Summer House Party
Series: Timeless Regency Collection, Book 4
By: Regina Scott, Donna Hatch, Sarah M. Eden / Narrated By: Sarah Zimmerman
Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
The authors had me at: Regency Collection…
I know, isn’t that shameless of me? To be soooo enamored of the genre that I’m willing to go in, ready to rate it at 5-stars cuz that’s my dearest hope for the collection?
Well, unfortunately I can’t give it 5-stars due to an odd quirkiness to the narration and due to an absolutely unbeLIEVable twist in the second of the three stories written here. But hey: 4-stars ain’t bad.
Let’s start with seasoned performer Sarah Zimmerman (I dunno: Any relation to Stevie Zimmerman, she who is also of the Romance Narration ilk?). She does quite well here in each story of Summer House Party and, though the narration sounds a bit tinny, each character is voiced really well. The men aren’t smug prigs; and only a few of the women sound all wilty and fragile. Her problem is the aforementioned quirk: She hits many, many, MANY a last word of a sentence with a big BANG of an accent on the first syllable then draws out the rest. As in, say, “It was near the ABbeeeeey;” and “Why would he not WISH iiiiiiiiiiit?” And I mean, like, throughout the entire 8 hours of the book, no matter what all is going on in the stories. It made each story, no matter what Point of View it was written in, sound like there was an omniscient presence conveying meaning and understanding of what was going on. Still, like I said, other than that, I did soooo enjoy that none of the male characters sounded like a jerk… ALways a good thing.
“An Engagement of Convenience” is our first story featuring Kitty, a spinster-ish woman who’s been harangued into being a chaperone for the young girls in her uncle’s (A beast) family. Enter Quentin, a man totally on the outs with the uncle, and he sees what Kitty goes through and suggests an engagement. As THAT, engaged to the WORST possible pick considering the animosity, will get Kitty’s uncle and the partygoers at the summer engagement to perk up their ears, and they might start noticing her. There are some underhanded dealings re: Kitty’s uncle, and Quentin does indeed have an ulterior motive, but will he notice just how much Kitty rocks? Her kindness, her intelligence? Her great wit? All in all, I felt it could’ve been longer as things happen all flash! bang! kaboom! InstantANEously. But still, author Regina Scott had me when she wrote a spinster as the heroine.
“A Perfect Match” was probably the weakest of the three as young Genevieve is invited to that particular summer house party to judge her best friend’s new great love. Welllll, it turns out, that even tho’ Genevieve is assessing the gentleman, Christian, seems to be okay, she can’t help but notice that he wouldn’t be perfect for her friend; rather, he’d be perfect for herself. Christian has noooo regard for the friend, pays her no attention, saves all his regard for Genevieve and even saves her from the clutches of a jerk. Now, I kinda always have a problem with this whole switcheroo-type story. I mean, the Hero and heroine get together, maaaybe, but what about the person who’s been your dearest friend? How on earth does one manage such a story and make things all right? Turns out, in author Donna Hatch’s hands, really quite easily. Like, unbelievably easily. So much so that I found my eyes rolling and a heavy sigh coming out. So there’s that.
Then we come to the best story of the lot as it has a nice and devilish twist to it: “The Paupers’ House Party” where author Sarah M. Eden has an assortment of young men/young women who are all down on their luck and a stone’s throw away from being paupers come together for a different kind of summer house party. The couple throwing the party, the aged Warricks, gather them all together and tell them that they will be watched throughout the stay and at the end, they will leave their estate and fortune to whomever is deserving; as in: Only one. So it’s a battle for each young person to thrust their way forward, to get the Warricks to notice them, to toad eat and kiss up, all the while stomping out all the other guests. Edward has a problem with it. Even tho’ it’d be the answers to his prayers as his father’s estates are in DIRE need of cashflow, nary a penny to inherit except for debts. But then he meets the beautiful Agatha, also destitute but headstrong. She refuses to play the game until her father swears that she owes it to her family/will be disowned if she doesn’t kowtow and kiss Warrick-patoot. I liked the story because of the twist, and I liked it because our heroes are such good people and who do the right thing by their families, but also keep in mind their consciences. I have a few more Sarah M. Edens in my Library, and after this? I’m totally looking forward to giving them a good ol’ listen!
So only three stories in this Timeless Regency Collection, but all in all jolly decent listening. You KNOW I love my Regency Romances, and tho’ not all of them hit all the sweet spots all the time, there was certainly enough that I felt I got a good one in here as I was scrolling for Summer Listens!
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