The Invitation

By: Belinda Alexandra

Narrated by: Caroline Lee

Sometimes the ties that bind are the most dangerous of all ... Paris, 1899. Emma Lacasse has been estranged from her older sister for nearly 20 years, since Caroline married a wealthy American and left France. So when Emma receives a request from Caroline to meet her, she is intrigued. Caroline invites Emma to visit her in New York, on one condition: Emma must tutor her shy, young niece, Isadora, and help her prepare for her society debut. Caroline lives a life of unimaginable excess and opulence as one of New York's Gilded Age millionaires and Emma is soon immersed in a world of luxury beyond her wildest dreams – a far cry from her bohemian lifestyle as a harpist and writer with her lover, Claude, in Montmartre. Emma hopes for an emotional reunion with her only family, but instead she finds herself in the vice-like grip of her charismatic and manipulative sister, who revels in the machinations of the ultra rich. As Emma begins to question her sister's true motives, a disaster strikes, and New York society is stripped bare – beneath the glittering exterior lies a seething nest of deceit, betrayal, moral corruption ... and perhaps even murder.©2018 Belinda Alexandra (P)2019 Bolinda Publishing

Critic reviews

'A heady mix of Dangerous Liasions, The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (a century ago) and Cinderella, The Invitation is a wildly entertaining and absorbing read that leaves you with a lot to think about.' (Better Reading)

'Reading her novels is like going on holiday for a longtime. You don't want to come back.' (The West Australian)

A mixed bag for this reader, this time!

While I’ve read and enjoyed four others of Belinda Alexander’s books and have been confident of Caroline Lee’s narration, this wasn’t one of my favorite collaborations, at all.

I thought The Invitation was slow to gain steam. Between it nearly losing me in interest, content and pace for about the first 1/3,I almost stopped listening and returned it because of the narration. With this book, I could barely stand Ms Lee’s reading: her interpretation of French words and phrases made me cringe every time. I found her verbal contortions of these French attempts to be painful distractions. Unfortunately, these occasions happened many times in every chapter and it was like nails on the chalkboard for me, every time.

The Invitation did have some interesting descriptions and factoids of the many preposterous aspects of the Gilded Age woven throughout, and, this aspect became a greater proportion as the story progressed. One can tell that Belinda Alexander always does a good job of researching her books. I appreciate that.

Some Audible selections I listen to more than once. I can’t imagine I would do so with The Invitation.

Fabulous story

I could not stop listening to The Invitation, the story, the characters, the narrator Caroline Lee were incredible! Really loved this book!

Mispronunciations abound

This is actually a very good story, however my issue is with the narrator. She keeps mispronouncing words and it started to make me nuts. She has the same person with an British accent speak with an American accent. The word “debut” seems to be extra tough.

Disappointed

The story was uneven and had wordy descriptive sections that didn’t contribute to the storyline. Some of the subplots were unfinished and the whole connection to the American Civil War had a time frame gap.
The narration was a big problem for me. Overall, it sounded labored and heavy. The voice of Emma, a Parisian, had no French accent while other French characters did. Emma’s accent drifted between British and American, while other American characters had southern accents - in New York! It was distracting.
Also, some words were pronounced in the less common usage, particularly debut, a word in the central theme. While saying “deboo” is acceptable, it’s not the commonly use “Dey-byoo” that was used. It was also distracting, as were others.

Fake accents.

The performer does a very poor American accent which I find distracting. Equally distracting was the “down under” accent of a character who grew up in North America and Paris. If the performer can undertake an American accent for an American character, why no attempt to give a French woman an accent.