From the moment I first read a Julia Quinn historical romance, I was hooked; her historical romances are full of flawed and funny characters who value family and friendship above all things. As an added bonus, when I listened to Susanna Kearsley’s The Winter Sea (a wonderfully mystical book), I fell in love with narrator Rosalyn Landor. She breathed life and emotion into her heroine and consequently, I had no worries about choosing this latest Quinn release and was excited to start listening.
The Sum of All Kisses begins with a duel between two inebriated friends, from the point of view of the hero, Lord Hugh Prentice. As events unfold, Hugh is faced with a debilitating injury to his leg and his best friend, Daniel Smythe-Smith, is injured and runs for his life from Hugh’s father, the Marquess of Ramsgate. As Hugh battles his way back from his injury, reenters society, and stands up to all of the damage done by his father, his finds only one person with enough spirit and fight to capture his attention – Lady Sarah Pleinsworth. Sarah becomes Hugh’s unwilling ally as they struggle against their affection and the evil machinations of Hugh’s father.
This is the third book in the Smythe-Smith Quartet, and actually a partner book to Quinn’s second in the series, A Night Like This, told from Daniel’s point of view. No worries, The Sum of All Kisses can stand alone as an introduction into the family of Smythe-Smith, friends of the Bridgertons (a popular previous series from Julia Quinn).
Rosalyn Landor is an expert at performing all her female characters and very entertaining as well. As an example, her portrayal of the Countess of Danbury, enables you to quite easily picture, “the most terrifying old dragon of the ton”. She gives Lady Sarah a voice that starts out like the drama queen that she is, and evolves believably into a passionate risk-taker defending those she loves. Landor’s enactment of the male characters, however, is just too stilted and stuffy for me. Even though I would imagine that male figures of aristocracy really did have that air of affected entitlement, it was too prevalent to really let me sympathize with Hugh. Despite this stuffiness, Landor is very skilled at differentiating her characters and you can easily distinguish one male character from another
Landor knows how to time her delivery to provide the listener with the full effect of the author’s words. The “back-and-forth” between Hugh and Sarah flows naturally and Landor portrays each of their characters distinctly, making their developing romance easy to follow and allowing me to enjoy Julia Quinn’s fun plot lines.
All-in-all, I really enjoy Quinn’s historical romances, and recommend this one along with the others. She will make you smile so unexpectedly (when Sarah daydreams about why more authors don’t write heroes that love a woman with an extra “vestigial toe”, for example). Initially, because of Landor’s characterization, it was difficult to become emotionally attached to the stilted young man that was Hugh. And Quinn’s initial introduction to Sarah depicted her as a drama queen – this is a character type that I enjoy less than some others, so it impacted my overall experience. But, as the story and characters evolved, I got caught up in the dastardly actions of Hugh’s father and enjoyed the storylines of other characters such as Hugh’s brother Freddie (who is not inclined to marry) and Sarah’s eleven-year old sister, Frances, who befriends Hugh and discusses her faith in the existence of unicorns.
I had actually pre-purchased the kindle version of The Sum of All Kisses, so after I listened to the audio, I read the book to see which affected my enjoyment more, the narration or writing. I discovered that I really loved Hugh’s character in the printed book (emphasizing that I did not really enjoy Landor’s male characterization). I was still initially irritated at the drama queen Sarah, but enjoyed her character’s development into using that drama to defend Hugh against his father.
Because I so enjoy historical romance and Julia Quinn, specifically, I recommend this audiobook, especially if Rosalyn Landor is a narrator that is on your “favorites” list.
Victoria
Narration: B-
Book Content: B+
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Mild
Genre: European Historical Romance
Publisher: Harper Audio
The Sum of All Kisses was provided to AudioGals for review by Harper Audio.
Julia Quinn is fabulous. I fell in love with the Bridgertons, and have followed her ever since.
I love the humor in her books. She reminds me of Catherine Coulter’s early works.