The Whitehall Farces embodied a style of humour that seems to be particularly, but not exclusively, British. They were very popular with the public in their heyday, although the critics seemed to turn their noses up at them. If you're not a Brit, have a word with Mr. Google about them.

Some people will turn their noses up at Ms. Worth's writing style but generally, this particular picky Brit quite likes it. Yes, there are more contractions than I'd like to see, too many modern expressions (e.g. stymied, which I've come across in two of her works so far), and this one had an "okay" as well. Okay, (yes, I'm a 21st century Brit, so I can use it!) that's the criticisms out of the way for now, but here we have a Regency-set variation that veers off from canon P&P after the Netherfield Ball and the parties resident there are back in London. Darcy and Bingley hare off back to Netherfield when they hear that a "Miss Bennet" is engaged to Mr. Bennet's heir, William Collins. This happens early on, so it's not really a spoiler. As Mr. Collins' patroness, Lady Catherine De Bourgh and her daughter also attend the wedding.

I love that Jane is given a backbone in this and really makes Bingley work for his HEA. Darcy and Elizabeth have many of the "assumptions and absurdities" to work through to reach theirs and I quite enjoyed being a voyeur on their journey.

This isn't just a review of the ebook version, though. I requested a free copy of the audiobook from Story Origin of my own free will and an honest review was requested but not demanded. I'd previously listened to this author's book Deception and Debauchery which had a different person performing and she was reasonably good but I had real problems with Ms. Delgado's performance. There were mispronunciations of at least three common place names: Longbourn (she pronounced it Long-burn), Rosings Park (pronounced as Rozz-ings) and Meryton (which for some reasons had acquired an -ing, and was pronounced Merington). These places occur so frequently during the story that it took me right out of the narrative; so much so, that for this and other reasons regarding the performance, I'm afraid I gave up on the audiobook about a third of the way in and switched to the ebook, which I already had a copy of. That was a much more enjoyable experience and the story raised a smile and a wry shake of my head on more than one occasion at those aforementioned "assumptions and absurdities".

I'm sorry to have to give a low rating of only one star for the performance. If Ms. Worth didn't proof-listen the audio version, then I'd recommend she should do so in any future excursions into audio publication. I'm quite happy give the story itself a solid four stars.

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Reasonably enjoyable

I didn't quite finish this book. My problem wasn't with the story at all, I just didn't get on with the narrator.

Having read other reviews though I feel like this might be a 'me' problem because a lot of people found the narrator made it for them.

I'd definitely recommend giving it a try.

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