I agree with the publisher's review completely. It was a fun story. My biggest objection is with the recording itself. Ms Redgraves has such a strong variation in her voice that to be able to hear when her voice was soft, you had to turn the volume up which made other parts very loud. Both women did great jobs reading the book with its various characters. If the sound editing had been better, Had this book's recording been better, I might have rated it as "amazing". As was, I could only say "I liked it" with such marvelous characters and story line. The other problem was with the abridgement...some of the shifts seemed off balance. If I invest in another copy, it will have to be unabridged whether it be hard copy or audio. ( )

An enjoyable read. The tale jumps back and forth between the past and the present but with a clear logic. The plot proceeds quickly enough to keep the reader interested. ( )

A booklover, I like to read stories about booklovers. In this story, that is Margaret, from a book shop family, who is retained by a ‘famous’ living author, with a hidden, mysterious past, to write her biography.

Interesting divisions to the book: Beginnings, Middles, Endings, and then Beginnings. This is a story with, as previous reviewers say, shadows of the ‘gothic’; of ghosts and gardens, of Jane Eyre and libraries, and of twin-ness. I found the story engaging, up until the introduction of some very twisted characters, and the deviance from which they sprang. My sane, staid little world would like those parts to have been written differently. But if you can get past those indecencies, the Endings and the following Beginnings resolve very satisfactorily.

With writing like this:
“… she had that laugh, and the sound of it was so beautiful that when you heard it, it was as if your eyes saw her through your ears … . It was the sound of joy. He married her for it.”

“Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes – characters even – caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you. “

I am inclined to take another chance on this author. ( )

This story had a flavor to it that transported you back in time to some classic mystery/ghost stories of the 19th century. Heroine Margaret is described very much like the classic spinster governess (think Jane Eyre which plays a role in the novel as well) and it is not surprising that she becomes so totally immersed in the life of Miss Winter and the intrigue that revolves around her true story. In a nutshell, Miss Winter (a famous writer with many novels to her name) decides after many years that she will share her true life story with no other than Margaret. Margaret travels to Yorkshire to sit with Miss Winter and listen to her history before the author dies. I really enjoyed the storytelling aspect of the tale and how Margaret pieces the truth together by listening between the lines. I have to confess that the book falls just short of the hype and I think that we will be done rather quickly with the review for reading group. I am sure that we will have a lively discussion about the comparison between this book and "The Keep." ( )

This is a tale about woman who works with her father in an antiquarian book store until she has sent a letter from a famous English writer asking the woman to write the writer's autobiography. The writer, Vera Winter, is an elusive woman who has hidden her personal life and history from her thousands and thousands of fans. However, Winter is now terminally ill and wants to have her entire story told. Winter's story is intertwined with that of the woman writing the biography and the two stories expose the hidden truths, in both of their lives, that have laid dormant for decades. Issues surrounding illegitimate children, incestuous desires, "twinness", and other gothic elements are woven into these parallel plots.

It is written within the Gothic tradition with overly rich writing that is reminiscent of Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights (if even includes the burning down of a house!). While the writing and word choice is extremely discriminating and resonates throughout the pages, the characters fall flat and uninteresting. The most interesting characters in the story are only present in the first fourth of the novel. For the rest of the story, the characters are stereotypical and the plot turns can be seen a hundred pages away. While many reviews praised the novel for being reminiscent of the classic Gothic tales, I found that the book had more or less stolen the Gothic elements from other tales and had not developed them into the author's own story or craft.

In regards to the audiobook, I found the narrators to be exceptional. Though the story was dull and quickly became boring, it was the narrators who kept me listening. Their voices were enchanting and their reading of the story added more to the book than the actual text. However, not even the narrators could save me from the disappointment I felt when I reached the cliched ending. Overall, if you love Gothic fiction, you may be interested to read this book for the language and the allusions to Gothic classics. Yet, if you are looking for something comparable to Jane Eyre or other captivating classics, you have more luck just rereading the classics. ( )