Hoyt is starting to be an on/off author for me - I really liked the first couple I read but now ...
and part of that might be the narrator, Anne Flosnik. My first encounter with Flosnik was the audiobook The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, and frankly I thought she was brilliant in that book. I actually began to seek out books with her narrating, and as I listened to them, I started to wonder what was wrong.....
I noticed, for instance, at AAR the audiobook blogger doesn't seem to like her, and comments indicate agreement. After slogging through a Julie Garwood medieval she narrated, and then today this book, I think Flosnik has some weird idea about narrating historicals and or romance, because ICK her voice is annoying as hell on these, and I thought she was truly great in Vanishing Act. She does this thing with the word "her" especially at the end of sentences where she pronounces it "huhhhhhhh" and holds it for a count of 8. Every time. Every. Time. AARRRRGGG. Now I'm in agreement with AAR.
Plus the book was only middlingly good - the last in the series and I just couldn't get that interested in the last soldier. Hoyt's fairy tale chapter headers have completely lost their appeal for me. This one is Reynaud St. Aubyn, who was believed killed by Indians during the French and Indian wars in the colonies. His sister Emmeline marries a colonist in the first book (or maybe the second) in the series. The heroine is Beatrice, the niece of the man who took Reynaud's title and lands as next of kin (but she's not related by blood to Reynaud...). Reynaud is fighting to get his title and lands back; Beatrice is fighting to get a bill passed by parliament and to have her uncle treated well after he's stripped of the title. And there's still the mystery of the traitor that betrayed the British to the French during the war.
But all in all, I'm still giving it 3 stars because I didn't hate it (but Flosnik's voice was pretty dang annoying). Don't think it'll be up for a re-listen.
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