For All the World

The Aisling Series, Book 1

By: Jean Grainger

Narrated by: Siobhan Waring, Gary Furlong, Jean Grainger

Dublin, Ireland 1915

Eighteen-year-old May Gallagher is beautiful but restless, and longs for the freedom to live her own life, to decide her own destiny. Mollycoddled as the only remaining child of middle-class parents in the suburbs, she sneaks out to the theatre when she can. She is mesmerised by the captivating actor Peter Cullen, and wishes she could enjoy a more bohemian life.

The Great War is taking all the boys away, and the promise that it will all be over by Christmas is ringing more hollow with each passing month.

Her parents would be appalled if they knew she’d befriended the enigmatic Peter, who was from the wrong side of the city, but there is something about him that intrigues May.

When catastrophe strikes Peter, it’s to May that he turns, and in that moment she knows her life will never be the same again.

©2023 Jean Grainger (P)2024 Gold Harp Media Limited

Anything by Jean Grainger takes you away and warms your soul

Only dislike is having to wait a few more weeks for book 2 release dates :) .. she never disappoints!

Descriptions of the front.

I enjoyed the emotional responses of all the characters. You feel you are their with them.

Good, but not great and quite old-fashioned.

This is a very well written book, the topics are interesting and appropriate for their time historically, and the characters are all likable. The ending was a huge disappointment and clearly was designed to hook the reader to the next book. I didn’t care enough about any of it to do that. If you love, old-fashioned, somewhat long winded novels, you will love this. I gave it four stars for its potential audience and because it was a nice,easy, undemanding read.

Good, but not her best

I liked Peter Cullen a lot, and enjoyed the things that he did and said. However, I wasn’t crazy about the other main character, May. I know this was set during an after World War I, but she just didn’t ring through to me. I had intended to listen to the sequel to this book to see if I liked it Unfortunately it’s not available in Audible yet. Hopefully that will come soon.

DISAPPOINTING — NOT MS. GRAINGER’S BEST…

Let me preface this review by saying I LOVE Jean Grainger and have read everything I can find by her. This is the first book that left me feeling very underwhelmed.

The beginning of the book was VERY slow. I enjoyed the character, Peter Callen and his enthusiasm for his profession and life in general, which is amazing considering his horrible upbringing with his violent, alcoholic father and living in one of the worst slums in Dublin.

May…she’s more STALKER than girlfriend! She is immature at best, and just plain whiny at worst. May is incredibly immature and insecure. If Peter so much as mentions in one of his letters to her, one of the women in his letter or the others in the show or their acts, and is not professing his undying love as she expects him to (when he talks about what’s going on in HIS life), May is very annoyed that every word isn’t about HER and their “love.”

May talked PETER into getting engaged. Marriage was not his idea at all, nor was it even a a blip on his radar at that point. He is uncertain that May and the life he wants will work out if paired. He is not at all certain marriage to May is a life he can be happy living. When Peter writes to May, if he doesn’t profess his undying love to her, May’s jealousy and insecurities rise to the forefront.

I enjoyed the characters of Aida and Two Suits, the burley Scotsman (my family is Scottish, so I always love the Scottish characters and their accents). Nick was O.K, but rather bland.

As always, narrator Siobhan Waring was absolutely fantastic. She has a gorgeous, natural Irish accent, but she is also absolutely AMAZING with various other languages — English cockney, posh upper class English, Scottish, German, Spanish and Ukrainian, to just mention a few.

I was not sure I would purchase the next two books in this series, but to find out the next two books are not available in audio form, that sealed the deal for me.

I am extremely annoyed with Audible for publishing this first book in audio format, but NOT books Two and Three. HIGHLY IRRITATING! If I were desperate to read the next two books, I could switch to hearing the book thru Speechify, but the speech thru “Ai” despite the paid, voice talents available for the reader to choose from, is still very stiff and “automated.”

This has also happened with my other favorite author’s books (Kay Bratt). I invested in a dozen books or so in the Taylor Hart series, only to find the last two books are available in print format only (or on Kindle).

As a person with VERY low vision, I rely on Audible to make audio books AVAILABLE TO ALL readers. Speechify just isn’t the same (not even it close).

SHAME ON YOU AUDIBLE!

For All the World

So I began a new series. I am a big fan of Jean Grainger, having “read” just about all of her books & series book doesn’t have a conclusion. You have to read on to the next book to hopefully draw some conclusions. Except there is a problem!! Book number 2 of this series is not available on Audible! Why put book number one on Audible when there was no intention of including book number two. Very disappointed reader!!
Well this

New Characters, New Settings… Hooked Anew

I loved the new, internationally diverse cast of characters. The long Epilogue sounds like it is the intro to book 2 of this new series. I look forward to the new recordings. In the meantime, I am going to revisit some of the other series by Jean Grainger that are currently in my Library. I also saw that “The Tour”, the book that started it all for me, has been rerecorded by Siobhan Waring. I love listening to Siobhan (although the original recording of that book was wonderful as well).

Thanks, Jean, for opening my eyes to the history of Ireland as I enjoy time with your fictional characters.

No conclusion and no Book 2 on Audible

Enjoyed Book one very much but very disappointed to come to the end of book 1 and find no conclusion!!! Was excited to purchase Book 2 on Audible so I could continue the story only to find out there is no book 2 on Audible, which is how I chose to listen to these books. Why would you do that?