beautiful and compelling tale

This story had me captured from the start. A compelling tale with well structured plot and characters with depth. The narrator was really impressive and I'll be looking for more of his works in the future.

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Great story

I really enjoyed the book. The story was quite interesting. The narrator was very good. I was impressed with how well he performed the various voices for each character. When he performed a female character, I found myself checking to see if there was more than one narrator. :)

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Magical

I've never read/listened to a book with such a perfect balance of history, drama and romance (and a healthy dose of sex). It takes its characters and the LGBT love story seriously, with a realistic lack of homophobic attitudes from other characters in the setting. Beautifully written and also narrated.

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What a beautiful story.

This is a beautiful tale of love. Set in trying times amidst death and destruction it still manages to lift the spirits. I cried and I laughed but above all it made me feel for the characters. It’s narrated perfectly bringing a sense of the north east of England at the time.

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Great, incredibly sexy, historical romance!

Wow, I loved this book! It creates the feeling of being in pre- to early-Christian Britain with lots of good historical details, but also doesn't skimp on the very hot sex scenes (a plus in my view). Some religious folk might find it a little offensive, what with all the tearing-off-of-cassocks for that delicious intercultural gay sex, and all--but as a queer atheist, I found it positively therapeutic.

It was especially interesting to imagine the beliefs and inner lives of people living right on the cusp of Christianity, with the old gods and traditions still alive. And at the same time, the clashes between Rome and Iona complicated things even further. That the author fleshed out these complex times so thoroughly in an erotic novel was such a treat.

I'd read/listen to a thousand more books like this, full of rich history, a tender but passionate love story, lots of hot sex, and just a pinch of magic.

A few bits of the narration grated on me. The various voices were mostly really good, but occasionally the male voices were hard to differentiate. Kudos to the narrator for going all-in on the sex scenes though. Sometimes you can tell that a narrator is embarrassed or uncomfortable reading about sex, but I didn’t get any of that with this one.

All in all, if you like a sexy historical romance, I’d highly recommend this one!

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3 people found this helpful

A mixed bag

The quality of the writing exceeds the content and I found the ending a bit rushed and wishy washy given the gravitas and relatively slow pace of the rest of the book.

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An absolute joy

I adore Harper Fox's lyrical, magical, fairy talish historicals that surpass the boundaries of mere enjoyable romances. This book brings you to the dark times of early Christian England and takes you on a devastatingly beautiful ride of death defying love, loyalty, wisdom, folklore and magic. Combined with heart-warming humour and everpresent kindness, delivered by one of the best narrators there is (Joe Jameson under the pseudonym of Hamish Long), this book is so much more than just a highly enjoyable listen. Bought Kindle book straight away.

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2 people found this helpful

Epic Love

I picked this up yesterday and I put it down again when it was finished. Re-read the last two chapters again today. This book transported me and gave me a new hope for roots, heritage and homeland. LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE

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Wonderful

A delightful book full of historical accuracy, and fabled tale. Beautifully narrated. I just wish there were more than on book.

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Great narration from Hamish, really good story....

This was very well done, and as much as I can see the narrator credited with the narration is Hamish Long, he is also known to me as Rusty Coles, the narrator of Harper's A Midwinter Prince and remarkably enough, was also known as Joe Jameson back in 2014 when he narrated The Charioteer by Mary Renault, which is up next in my audio library. Hamish [Rusty/Joe]'s speech surprised me in this one though; he's really very good at accents, but it was the way he said common or garden English words that annoyed me sometimes....'other' was uvver, 'brother' was bruvver, 'the' was frequently vuh. This was quite surprising as I don't remember any of those problems with A Midwinter Prince or it's sequel The Lost Prince...anyhoo, none of it was sufficient to actually put me off listening and I'm glad I did as it brought back good memories of a great buddy read here on Goodreads in 2015 and reinforced once again what a sublime author Harper Fox is....

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3 people found this helpful