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Lettie's Plight

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Lettie's Plight

By: Michael Bussa
Narrated by: Sallie Beaumont
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About this listen

Born in the Victorian era, in the slums of Bethnal Green in the darkest of London, Lettie vowed to leave a miserable life behind. But when she forges a new life, in a new town, she finds herself trapped in a loveless marriage, living the very life she had left behind in Bethnal Green. When she finally has enough money, Lettie waits for just the right moment to leave her abusive and controlling husband, Roman, who would do anything to keep her confined. What will Lettie do?

©2017 Michael Bussa (P)2018 Michael Bussa Anthologies & Short Stories Short Stories Suspense Thriller & Suspense Marriage Fiction

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All stars
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A curious sort of morality tale, just 30 minutes in duration, which is distinguished by the atmospheric imagery of place and time. A young girl, born into the stark poverty and cruel drudgery of London's Bethnal Green in Victorian times, determines her place is not there, the hard daily grind not for her, and that she will raise herself up into a position of gentility.
Although a neat little story in itself, it did raise a couple of questions, not answered, in this reader's mind, which I am unable to divulge further without revealing too much of the already brief story. One mention, however: a pound might seem very little now, but in Victorian London, to an ordinary workman, let alone a woman, it would have been considerable wealth.

Narrator Sallie Beaumont has a very pleasant sounding voice, quite deep and rich, with just a tinge of an Antipodean accent. She also gives good differentiation between her character's voices. Sadly, however, for a story in large part made up of conversational speech, her Cockney accents are woefully bad, seriously rivalling Dick Van Dyke's performance in Mary Poppins, no, sorry, her accents are worse since they do not even remain consistent. This is a considerable distraction, especially for an British listener. An unfortunate choice, therefore, especially as the author's written dialect appears true, as far as this reader could determine.

A nice touch to the audible experience was a very brief sound bite of old London life between each short chapter. My thanks to the rights holder who, at my request, gifted me a complimentary copy of Lettie's Plight, via Audiobook Boom. It was fun, querky and a quick listen. With a more authentic narrator, the rating would have been higher.

This is for both of us, laddie.

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Thank you to Michael Bussa for providing me with a free audiobook in return for an honest review.

A Victorian thriller short story following a woman unhappy with her life who decides to do something about it.

THE GOOD STUFF
I really like the Victorian era, it’s the one historic style that I do enjoy reading, and Michael Bussa, I feel catches the atmosphere perfectly.

The characters are very well written. I felt sorry for Lettie and how unhappy she was in the first few chapters. Her husband was also very well written, although he wasn’t physically abusive, I really hated him.

NOT MY CUP OF TEA
The story was fantastic, the narrator on the other hand…I felt cheapened this lovely little story a bit. Sallie Beaumont has a lovely reading voice, but as an English listener, her English accent was absolutely terrible.

I wasn’t really a fan of the random sound effects after each chapter either.

OVERALL RATING
The story was fantastic. Michael Bussa is obviously a very talented writer and I would love to read more of his work. This would be five stars if it weren’t for the narrator’s awfully fake accent.

4 stars ****

Great story...Dick Van Dyke Accent...

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