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The Lavender House

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The Lavender House

By: Hilary Boyd
Narrated by: Maggie Mash
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About this listen

Nancy de Freitas is the glue that holds her family together. Caught between her ageing, ailing mother Frances, and her struggling daughter Louise, frequent user of Nancy's babysitting services, it seems Nancy's fate is to quietly go on shouldering the burden of responsibility for all four generations. Her divorce four years ago put paid to any thoughts of a partner to share her later years with. Now it looks like her family is all she has.

Then she meets Jim. Smoker, drinker, unsuccessful country singer and wearer of cowboy boots, he should be completely unsuited to the very together Nancy. And yet, there is a real spark.

But Nancy's family don't trust Jim one bit. They're convinced he'll break her heart, maybe run off with her money - he certainly distracts her from her family responsibilities.

Can she be brave enough to follow her heart? Or will she remain glued to her family's side and walk away from one last chance for love?

©2016 Hilary Boyd (P)2016 WF Howes Contemporary Contemporary Fiction Genre Fiction Fiction Heartfelt
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Most relevant

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The time was well spent regarding the story by Hilary Boyd but it was almost totally spoilt by the narrator. The voices were totally unbelievable and made all the characters sound male, croaky and old. Shame as I love all her books.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The relationship between Nancy and Jim.

What about Maggie Mash’s performance did you like?

I didn't like any of it!

Spoilt by narration

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Both the story and the performance were disappointing. Solutions to the problems were sudden and lacked logic. Some big lasting problems were solved in a few sentences; very unbelievable.
As for the narrator: The slow speed she used for the male voices, made them sound slightly retarded.

Disappointing

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It may have been slightly better to have a male voice as well. Although Maggie Nash did a great job it, the story involved a lot of males and it did detract from my enjoyment as Ms Nash's gravel tones sometimes didn't quite hit the mark. Great book though

Only one narrator

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