Love Unsought

A Pride & Prejudice Variation

De: Kay Bea

Narrado por: William Matthews

Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy seem determined to misunderstand one another, and after his disastrous proposal, both are eagerly wishing to forget their acquaintance. But fate, with assistance from Darcy’s scheming cousins, contrives to keep them together.

When Miss Darcy is summoned to Kent, the couple has a chance to begin anew, and their budding friendship carries them to London and Hertfordshire. Their feelings deepen but before their new understanding is made known, Elizabeth is sent to Brighton as chaperone to her youngest sister. Her stay there ends in ruin when Darcy’s past comes to call.

Upon discovering the situation is worse than he feared, Darcy determines he must be the one to make things right. His departure leaves Elizabeth in doubt and their future in question. Was their love too new to withstand a scandal?

A series of missed chances, misdirected letters, and miscommunications keeps the couple apart; it make require the intervention of their nearest relations to bring them back together.

©2020 Kay Be (P)2020 Quills & Quartos Publishing

Couldn’t finish with awful reader

This performer spoke female lines as if every single line ended in an exclamation mark. They never spoke with subtly, irony, sarcasm, sadness, tiredness, etc. only excitement! Guess what? People don’t speak that way.

Nice story

I enjoyed this story very much. The narrator was new to me and I thought he sometimes sounded a bit stiff. But good all over.

Good read, poor listen

The story was good and well written. The narration was poor. This one is better to read than listen.

Mrs. B and Lydia at their worst.

A good narration by William Matthews. I like his voice very much, but when doing female voices in particular, he tends to make the ends of their sentences sound a bit on the whiney side. I’d like to hear him ‘perform’ the voices more. There isn’t much animation in the performance. Good reading though. The prologue of this book, first read in 2020, captured my attention immediately then, and also as the audiobook began. I liked the time between ODC and the influence of the cousins, Anne and Colonel Fitzwilliam, post Hunsford proposal. Darcy doesn’t leave for London as usual. The portrayals of Mrs. Bennet and Lydia were quite outrageous. Mr. Bennet finally gets a clue. It seemed a bit drawn out at the end. I thought the great romance between ODC seemed a bit lacking. I would have enjoyed more personal time and dialogue between them. I did enjoy it and recommend.

Terrible female voices

Every single female character was the same screechy voice. No difference in tone for any of them. Story was decent, but the terrible narration made it a hard listen.

Original Pride and Prejudice Variation

The story had some new premises, that I, as a jaded Janeite still enjoyed. Kay Bea is a new author to me, but I would definitely purchase other books written by her. However, the choice of narrator was underwhelming. His male voices, particularly Darcy’s, were rich and full. However, every single female voice was strained and slightly higher pitched, with an almost wooden lack of expression. Every sentence spoken by a female character was delivered with the same bland, monotonous cadence.
If I hadn’t cared for the story, I wouldn’t have been able to listen at all.
I have hundreds of audible books, and I’m sorry to say, I will be careful in the future not to purchase any others narrated by William Matthews.

terrible narrator

the story is fun with lots of twists and turns but the narrator is unbearable. it was hard to finish . there was no change in voices or storylines

Flat narration and slow, dragging plot

This story wasn’t bad but it dragged on and on...likely made worse by the flat narration. Had it been given a more upbeat reading (say, Stevie style) it may have been easier to take in, seem less slow, and better able to engage and hold my attention.

Terribly flawed narration

The narration was absolutely painful. Since some reviews said that the story was great, I bore with it until the last 39 minutes. I kept waiting for the good part of this story. I was disappointed.