Narrated by Marian Hussey

I’ve been eyeing this series for a while and I’ve heard good reports of Marian Hussey’s narration so I finally decided to dive in with The Lady Traveler’s Guide to Happily Ever After. It took me some time to appreciate (almost until the end of the book in fact) but it seems to be a prequel of sorts. I gather that the other books take place a bit later and this story shows the kind-of origins of The Lady Traveler’s Society. Possibly had I read/listened to the other books first, I’d have understood more quickly who the septuagenarian women were when they suddenly appeared in this book. However, apart from that initial confusion (ie – who are they and why are they in the book?) the story stood alone very well.

The prologue sets the scene: James Branham,
nephew and heir to the Earl of Ellsworth has just married Violet Hagen. Not
long before, at the ball which was to announce his engagement to another woman,
he had been caught kissing Violet. She and his would-be-fiancée were both
wearing blue gowns and both have red hair. He claimed it was a case of mistaken
identity. However, the damage was done and there was an emergency wedding to
save Violet’s reputation. As it happened, James knew full well that Violet was
Violet; he just didn’t want to marry the other lady and thought this would be a
good way to get out of it. He was 24 at the time and this was presented as him
being young and foolish but to be honest, I’d have thought that by that age,
he’d have known better.

21 at the time, Violet had been crushing on
James for some time. When he kissed her, she hoped it was because he had
finally seen her.

The morning after their hasty wedding,
Violet overhears James talking to his uncle and saying that he wasn’t ready for
marriage. Violet, hurt, says she never wants to see James again and thus begins
nearly six years of estrangement between the couple.

The main story picks up then, after the
death of the old earl. James has ascended to the title and Violet has been
called home for the reading of the will. Uncle Richard had long believed Violet
and James belonged together and he therefore put some significant stipulations
in his will to try and force the couple to realise it. They are to live
together and be seen in public (at least 3 times per week) and not to cause any
scandal for just under three years. If they meet those terms, James inherits
the money and properties. If not, he only gets the title. (Apparently there is
no entail.)

The old ladies come into the picture in
that Richard asked his old flame, Effie, to oversee the terms of the
stipulation. Effie, ably assisted by her dear friends Gwen and Poppy, (I gather
these three women subsequently form The Lady Traveler’s Society) is delighted
to take on the project.

One thing might well be a dealbreaker for
some listeners: during the nearly six years they are separated, James is not
celibate. For the first few years he continued to live as if he were single and
had various dalliances and flings.  Yes,
that’s right. James is a cheating cheatypants. The listener, as well as Violet,
needs to overcome that to have any chance of getting a HEA. James is a bit of a
problem generally, actually. It’s not always easy to like or respect him, even
apart from the infidelity. To his credit, he does apologise sincerely and had
had reformed himself years before the main story commences so I was not worried
he would ever cheat on Violet again. Still, there were times I wanted to shake
him.

Part one of the story is set in London,
with the second part involving travel to Paris, Florence and Athens. Part one
moved very slowly indeed. There was a lot of nothing happening. It could have
been cut by two thirds without missing anything important. Things got a bit
faster and therefore more interesting in part two but still, there wasn’t a lot
of conflict and my mind wandered often.

The narration was very good but it wasn’t
enough to stop me being a little bored, particularly in the first half of the
book.  The audio comes in at just over 12
hours. I recall checking the “time remaining” at one point, thinking I must
surely be close to the end on account of that the couple seemed to be
imminently ready for their HEA and being dismayed to find there were more
than seven hours left.

This was my first experience with a Marian
Hussey narration. I’d certainly be happy to listen to her again – though
perhaps with a book which moves faster than a glacier. She has an excellent
range of accents. In this book she displayed English, American, French and
Italian accents and they were all great. She didn’t have the deepest male
character voice I’ve ever heard but it was certainly distinct from any female
cast member and it was easy enough for me to accept and enjoy it.

Ms. Hussey’s voice occasionally got a bit
squeaky, particularly when she was portraying female outrage, but it wasn’t
unpleasant.

I was impressed with the way she was able
to convey the ages of the various cast; Effie, Gwen and Poppy certainly sounded
like they were in their 70s.

I
don’t think Ms. Hussey had the best material to work with here, unfortunately.
She made the best of what there was, but it was not enough to make this book a
success for me.