Isabella: Trevelyan Family, Book 1

Loretta Chase is historical romance royalty, in my opinion, and her many fans have waited patiently for her books to finally appear in audio. Her magnum opus, Lord of Scoundrels, appeared earlier this year, as well as the three volumes of the Dressmakers series.

Those titles had first-class production values, but Isabella, sadly, does not. The narrator is good, but the sound quality is very poor. Blackstone Audio produced LOS and the Dressmakers, whereas Isabella and Knave's Wager (which also suffers from poor sound) are self-published. These are among Chase's earliest titles, so perhaps no publisher was interested in producing them in audio.

I've been hoping that the Carsington series would appear in audio, but I certainly hope that Ms. Chase either does not self-publish those titles or finds a better producer for them.

The story was quite fine. Toward the end I'm not sure why but I got a bit confused. Things went very quickly but they also seemed a bit disjointed. However, I enjoyed the story.

I liked the narrator, too, but the audio production was abysmal. It sounded like it was recorded in the bottom of a barrel. That's horribly unfair to the author and can't be blamed on the narrator either.

I like Loretta Chase's work and I'm sorry this production wasn't up to the standards we've come to expect in audiobooks.

Thoroughly enjoyable for its delightfully witty dialogue, it's sensitively drawn, complex characters, it's suspenseful, entertaining story and its ability to allow the reader to truly exist, if only for a few hours, in the century it inhabits. An accomplished and deft literary hand at work here.

The story was fine as was the narrator, but the production quality of the recording was so weak that I gave up listening. It sounds as if it were recorded in a bathroom.

I really did enjoy this book, my only complaint is the audio quality. I enjoyed Stevie Zimmerman's performance however the audio sounded like it had been recorded in an echo chamber and blurred out maybe could do with some digital retouching

Probably ought to rerecord this then it will be a good read. Worth a try

This is nowhere as good as Lord Perfect or that entire series. The narration was good reader did a great job my 3 stars was because of the production, the recording was poor. I plan on listening to the next book in series.

I listen to a lot of book on audible and have never had to listen to such horrible background white noise

Quiet story without much passion or zest between any of the characters. I would not listen to this book again.

I would recommend this book to anybody looking for a sweet easy historical romance.