Excellent +

This is by far the best of the William Marshal series. The way Elizabeth Chadwick tells the story of Mahelt Marshal enables her to become real, to simply step off the pages and begin telling you her life, her loves and her challenges. I rarely give a book 5 stars, but this one got it unhesitatingly. At the conclusion of the story I simply smiled and thought, what a wonderful book. Yes, Ms. Chadwick has become one of my favorite authors.

7 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Fabulous story, annoying narration

Would you consider the audio edition of To Defy a King to be better than the print version?

No, because the narration, I felt, detracted from the story.

How could the performance have been better?

It was the irritating voices the narrator felt she had to put to the characters...Mahelt was all high and little girly and Hugh and the other men, a gruff "woman pretending to be a man" voice. Very distracting!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The powerful relationship between Hugh and Mahelt really carried the story.

5 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Excellent Story. Well told.

This is a good story and was well told. It kept my attention and did not violate the known facts of the life of William Marshall.

5 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Very disappointing end to series

It's quite jarring to encounter a female reader after the previous three books were narrated by the same man. I have found that men can perform female voices better than women can perform male voices. But the most jarring and disappointing aspect in this one was the lack of sympathetic main characters and the abrupt change in the relationships from the previous book. Mahelt was portrayed quite sympathetically and engagingly in Book 3, as was Ida. But in Book 4, Mahelt is a shrieking, unaware harridan and her mother-in-law, Ida, one of the main characters in Book 3, is a whining, emotional wreck. In addition, Ida and Roger's relationship did a complete reversal from Book 3 without any explanation. I found myself constantly annoyed at all of these issues while listening and nearly removed it from my device several times out of frustration. The quality of Mrs. Chadwick's writing is excellent, as always, but the story was like an after thought, an excuse to continue with William Marshall's story, even though he figured very little in it, and no history of any consequence was portrayed. The series could have successfully ended with Book 3.

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Loved learning about Marshall's daughter.

Any additional comments?

I loved learning about William Marshal's daughter and more about his grown children. It was interesting to see how things progressed in the world outside of his realm. I think Maheldt did her parents proud.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Disappointed

Not a fan when narrator is changed in a series. However, I don’t believe I would have liked her reading any book. The storyline of Rodger and Ida was shocking. Two completely different people in this story. Neither very likable. Main character Mahlet was a shrew. I had high hopes for this book.

Another incredible story

I didn’t want this to end and don’t believe the negative comments about the narrator- she did an excellent job

Defy a king

Like other Elizabeth Chadwick books, it is a great story. Shame the narrator didn’t find out how to pronounce the few Irish names that appeared throughout the book.

Entertaining As Ever

I've thoroughly enjoyed all of this author's novels. She makes a lesser-known era come to life vividly. The only thing I disliked was the lead female character. Instead of being the confident heroine, she comes off as a foot-stamping stuck-up spoiled brat who thinks she's superior to everyone and instead of sympathizing with her I found her to be a constant nuisance. However, Chadwick's writing never ceases to entertain and overall I loved the book.

Great story line .enjoyed the characters

Enjoyed the way the book progress and how each character respond to storyline . Loved it