Splendid cover art

Splendid

Blydon, Book 1

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Splendid

By: Julia Quinn
Narrated by: Lucy Rayner
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About this listen

Based on the phenomenal growth of Quinn's popularity and her four-week stint on the New York Times best-seller list with Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, it's the perfect time to revisit Ms. Quinn's "splendid" storytelling.

American heiress Emma Dunster has always been fun-loving and independent, with no wish to settle into marriage. She plans to enjoy her Season in London in more unconventional ways than husband hunting. But this time Emma's high jinks lead her into dangerous temptation.

Alexander Ridgely, the Duke of Ashbourne, is a notorious rake who carefully avoids the risk of love until he plants one reckless kiss on the sensuous lips of this high-spirited innocent and condemns himself to delicious torment. Little does he know that his passion has touched the very soul of the lovely enchantress and committed them both to a lifetime of splendid ecstasy.

©1995 Julie Cotler (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Romance Marriage
All stars
Most relevant  
I've read the book but was avoiding the audiobook as it's not narrated by the talented Rosalyn landor, I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it, the narration was overall enjoyable in my opinion, I speed up the speed a little.

Entertaining

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At first, I thought I wouldn’t be able to listen for long! The narration was so robotic and not at all reflecting the dialogue. It was like AI was reading it. But after an hour, the narrator warmed up, I got into the story and I got use to the tone. It’s an exceptional story, just like all of her others. Every one I listen to, including this one, is my new fave.

Took a while to adjust to a different narrator

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I have to agree with some statements about the narrator. I wouldn’t choose to listen to her after I have finished this series. But, after I had got into the book I began to think that her characterisation of Belle is spot on. Julia Quinn has written Belle as a flighty type and the voice given by Lucy Rayner suits her.

Narrator not that bad

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The story isn’t bad. Definitely not up to the Bridgeton series standard one has come to expect from Julia Quinn, but the narration is utterly terrible. The women are given squeaky irritating voices & the men all sound like pompous morons. Makes it very difficult to relate the characters & loose oneself in the story.

Terrible narration

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A great storyline with just the right amount of romance. I was especially grateful that the love making was not over loaded and over explained.
Highly recommend to others.

Fabulous Book

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she was high pitch, fast. just as well listen to other julia quinn books first.

did not enjoy narrator

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Grating narrator voicing characters. Storyline also felt like a repetition of Julia Quinns other works.

Narrator was Awful

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I Would definitely recommend you try this book and don’t be scared of the narrator I found her very easy to listen to it was a great story and kept me on the edge of my seat. There were so many twists and turns 

I loved this story a great book

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Terrible terrible narator, could not listen to the whole story! Her voice spoilt it for me

Splendid Narrator is dreadful

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Didn’t hold interest
No life to the story and unconvincing characters
Narration creates Caricatures rather than characters.

Boring

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