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  • The Reluctant Widow

  • Gossip, scandal and an unforgettable Regency romance
  • By: Georgette Heyer
  • Narrated by: Daon Broni
  • Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (77 ratings)
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The Reluctant Widow cover art

The Reluctant Widow

By: Georgette Heyer
Narrated by: Daon Broni
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Summary

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
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: Romance

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What listeners say about The Reluctant Widow

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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Has narrator got a speech impediment?

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.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Dreadful narration!

I love this story, it is one of Georgette Heyer's best, but this narrator: Daon Broni, has simply destroyed it. He has a pleasant enough voice, but simply doesn't understand the language. And the cadence of the sentences! Dreadful! And if all that wasn't bad enough, he even replaces the correct word with a similar sounding word making a nonsense of the whole thing. I'd rather do it myself!
Of course the best person to read Georgette Heyer novels would probably be Stephen Fry, HE'D understand it all.
I'd rather take stars away from Broni, than give him any.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Meeting an old friend with joyful recollection

I loved hearing read-and well read- a story I've always enjoyed re-reading over the years.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Too many mistakes

The yarn is good ( though a few loose ends could do with tidying up), but why oh why does the reader say “exciting” instead of “existing”, “ precious “ instead of “ previous”, “way” instead of “say”, “ his” instead of” this”, etc, etc, etc ?? And, above all, why is Becky given a strong regional accent when she ( a governess) is certainly the daughter of an impoverished gentleman, probably a clergyman, and therefore to be expected to speak in refined tones? This is not the first Georgette Heyer Audible book that is misread: I am ready to volunteer as a reader. My accent is slightly Irish, which would perhaps prevent verisimilitude, but having read the novels over and over again, I could promise exact pronunciation and correct emphasis in each sentence. Interested?

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Let down by the narration

One of Heyer’s more nonsensical plots but still full of fun and romance. Unfortunately the pleasure was marred for me by the narrator who got his voices mixed and his sentences garbled at key moments.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Listen to a sample before you buy

Excellent story ruined by the narration. It does get less stilted the longer you listen but the phrasing bears no relation to the punctuation, some of the pronunciation is strange and the accents are all over the place with Miss Beccles being particularly awful. I don't like to be negative but I really did not enjoy this narrator and am currently debating whether I will even finish it.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Humour bypass by narrator

The story as narrated is almost unrecognisable from the story as written - gone is the humour and wit, the characterisation and the deft touch with language. Georgette Heyer's novels are much more than simple romances and I want a narrator who does justice to a talented author.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Poor Narrator

I know this book of old and have read a number of times…
Awful storytelling…surely the reader at least runs through the script before recording…very disjointed sentences, odd accent’s especially Becky, and Carlyon for that matter, an essential character to get right, half the time you wondered if Carlyon thought he’d strayed into the wrong story!!! Miserable carping heroine who should have been much more humerus and ironic.
A good book ruined.
Worst Audible listen yet!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • C
  • 19-01-23

Lovely book, nice narration

As this is one of my favourite Heyer books I was apprehensive about this version as some of the reviews were not good. But I don’t share their views, as I thought the narrator did an excellent job. He has a lovely warm voice and did the various characters very well. I liked that he didn’t camp up Francis as previous narrators have done and also that he used a regional accent for Miss Beccles. I also liked how he chose to pronounce Carlyon compared to the earlier version. Overall a really nice listen and I will watch out for books narrated by Mr Broni in the future.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Shame about the narrator

such a wonderful story but all characters sound the same so you never know who is speaking and they all sound as though they are constantly asking questions.

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1 person found this helpful