Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • The Flight of Swallows

  • By: Audrey Howard
  • Narrated by: Carole Boyd
  • Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
  • 3.7 out of 5 stars (11 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Flight of Swallows cover art

The Flight of Swallows

By: Audrey Howard
Narrated by: Carole Boyd
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Shining Threads cover art
Whispers on the Water cover art
A Flower in Season cover art
Beyond the Shining Water cover art
A Painted Highway cover art
The Seasons Will Pass cover art
Annie's Girl cover art
The Long Way Home cover art
Goodbye, Mersey View cover art
The Carpenter's Daughter cover art
A Home for Alice cover art
Blackpool's Angel cover art
The Orphan in the Peacock Shawl cover art
A Mother's Sacrifice cover art
Down Weavers Lane cover art
Believing in Tomorrow cover art

Summary

Charlotte Drummond knows she has a duty to obey her father. Girls, especially well-bred upper-class ones, are expected to be submissive to the men in their lives.

But Charlotte's father is a cruel man, viciously beating her and her brothers for the slightest reason. He even wants to marry her off, at just sixteen years old; to a man she does not love. Lion-hearted Charlotte wants to defy him but to protect her brothers from his fury she agrees to become the wife of Brooke Armstrong.

Only when tragedy strikes will she will be able to admit that she loved him from the moment they met. But will it be too late?

©2009 Audrey Howard (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Flight of Swallows

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

My first Audrey Howard book and I suspect my last. To begin with it was promising. I liked the characters and was quite absorbed. But the second half was disappointing; it began running out of steam almost immediately, trundled downhill and out of sight. When a story is so repetitive, you just know it?s not taking you anywhere you want to go. I got the impression the conclusion was weak; by then I was so fed up, I fast forwarded, listened to the end and we parted company. That said, it is quite well written and the narrator does a good job in an ?aye-up lass? kind of way. Only go for it if you are prepared to sleep through the second half.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Disturbing reading

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Maybe if the protagonist Charlotte didn't repeatedly finf that she only achieves orgasm when she sex is aggressive, at one point after to an argument with her husband he strikes her hard twice (hard enough to leave a bad bruise on her cheek for several days) then rapes her, she describes the experience as exhillerating and becomes pregnant that night after months of trying (a cure for infertility has been found it seems!).
Despite this the husband is portrayed as a kind caring loving almost perfect man.
I know as a guy I'm not the target audience but I like books set in this period and a woman I know told me to try this. I have to say it made for uncomfortable reading, the girls father caning her bare bum at 16 and being described as enjoying this immensely was pure titillation. Personally I don't think light romance is the proper area to comment on incestuous child abuse.

What could Audrey Howard have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

A less submissive heroine, she is described as lion hearted but fails to see that her partner is only kind and caring when all is going his way.

What does Carole Boyd bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

I gave it 2 stars only because of the excellent narration.

What character would you cut from The Flight of Swallows?

The mustache twitching villainous father. The abusive husband, the stereotyped peasents, the clichéd doctor, all doctors in these times appear to be progressive and unconventional.

Any additional comments?

like the love many women seem to have for Heathcliff types I fail to see the attraction to abusive behaviour from the hero, I realize he will come to some sort of realization at the end about the way things should be but by two thirds of the way I no longer cared.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful