Diary of an Accidental Wallflower by Jennifer McQuiston

Narrated by Lana J. Weston

Even though I wasn’t overly impressed with the last book I read by this author, quite a few of my Goodreads friends, people whose opinions I respect and often share, enjoyed Diary of an Accidental Wallflower very much, so I decided to give it a try in audio.

Harper has opted to retain the services of Lana J. Weston for this new series, so I looked back at my review of Summer Is For Lovers to see what I’d had to say about her, because I haven’t listened to her since. I discovered that I have pretty much the same issues with her performance in this audiobook as in the previous one; namely that the narrative is a bit on the slow side and that there are quite a few glaring mispronunciations. One other issue – that her male voices weren’t quite masculine enough – wasn’t a problem here, because she did a much better job voicing the hero, and all the other male characters were more appropriately portrayed. I did, however, have a real problem with the kind of “simper” Ms Weston adopts for the narrative, which reminded me of someone talking to small children. It also sounded as though she was speaking in a weird sort of “half-voice” , a cross between normal speech and a whisper, and that was also terribly grating. In fact, I had a hard time for the first forty minutes or so and was seriously considering putting this aside and listening to something else. But this is the reviewer’s lot – sometimes we’re lucky enough to listen to narrations which work for us and sometimes not, so I stuck with it, determined to grit my teeth and get on with it.

Fortunately, once things really got going in terms of the plot, the narration improved sufficiently to enable me to concentrate on the story, which is a very good one.

The daughter of a viscount, Clare Westbrook is young, beautiful, well-dowered, and as such is expected to make an excellent match. She has her sights set on the attractive Mr Alban, the heir apparent to a duke, and is eagerly looking forward to her next ball, when she hopes to secure at least one dance with him and to fix his interest. An unfortunate accident puts paid to her plans, however, because she very badly sprains her ankle on the afternoon of the event, but she refuses to let such a thing stand in her way. She ignores the severe pain in her ankle and limps her way to the ball, determined to dance just once with Mr Alban. On arrival, her two best friends commiserate over Clare’s unfortunate accident and suggest that she take a seat until the first waltz, undertaking to hint to Mr Alban that Clare will certainly agree to dance it with him.

Unaccustomed to watching from the sidelines, Clare takes one of the seats normally reserved for the elderly and the wallflowers, and is surprised when she is addressed by an extremely handsome young man she does not know. She tries to freeze him out, but he will have none of it, telling her that he is a doctor and that her ankle clearly needs medical attention.

Doctor Daniel Merial is young and ambitious, eager to advance the cause of medical science and knowledge. In his spare time, he is working on a device which will enable doctors to regulate the doses of chloroform used to render patients unconscious, while maintaining his position as a lecturer and teacher at St. Bartholemew’s hospital. His position doesn’t pay him all that well, so he needs to supplement his income by providing medical services to those that can pay for them, and has been fortunate to find a patron in the elderly Lady Austerley. Over the time he has been treating the lady for her heart condition, she and Daniel have become friends as well; the affectionate, tender nature of their friendship is well drawn and one of the high points of the book.

Daniel inspects Clare’s ankle and pronounces it a very bad sprain that she will need to rest for four weeks. Clare is aghast – she can’t possibly absent herself from all the season’s events for that long if she is to land herself a “cream of the crop” husband, but Daniel is adamant, and Clare reluctantly agrees to do as he says. During the course of her convalescence, Daniel visits Clare a number of times and before long, the couple has fallen into an easy friendship, which is poised to blossom into something more.

While ostensibly a simple cross-class romance, there are a number of underlying themes in the book which are addressed at the same time as the protagonists are gradually falling in love, many of which are just as relevant today as they were at the time the story is set. The need for conformity and acceptance; the importance of being true to oneself; the difficulty in crossing boundaries of class and race – the author has skilfully incorporated all these ideas while at the same time penning a romance full of warmth and tenderness; and has crafted her story so well that everything blends perfectly and there’s no feeling that the other elements are detracting from the romance.

Daniel and Clare are attractive, sympathetic characters and I especially liked the way Ms McQuiston reveals Clare to be a completely different woman to the one we initially meet. At first, she seems to be the typical social butterfly, one who pretends she doesn’t like to read in order to avoid being seen as bookish, or who talks about others behind their backs simply to be accepted as one of the “cool kids” – whereas in fact, she is intelligent, thoughtful and perceptive. Daniel is quite simply delicious; handsome, witty, kind and caring, he is truly altruistic and works selflessly to make things better for others. The romance between the couple develops quite slowly to start with, but it’s very well done with a nice undercurrent of sexual tension. I also appreciated the fact that the author doesn’t gloss over the difficulties presented by the class differences between Clare and Daniel, making clear the cost each could bear should they pursue anything beyond a client-patient relationship; but I was less pleased with the latter part of the story in which Clare decides she must get back to her husband-hunting, and in which a secret comes to light which could have a serious impact on her future. In fact, the ending is perhaps a little too pat, but I enjoyed the story in spite of it. It’s well written and thought-out, and there’s a strong set of secondary characters, including Clare’s tomboyish sister, and her typically sex-obsessed thirteen year old brother, Geoffrey, both of whom lend humour to the story at the same time as they are benefiting from Daniel’s acquaintance.

In terms of the narration, once I’d got past that first forty minutes, the story became sufficiently engaging as to enable me to get past the issues I mentioned at the beginning of this review. The narrative is still fairly slow, but when Ms Weston is narrating passages that switch quickly between narrative and dialogue, the pacing seems faster and has a much more naturalistic feel overall.

The thing I really can’t find fault with is Ms Weston’s characterisation of the secondary characters, which is very good indeed, from the wonderful old Lady Austerley, who sounds just like Julie Walters performing a “posh old dear”, to the heroine’s maidservant, or the cockney prostitute, Handsome Meg. She lowers the pitch of her voice only slightly for the male characters, but she differentiates effectively between them, and portrays Daniel rather well by dropping her pitch slightly and giving him an attractive, no-nonsense tone.

Taken as a whole I ended up enjoying Diary of an Accidental Wallflower more than I expected to at the beginning, but while I certainly intend to read the next book – if it’s as good as this one, I’m in for a treat – I’m not sure if I will continue with the series in audio because the narration was so difficult to warm to.

Caz

Narration: B-

Book Content: B+

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: None

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Harper Audio