Just Rewards
Emma Harte Series, Book 6
گزارش تخلف
فرمت کتاب
audiobook
تاریخ انتشار
2006
نویسنده
Terry Donnellyناشر
Macmillan Audioشابک
9781593978808
کتاب های مرتبط
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی
The saga of the Harte family began with A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE, the compelling story of Emma Harte's rise from poverty and illegitimacy to found England's finest department store. This story, ostensibly about Emma Harte's great-grandchildren, is a disappointment. Terry Donnelly does a credible job portraying the various British aristocrats. But the characters themselves are not likable, and the plot is bogged down in detail and in trying to tie the current generation to the past. Further, the characters' adulation of a great-grandmother long dead seems unhealthy to this listener. This is one series that should have stopped a generation or two ago. A.C.P. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
November 28, 2005
Can this be, as advertised, the final episode in the Harte family saga? A Woman of Substance
(1979), the story of Emma Harte's triumph over poverty and illegitimacy to found England's greatest department store, and its four sequels were huge bestsellers. Now Emma's great-granddaughter, Linnet O'Neill, must defend the empire and family against evil uncle Jonathan Ainsley. But words such as "granddaughter" and "uncle" don't do justice to the complexities. It takes four and a half pages of front matter to enumerate the Harte, Kallinski and O'Neill clans whose intertwining lives drive the saga. Emma's descendants offer a helping hand to new in-laws—and the reader—by uttering sentences such as these: "Through his great-grandfather, Winston the First, Emma is
Gideon's great-great-aunt. But she is also Gideon's great-grandmother, because Emma was my
grandmother." Weddings and funerals keep the local caterer busy and offer crescendos of activity, if scant emotion. Although Ainsley's malevolence hovers behind the story and leads to near disasters, there's never a doubt that the strong women will triumph—though not without struggle. Series devotees will take heart at the ending, which hints that Ainsley's evil will survive his death and the struggles will continue offstage even if Bradford lays down her golden pen.
Linnet O'Neill, great-granddaughter of Emma Harte, continues the family saga when she returns from her honeymoon filled with tantalizing ideas to renovate the family business. The large cast of characters that make up the fourth generation of Harte women is difficult to follow, but name cues, such as "great aunt" and "great-great-great-grandfather," help. Narrator Kate Burton is a solid fit for these English and North American characters, who have a variety of accents. She captures the tension within the family and excels at portraying wicked Angharad, an adopted sister with a threatening manner and condescending voice. For those who follow the Harte stories, this won't disappoint. G.D.W. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
دیدگاه کاربران