Gwen’s review of Second Sight by Amanda Quick
Paranormal & Historical romance Abridged Audio CD published 28 Mar 07 by Brilliance Audio
Performance by Anne Flosnik
This late Victorian period novel by Amanda Quick (a.k.a. Jayne Anne Krentz) is about a young woman who is a professional photographer and she has a special “psychical” gift – she can see auras. While photographing some special artifacts for the Arcane Society, she meets Gabriel Jones, a member of the Arcane Society and (unbeknownst to her) possessor of even more special psychical gifts – he can do all kinds of interesting things – none of which are really explained well in terms that weren’t Victorian double-speak.
Here’s the book blurb:
Financially straitened and on the path to spinsterhood, Venetia Milton thought her stay at the remote, ramshackle Arcane House would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to engineer her own ravishment. She was there to photograph the artifacts collected by a highly secretive organization,…
The reader is Anne Flosnik, an Englishwoman with one of those “little girl” voices and an upper-crust accent. As you can guess, her male voices are almost absurdly silly. Picture yourself at perhaps 10-years old trying to sound like your dad and you get her male voices. A nice enough performance, I suppose, but I won’t be looking for her audio books any time soon.
This novel was a Victorian with a capitol “V” – and I have discovered that I don’t care for Victorians. Victoriana authors try too hard to make the main characters appear like stuffed shirts until they start ripping bodices/breeches, and then they become animals, only to return to stuffed shirts in the morning. Meh.Â
The story was prosaic and the dialogue tedious (as only Victorian dialogue can be). There was sufficient character development, even with the abridgement, and lots of atmosphere. However, the action, while it had its interesting moments, was predictable and the plot twists not so twisty. If you want a very light read/listen, and you like Victoriana, this is the novel for you. Just not for me.
Grade: audio performance C, book C
