Skylark

By: Jo Beverley

Narrated by: Jill Tanner

Romantic Times hails Jo Beverley as "one of the great names in the genre". She has won five RITA awards and is a New York Times best-selling author.

Dramatic and suspenseful, Skylark is a tale of reawakened love. Young widow Laura Gardeyne must protect her son, who is heir to his family's fortune. When an old friend, the handsome Stephen Ball, offers his help, they soon discover secrets that could destroy the Gardeyne legacy.

©2004 Jo Beverley (P)2004 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Romance at its best." (Publishers Weekly)
"The author's beautifully nuanced characters and gracefully witty writing help this unforgettable love story soar." (Booklist)

Jill Tanner read books are difficult to follow....

the story was fine but Jill Tanner is one of the worst audiobook readers I have heard. she pauses in inappropriate places that take you out of the story...

Long. ...

Not a lot happens given how long the book is. There was no tension and the characters weren't very interesting. Meh.

just a great book

I really enjoyed the book, it was engaging and entertaining!! I just love Jo Beverley!!!

mysterious strangers

A widowed mother struggles to protect her son from a killer but unable to sneak away to a safer place. A stranger claims kinship and could take precedence ovet the son in the line of succession, thud saving him, but will he?

Boring

I like Jo Beverley, I really do. She is (usually) consistent as a romance author. This book however is slow, and at times, boring -- two characteristics I would rather not have in a romance novel. Apparently our hero has been madly in love with the heroine for forever, but you could have fooled me. I was on installment two of the 12 hour book before he made a move. I don't need an erotic sex-fest in my romance novels to be happy, but a little *romance* would have been nice, and given the genre, expected. Apparently these two characters were "reconnecting", but it was the slowest, and dullest, romantic reconnection I have read in a while. Eventually, 8 hours or so later they connect, but by then I was getting a little sick of both of them. Surrounding the romance there is a small mystery of a possibly-dead viscount which was actually more interesting than the romance. Unfortunately that isn't saying much. To be honest, I found the romance between the two minor characters, which only comes into play in the final quarter of the book, to be infinitely more engaging than the romance between the main characters. I think I would have much rather have read *their* book, than the slow, sometimes dull, romance between Laura and Stephen. I wanted to give this book 5 stars, even 4, but I am hard-pressed to offer a 3 stars. It just was too slow, and too timid for too long, for me to enjoy.

Skylark

The story was too long winded. No enough action like the previous books in the series.

Slowly built sexual tension

Laura and Stephen aren't boring. Beverley does a great job of presenting the way fear of rejection prevents the hero from making a move that could dash his hopes forever. I also love the way the secondary plot keeps the reader guessing, finally rewarding those who interpreted the numerous clues correctly.

Once again a different story with a strong heroine

One of the main reasons I really like Jo Beverly's historical romances is because they don't follow the usual pattern of historical romances. It's not a damsel in distress who needs to constantly be rescued by the virile male. Instead, Beverly has strong heroines who make actual choices that are good. They work together with the male protagonist and become great teams.

The other thing I love is that each book in the series stands out on its own. The personalities of the women are different from book to book. They are not cookie cutters of each other. The male protagonists are each different as well. It makes for much more interesting reading.

And with this book in particular, there is an intriguing turn at the end that made me perk up and really pay attention. I appreciate that so much! I like seeing real sounding plot points that bring up intriguing thoughts.

The biggest problem to this book is the narrator. Jill Tanner has a nice voice for the narration but she doesn't often differentiate between the male characters. I couldn't always follow who was talking. That's a real drawback in an audible book. You have to have all the voices be consistently distinctive. Otherwise, you can't tell who is speaking in a conversation. Because of the narrator, I'm not likely to listen to it again.

A long, fruitless slog

This book was short on plot and way too long on internal monologue. I’ve enjoyed earlier books in this series, but I found myself skipping forward frequently without missing anything significant.