What the Lady's Maid Knew

Riftmagic Saga Series, Book 1

By: E. E. Holmes

Narrated by: Mary Sarah

Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

London is a powder keg...and Eliza Braxton is the match.

Imagine a London where magic is real...real, but feared. This is Eliza Braxton's London, and she has always accepted her place in it gladly. As one of the Riftborn, her magic has relegated her to the servant class, where she dutifully serves as the lady's maid in one of the most powerful households in the country. There, she uses her remarkable powers of persuasion to keep Elder Hallewell's rebellious daughter in the path to an arranged match of power and prosperity. Eliza has never questioned her loyalty...until now.

Currents of discontent are roiling beneath the city's surface, and Eliza's comfortable existence is about to be caught up in the tide. A resistance is building, a resistance that covets Eliza's talents above all else. But can Eliza betray everything she's ever known for things she never dared to dream?

©2020 E. E. Holmes (P)2021 Tantor

Maybe it was an accent?

I couldn't get into this audiobook because the lisp of the reader was so distracting it made it difficult for me to follow. Maybe it was a good story? I may check it out in print from the library.

Didn’t like the narrator. Strange way of speaking.

I liked the story, but not the way the narrator speaks. I will be listening to the next book though.

Good story

Lots of suspense and intrigue. Well written and expressed characters that are relatable and believable.

A Good Story

This story is good. I like the build-up of the main character and the supporting characters as well. And its one of those stories where you want to see how the conflict develops and grows. The only problem is that the narrator is sooo BORING. The slow drawl with each word the high to very low cadence she takes every single sentence will put you to sleep. it takes considerable effort not to fall asleep, so much so that you're excited when she stops narrating and starts voicing the characters themselves. It's the only time any type of emotion is actually heard or felt. If you can manage not to fall in a trance of tranquility, then you will enjoy the story.

Sloooowly it goes

The narrator has a delicate proper voice that doesn’t quite fit all the range needed to move the story along. It is an excellent voice for jessamine or a fine lady, but as a narrator it seems overly prim and cold.

Story then felt like it moved too slowly; I tried reading the book at the same time as listening and it was painful to wait for each page to be narrated so I could turn the physical page too.

Narrator's Pronunciation Too Distracting

I was excited about this book, but honestly I couldn't make it through the whole thing. The way the narrator emphasized the ending of her words was too distracting and ultimately led to me stopping the audio book. I will have to try reading it on kindle sometime instead.

Not as good as a Tracker Series

The narrator was so wrong for this book. It was hard to listen. I had to increase the narration speed just to stay awake.

loved the story, didn't love the reader

Great story! I am excited to start the next book, but I don't love the reader. There isn't much emotion in her reading and she sounds a bit too proper for what I would expect. I will still be listening to the next one because I am hooked on the story!

narrator makes the story difficult to listen to

narrator is so distracting takes away from the story Don't know if I'm going to be able to listen to the rest of this very disappointed supposed to be Downton Abbey means Harry Potter not fifty shades of Gray

This is a great book but not great narrator

I got this audiobook and began to listen. The narrator's style was just plain weird. All her words were drawn out and every sentence ended as though it were a question. I just couldn't do it. I returned the audiobook and then bought it in paperback. I highly recommend the book. The plot is interesting. The characters are well drawn. The world the author creates opens up as the story progresses and the characters learn some very disturbing things about their ruling class. I'm excited to read the sequel.