Fantastic Performance

June Barrie does a great rendition of the characters of this book. She as easily portrays the dry argumentative Lord Worth as she does the willful beautiful Judith. And the growing suspense is fabulous to listen to.

15 people found this helpful

Early Heyer and it shows

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I love just about every Georgette Heyer novel I have in audio form, and return to them over and over. Regency Buck was (I believe) Heyer's first foray into the Regency era, and it's interesting to see her laying the groundwork for the many novels that followed and created the Regency Romance genre. All the tropes that come to signify the genre are here: Brighton, the Pavillion, the Prince Regent, Beau Brummell, curricle races, Gentleman Jackson and boxing, the social restrictions placed on women, fabulous wealth and high titles, a glowering and unapproachable hero and a feisty heroine.

She does, however, get a little carried away with the details (you will never, ever hear a longer or more obsessive description of the interior of the Brighton Pavillion!), displaying all her amazing research, and after this novel she backs away from using important historical figures of the age as significant characters. There's an odd, "Mary Sue" feeling to heroine Judith Taverner, who is unbelievably rich, very attractive, unusually liberated, a "notable whip," AND who is admired by the Beau and the Regent AND a couple of the Royal Dukes.

The Gothic sinister-mystery element is kind of fun, and something that Heyer's later Regencies don't have as much of. It's an enjoyable enough tale, nicely narrated by June Barrie. It can't have been easy to lend life to the very-long sections about the roads between London and Brighton, boxing matches, or the aforementioned architectural detail!

27 people found this helpful

Georgette at her best!

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This exciting story was narrated by June Barrie who gave a truly splendid performance. I listened to this book in one day because I could not stop! One reviewer said there was not much humor in this book, but I disagree. Indeed, I think that Heyer's earlier books (this one copyright 1935) have all the elements that we, her fans, have come to love and admire. A beautiful, spunky heroine; a handsome hero who knows how to dress, drive his horses and deliver a devilish good left punch, and a host of other terrific characters including one of my favorites: the Earl's trusted tiger (a special type of groom) all come together to tell a very enjoyable story.Thank you June Barrie and thank you Audible.com.

9 people found this helpful

Enjoyable Story

I really liked this story and characters. The narrator, who's read Heyer stories before, did a fabulous job, as usual.

I don't want to spoil things, but I will say that for a romance to work for me I need to fall in love with the love interest. Usually, Heyer does a great job at this. My only issue was how the mystery actually got in the way of the story.

4 people found this helpful

Enter a doorway into another time!

Loved it! Good characters, gives great insights into the culture and society of the times. It was a 'love' story that was not trite or shallow but Georgette Heyer gives a great 'roundess' to everyday life with the little extras that allows one to lose oneself in the time and the place. I ABHOR the abridged versions because they turn a professional writer like Georgette Heyer into nothing more than Mills and Boon.

8 people found this helpful

Enjoyable story

What did you like best about this story?

I enjoy how Heyer tells the story from the perspective of the heroine, in this case a young and beautiful heiress. Apparently this was one of Heyer's first regency stories and there is less comedy of errors humor in this one than some of her others but it was still a very enjoyable ride. I am now on my second listen.

Have you listened to any of June Barrie’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

If you could take any character from Regency Buck out to dinner, who would it be and why?

the heroine

3 people found this helpful

grew to like it eventually

Had a hard time getting into this story, I think the plot was not quite as interesting at first and therefore did not captivate me as much as previous books from this author. There was still good dialog, and I enjoyed the second half more than the first. The brother was clueless and that added humor to the whole thing. Overall just not as good as some others I've recently enjoyed by this author.

2 people found this helpful

Not one of her better efforts

I don’t think I re-read Regency Buck until listening to it now. The heroine and hero have as little charm to this reader today as they did 40 years ago.

1 person found this helpful

Awesome Georgette Heyer novel - great characters

Georgette Heyer is one of my favorite authors, along with Jane Austen. Heyer's books are extremely well written and are filled with characters that are as familiar to me as close friends. I have read all of Heyer's books at least twice, and have listened to all of them on Audible at least twice, some as many as six times. They are always the go-to books for me when I don't know which new book to tackle. The stories never bore me - they are always fresh, funny, interesting and make me feel so good. I know that nothing terrible can happen in Georgette Heyer's world and that all will be well.

In this book the listener is probably going to be unsure about the identity of the villain. I would swing back and forth between two of the characters, the cousin and the guardian. One of them is a danger to the heroine and her brother. Great story!!

1 person found this helpful

Unexpected

A somewhat unexpected story that I think was well written. It was often hard to tell who was the true villain. It was also fun see how GH was trying to manipulate the reader. Sometimes it did feel as though she was struggling to set some of the scenes. But that could have also been part of the manipulation. Regardless, it was a fun read. It wasn't as funny as some other GH stories. although, it did make me laugh everytime Worth would call Judith Clorinda. I could almost feel her cringe. Eventually she gave up and just quit contradicting him. Not high on my list, but would read again.