The Perfect Passion Company

By: Alexander McCall Smith

Narrated by: Amy Alexander

As the new manager of the Perfect Passion Company, Katie’s mission is to help the lonely hearts of Edinburgh. With the assistance of her amiable and handsome office neighbor, William, she finds herself using a personal touch to find matches for the city’s lovelorn citizens. When an airline pilot comes to her looking for a woman to take care of him, Katie sends him to cooking school. The case of a hotelier with a particularly overbearing mother may require a delicate two-pronged approach. And for a client who has a habit of talking so much she does not even seem to draw breath—well, Katie doesn’t turn down a case just because it’s challenging.

Along the way, Katie learns that her work may be a little broader in scope than she had originally thought, and there may be something to learn about her own future happiness as well. With the tenderness of which only McCall Smith is capable, The Perfect Passion Company charmingly illuminates the psychology of matchmaking, the search for love and compassion, and the mysterious spark of attraction that can, at times, catch hold of us all.

“McCall Smith is wonderfully skilled and winningly humane.” —The Wall Street Journal

©2023 Alexander McCall Smith (P)2024 Polygon, an imprint of Birlinn Limited, Edinburgh

Cute story

This is a cute and predictable love story but I got bored during some of the chapters. It had a few funny moments. The narrator’s voice is a too high-pitched and sharp for my taste, and her narration is often exaggerated. Not as good as 44 Scotland Street or the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.

Weak story

Good narrator, book is actually three novellas with one central theme, an “Introduction Agency.” Lots of loose ends.

Delightful and a real pleasure!

This book was a real pleasure and a delight to listen to. The story is so sweet and romantic. I am amazed by the author and love everything he writes
and the characters he creates. I enjoyed the narration and the voice of narrator was just right. Highly recommended.

So many varied and interesting stories woven together.

Maybe Ness’s voice was a bit overdone but it didn’t spoil anything. It’s hard to give definition and difference to each voice.

Light Romance

I liked the simplicity of the story. Some of the voices were just great, other I found irritating.

High pitch narration very annoying at times

Alexander McCall Smith is great as usual, so much humanistic and moralistic interest. Relatable and makes me reflect on life.

The narrator however isn't like the usual middle tone narrators for his books. This is a very high pitch voice, and when she tries to do dramatic voices like Ness and Jenny, it is WAY high pitch and artificial with dragged on vowels, it's actually quite, unbearable. Really really annoying. You don't have to be annoying to be dramatic. I started just skipping all the parts and chapters of Ness and Jenny.

I would not buy another if it's this narrator. She's not the right narrator for his books.

Fun romance

I liked the main character and the simple fun premise of the agency. I also liked the agency client characters. The dialogue was a bit sugary but I kind of needed it- so that was ok for this type of read. I didn’t care for the narration- too sing dingy and over right sometimes but other times lovely and fluid with plenty of variation.

Delightful, Charming and Entertaining

I enjoyed the whole premise of the Perfect Passion Company, whose purpose is to find compatible partners for their clients. And meanwhile, there’s a love affair happening at a whole other level - or maybe more than one, depending on how you look at it. It was fun to “meet “ these new characters Alexander McCall Smith has created, and I hope we’ll be treated to their further adventures!

I can't listen to this Narrator

I've listened to all the Alexander McCall Smith's series, but will be returning this one. I've only listened to one chapter, but the narrator is using a very high-pitched voice, with an overly enthusiastic tone, for the 3 female characters introduced so far. There is no differentiation between the 2 twenty-something characters, nor the somewhat older Aunt - I felt that her voice could have been lower and calmer for some contrast. Perhaps the narrator could have done better with better direction....

Enjoyable but not nearly the complexity …

Most of the time I find AMSs books lots of fun, with lots of plots, sub plots etc. though this was a fun listen; it lacked his usual complexity. You don’t find yourself really forming any significant bonds with the characters. It’s more of a Lake Erie than a Lake Ontario or Superior.