Friday, October 7

Audiobook Review: Mr. Malcolm's List by Suzanne Allain



Author: Suzanne Allain
Narrator: Elizabeth Knowelden
Title: Mr. Malcolm's List
Genre: Historical Romance
Format: Audiobook
Published: March 2, 2009
Where I got It: Borrowed from library

Summary: 
It is a truth universally acknowledged that an arrogant bachelor insistent on a wife who meets the strictest of requirements--deserves his comeuppance.

The Honourable Mr. Jeremy Malcolm is searching for a wife, but not just any wife. As the target of matchmaking mothers and desperate debutantes, he's determined to avoid the fortune hunters and find a near-perfect woman, one who will meet the qualifications on his well-crafted list. But after years of searching, he's beginning to despair of ever finding this paragon. Until Selina Dalton arrives in town.

Selina, a vicar's daughter of limited means and a stranger to high society, is thrilled when her friend Julia Thistlewaite invites her to London, until she learns it's all part of a plot to exact revenge on Mr. Malcolm. Selina is reluctant to participate in Julia's scheme, especially after meeting the irresistible Mr. Malcolm, who appears to be very different from the arrogant scoundrel of Julia's description.

But when Mr. Malcolm begins judging Selina against his unattainable standards, Selina decides that she has some qualifications of her own. And if he is to meet them he must reveal the real man behind...Mr. Malcolm's List.



Review:
Okay, okay...I know I said I would read this later on...someday....but it appeared as a "recommended" on my library app so I decided it was time. hahaha.

Mr. Jeremy Malcolm is searching for a wife, but not just any wife. She has to meet the qualifications on his well-crafted list. After snubbing Julia Thistlewaite by never calling on her again, he decides to keep up the search. Julia has other plans when she discovers his list. She decides to recruit her old friend from school named Selina Dalton. Her plan is to make Selina the perfect woman based on Jeremy's list and then have Selina snub him by telling him he doesn't fit her list. It all seems like the perfect plan until Selina realizes that Jeremy is not the arrogant scoundrel Julia described. 

Just like the movie adaptation...this was fun. Some differences of course. There are a lot more scenes in the book which made me happy. I loved how Jeremy really had to work for Selina's love near the end. Perfection.

I loved nearly everything about this....I could even look past Jeremy being an ass and too arrogant....but he said something to Julia near the end that had me ANGRY. Like YES I get she is a brat and what she did was wrong...she for sure did you dirty with her deceptions. But WOW man. That was not cool. Julia is so self-centered she really didn't care/pay attention, but I was mad on her behalf. I barely liked him to begin with and that didn't help. I'm glad Selina and his own mother were able to knock some sense into him, but just...wow. 

I feel like Selina and Jeremy will have a lot of things to work on when they get married. This can be the same with Julia and her future hubby (I won't spoil anything). Imperfect characters FOR sure which I highly appreciate because I do adore it when characters are complex and have some flaws. But....Jeremy can be very mean.....so yea. They will have some stuff to get through in the next years. I'm glad Selina made him work for it and realize the error of his ways! Good on her.

All that aside, I loved this. Minus all the kissing scenes and etc, this gave me very Austen-like feels. There is a lot of talking between our couple(s). They have a lot to work through and all the characters have issues. 

The narrator was simply perfect! I think this is my first time listening to this narrator, but all her male and female voices were on point and they were all different. Kuddos there...we had a big cast, especially near the end. 

In the end, I did enjoy this a lot. Jeremy really made me mad at one point that I had a hard time looking past. Besides that...no real issues. I'll give this 4 stars. 






Challenge(s):
- #42 for Audiobook challenge

5 comments:

Melliane said...

Oh it looks good!

Blodeuedd said...

I need this one

Carole Rae said...

Melliane, it was!

B, I think you would get a kick out of it.

Jen Twimom said...

Glad you enjoyed the book as much as the movie. I'll have to check it out.

Carole Rae said...

A fun story!