Summerset Abbey by T. J. Brown

Narrated by Sarah Coomes

Summerset Abbey seems to have been clearly aimed at the Downton Abbey market, and not just because of the similarity in the names. Summerset is set in 1913, and is the first of a trilogy that follows events in the lives of three young women – sisters Rowena and Victoria Buxton and their informally adopted sister, Prudence Tate.

The story opens with the funeral of Philip Buxton, younger brother of the Earl of Summerset, and father of Rowena and Victoria. Philip was a progressive who ensured his daughters were well educated and brought them up to be unconstrained by class differences. It comes as an incredibly harsh blow when Rowena is told by her uncle and her father’s solicitor that their home does not actually belong to them, as it’s part of the earl’s estate, and that, as Rowena’s money is in trust until she is twenty-five (two years away), they will have to make their home at the Abbey from now on. Not only that, but as Prudence is nothing but the daughter of their former governess, she is not the earl’s responsibility and will not be accompanying them. Trying to deal with her grief and shock, Rowena panics and suggests the first thing that occurs to her – Prudence should stay on as hers and Victoria’s lady’s maid.

When they arrive at the Abbey, Prudence is hurried off into the servants’ quarters and given a long list of do’s and don’ts by the housekeeper, who is clearly not disposed to like her. Many of the other servants are similarly inclined, feeling that Prudence has ideas above her station, and poor Prudence finds herself in the unenviable position of being “between stations” – thought too posh for “downstairs” and not posh enough for “upstairs”.

The earl and countess are not thrilled at having Prudence under their roof, and clearly want to be rid of her. Their attitude serves to emphasise the precarious nature of the situation faced by a woman like Prudence who has no male relatives to speak up for her. She is going to have to make her own way in life from now on, and it’s clear that it’s not going to be easy.

Each of the three principal female roles possesses certain defining characteristics, although I wouldn’t say that each is particularly strongly characterised. Victoria has been defined all her life as being “sickly” (she suffers from asthma), but fortunately is not one to let herself be beaten down by it, as her aunt observes, Victoria’s stubbornness “no doubt came from being infirm so much of her young life. If you were sickly, you either overcame it or it overcame you. It gave one a sense of strength.” Prudence is “good” – she’s always been able to handle Victoria when she gets in one of her pets, and even though she fumes inwardly, she hardly ever complains about the situation into which she has been forced.

Rowena’s inaction over the situation faced by the young woman who was, until recently, to all intents and purposes, her sister, makes her a difficult character to like. She seems to be so weighed down by thoughts of her responsibilities – to her sister and to her family – as to have become paralysed by them. She is reactive rather than pro-active, never owning up to her poor decisions until it is too late, and, feeling guilty about her inaction, lashes out, which makes her feel even more guilty. It’s true that young women in 1913 were still very much bound by convention, and that Rowena has little choice in the matter, but she never attempts to question her uncle’s decision or do anything to improve Prudence’s situation.

While not technically an historical romance, there are romantic elements in Summerset Abbey, as Rowena becomes smitten with a young aviator by the name of Jonathan Wells, Victoria strikes up a friendship with her cousin’s friend, Kit, and Prudence catches the eye of the young Lord Billingsly.

The story takes a while to get going and moves at a fairly leisurely pace, but it’s enjoyable, and the author has certainly done her homework as to the trends in fashion and décor of the time, and she pays particular attention to the class divide and the rumblings of discontent among the lower classes. Things are changing… but not quite yet.

My biggest bugbear with the story, however, is that it is incomplete. This may not be an issue for some, but I really didn’t like the fact that the book ends without any closure and is so obviously a set up to entice listeners into purchasing the next in the series. The book is part of a trilogy, it’s true, but in the majority of series books, each book is more or less self-contained, and works independently of the others. Here, Prudence discovers the truth about her parentage and makes a rash decision – The End. What?!

This is the first time I have listened to narrator Sarah Coomes, although she has a fair number of audiobooks to her credit. Her voice is suitably youthful as to enable her to portray the sisters – aged 23, 20 and 18 – convincingly and she is very good in the more emotional moments. The differentiation between the three young women is subtle, but there, although sometimes it’s difficult to tell the difference between Rowena and Prudence. There are unexpected switches of PoV in the narrative, which can cause some confusion when all three of the sisters are in the same scene, so I had to pay close attention to the dialogue tags at those points. The male characters don’t appear very often throughout the story, but when they do, it’s fortunate that they rarely appear together (if at all), because Ms Coomes seems to have one all-purpose young-man voice, which is a bit stronger and harsher than her usual tone, with a slightly nasal quality that isn’t particularly attractive. The Earl and Countess of Summerset are pitched lower than the younger characters, and the servants and other secondary characters are portrayed using a variety of regional accents which are fairly accurate and consistently applied. The narrative is well paced, and Ms Coomes is clearly very comfortable with the material. My one criticism in this area is that she overused one particular vocal inflection, which gave numerous sentences a constantly “nervy” feel.

Once I got into the story, I enjoyed it, although I’ve knocked my content grade down to a C because of the inconclusive ending, and I would certainly consider listening to Ms Coomes again.

Caz

Narration: C+

Book Content: C

Steam Factor: You can listen out loud

Violence: None

Genre: Historical Fiction with romantic elememts

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Summerset Abbey was provided to AudioGals for review by Brilliance Audio.