Among Intimate Acquaintances

By: Jann Rowland

Narrated by: Mary Sarah

Elizabeth Bennet does not know what to think of Fitzwilliam Darcy. Having heard her new brother, Charles Bingley praise him to the skies, invited to accompany her brother and beloved, Jane, to stay at the man's estate, Elizabeth wonders how he can possibly be as good as Charles claims.

At Pemberley, Elizabeth learns that Mr. Darcy is a diligent man, one sober and upright, a man engaged in the welfare of his estate. His sister, Elizabeth also learns, is a wonderful girl, a girl unlike her own sisters, who are often wild and uncouth.

Settling in at Pemberley for a visit, Elizabeth grows to love the estate, and her esteem for the master and his sister grow apace. But while Elizabeth is happy there, she cannot forget the events of the past year, which continue to plague her peace of mind.

Then an old enemy of the Darcy family arrives to wreak havoc on the Darcys, pulling Elizabeth's own family into his schemes. The question, in Elizabeth's mind, is whether Mr. Darcy's newfound appreciation for her can withstand the machinations of a libertine and the silliness of a reprehensible sister.

©2021 Jann Rowland (P)2022 Tantor

Good story, bad reader

I had to speed the reader up to 1.5 to make it bearable to listen to. Even then, it sounded like she was reading with a lisp. I will stick to reading Jann Rowland books if Mary Sarah is the reader.

liked the story

I liked the story, in spite of the staticky sounds at the end of many words. I increased the speed of the narration and that helped.

Interesting variation on D&E’s path to love

Clean and original variation. Enjoyed the rather satisfying resolution to the usual villains. The narrator is, apparently, an acquired taste. I had to listen at 1.25 speed to make it “tolerable enough to tempt me” but only just.

Poor Story

I found the narrator gave a fine performance but found the story very disappointing. There were two main issues for me, both exacerbated by the fact the book had little going on in it. The first being the treatment of Catoline. They spoke poorly of Caroline so often as to become very annoying and when they did speak, they often did so in mixed company. The fact that the ladies and gentlemen spoke poorly and disparaged Caroline when together just felt very inappropriate and didn't speak well to the character of the characters. The second issue I had was with how openly discussed/acknowledged/teased about, again in mixed company, the attraction between Darcy and Elizabeth is. Elizabeth even banters with Darcy about them getting married to the point that Darcy jokingly asks Elizabeth if she is proposing to him. It was so very outside of their characters to be making light of something so important as their future together that it took much away from what little chemistry was present.

I like low angst stories but there has to be enough else to take its place for the book to be enjoyable. Character growth, cute interactions, romance, etc. Little of that is present in this story.

Enjoyable story

I was not a fan of the narrator, the pronunciation was off, as if someone was trying to hard for an accent. Words like "bread" would almost sound like "breath" as a "th" would be used as the ending instead. sped up narration and it helped a bit.