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No Angel

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No Angel

By: Penny Vincenzi
Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
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About this listen

Enter the world of the rich, charismatic Lytton family and their powerful publishing empire in this passionate family saga that spans from the Edwardian era to World War I and the excesses of the glamorous 1920s. Enter the world of Celia Lytton, a woman who is used to getting her way. Celia makes difficult and often dangerous decisions that affect not only herself, her husband Oliver, and their children, but others—the destitute Sylvia Miller, whose life is transformed by Celia's intrusion; Oliver's daunting elder sister, who is not all she appears to be; and Sebastian Brooke, for whom Celia makes the most dangerous decision of all.

©2007 Penny Vincenzi (P)2007 Phoenix Books, Inc. 20th Century Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction World War I
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This was a lovely book predominantly featuring English aristocracy around the First World War. So why the American accent? It detracted so much from the story that I nearly gave up and read the book instead! Some of the pronunciations were so excruciatingly wrong that I wondered who had edited the audio book? I practically hit the roof over ' Passchendaele' in particular. If you can get over the accent then you'll enjoy the story. It has been difficult to rate the book and I eventually settled on 4 out of 5 - a different narrator would have been 5 stars.

English book,American accent - why?

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Penny Vincenzi at her best. I loved this audiobook and kept listening at every opportunity. It flowed well and was easy to follow. My only criticism was the reader's cockney accent - it's terrible. However, the book is 26 hours long so you do get used to it after a while so don't let this put you off.

A thoroughly enjoyable read

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Would you try another book written by Penny Vincenzi or narrated by Carrington MacDuffie?

I would not buy another book, set in England, narrated by Carrington MacDuffie

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

The story was OK. It was the awful accents and pronounciation that made it unenjoyable.

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Carrington MacDuffie?

As the story was set for at least 95% of the time in England, I would have cast an English narrator. Or, at the very least, someone who could immitate an English accent. To be fair, there were one or two accents that were believable (the totally sterotypical upper class ones), but most were absolutely cringe worthy. I was pleased when one of the characters died because it meant I didn't have to listen to his totally unrealistic voice again.

Names, places and words were mispronounced constantly. I accept that Americans pronounce some words differently, but when an English character is saying things in a way that only an American would, it ruins the flow the story.

Carrington MacDuffie is obviously a very comptetant narrator, but not when it comes to English accents and pronounciations.

Did No Angel inspire you to do anything?

No Angel almost inspired me to return the book for a refund!

The book was good. The storyline was fine. It was the narration that totally spoilt it for me.

I might buy another book by the same author, but I would definitely check who was narrating it first, or buy it in a different format (ie Kindle or 'real' book)

Any additional comments?

It was the narration that spoilt it for me. Most of the accents were painful to the ear.

Why on earth was an American narrator chosen for this project?

Book was Ok, but some of the accents were awful

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but the narrator is driving me daft !..Why, oh why would anyone in their right mind employ this lady to read this story??!!

Only on the first book...

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I love this period of history(early 20th Century). The author has created a lovely picture of this time and I really enjoyed the story BUT in my opinion the writing is very irritating. It is heavily cliched and caricatured. I felt as if J T was 'showing off' her research and including too many details.

This may not be a problem for anyone else, do not let me put you off it is a very 'readable' book.

Good story, good characters.,

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