AudioBook Review: The Original Miss Honeyford by Marion Chesney

There are a couple of reasons I chose this cover to highlight the book, over the other (and some more designed for modern tastes) options available: this is a book that was written some 25+ years ago, and the retro cover completely and utterly fits that feel of the story…

AudioBook Review:

Following in the fun and readability of the author’s other regency romances, Miss Honaria Honeyford is an unwed miss, sent to London to gain a husband and save her family from financial ruin. There are just a few problems with this plan: she isn’t a ‘typical’ debutante type, preferring the more masculine pursuits of cigarettes, shooting and brandy, and she always speaks her mind.

Honaria is outspoken and not prone to thinking of consequences before she speaks, which makes for several funny moments and reactions from the more proper society people she meets. Her poor aunt, charged with aiding her in her quest is often frustrated and befuddled by the headstrong yet well-intentioned young woman. Repeated encounters with Lord Alastair who is forever correcting her behavior are funny and clever, he is as enamored of her as the reader is. Lord Channington is more romantic and sensual, awakening Honaria’s baser desires. But a choice must be made….

Narration provided again by Lindy Nettleton is as perfectly modulated with inflections and emotional emphasis provided to enhance the story and provide a feel of the different accents and characters presented in the story.

No, these are not expositions on life or love: they are clever, fun and funny stories set in regency society that manage to poke fun at the conventions of society as the characters struggle to be accepted by, and find their way through them.

AudioBook Review: The Original Miss Honeyford by Marion Chesney

Title: The Original Miss Honeyford
Author: Marion Chesney
Genre: Historical Romance
Narrator: Lindy Nettleton
Published by: AudioGo
Format:Audiobook
Source: AudioBook Jukebox
Pages: 122
Audio Length: 5 Hours: 13 minutes
Rated: three-half-stars

Get Your Copy: Amazon ♦ AllRomance ♦ iTunes

About the Book:

MISS HONEYFORD WAS SOUR ON ROMANCE

Miss Honaria Honeyford was sent to London to save the family fortune by hunting a wealthy husband--and being a loving if not entirely dutiful daughter, she obeyed.

But if she was reluctantly willing to surrender her hand, this beautiful young lady who could ride, shoot and argue with any man was not about to lose her head or heart to the dismal dandies of the Marriage Mart.

First she met the arrogantly attractive Lord Alistair Stewart, who treated her infuriatingly like a little girl. And then she met the skillfully seductive Lord Channington, who treated her intoxicatingly like a desirable woman. And now she had to choose just which role to play and just how much risk to run....

A copy of this title was provided via AudioBook Jukebox for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

About Marion Chesney

Marion Chesney was born on 1936 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, and started her first job as a bookseller in charge of the fiction department in John Smith & Sons Ltd. While bookselling, by chance, she got an offer from the Scottish Daily Mail to review variety shows and quickly rose to be their theatre critic. She left Smith’s to join Scottish Field magazine as a secretary in the advertising department, without any shorthand or typing, but quickly got the job of fashion editor instead. She then moved to the Scottish Daily Express where she reported mostly on crime. This was followed by a move to Fleet Street to the Daily Express where she became chief woman reporter. After marrying Harry Scott Gibbons and having a son, Charles, Marion went to the United States where Harry had been offered the job of editor of the Oyster Bay Guardian. When that didn’t work out, they went to Virginia and Marion worked as a waitress in a greasy spoon on the Jefferson Davies in Alexandria while Harry washed the dishes. Both then got jobs on Rupert Murdoch’s new tabloid, The Star, and moved to New York.

Anxious to spend more time at home with her small son, Marion, urged by her husband, started to write historical romances in 1977. After she had written over 100 of them under her maiden name, Marion Chesney, and under the pseudonyms: Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, Helen Crampton, Charlotte Ward, and Sarah Chester, she getting fed up with 1714 to 1910, she began to write detectives stories in 1985 under the pseudonym of M. C. Beaton. On a trip from the States to Sutherland on holiday, a course at a fishing school inspired the first Constable Hamish Macbeth story. They returned to Britain and bought a croft house and croft in Sutherland where Harry reared a flock of black sheep. But Charles was at school, in London so when he finished and both tired of the long commute to the north of Scotland, they moved to the Cotswolds where Agatha Raisin was created.

While Marion wrote her historical romances under her maiden name, Marion Chesney, as well as several pseudonyms (Helen Crampton, Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, and Charlotte Ward), because of her great success with mystery novels as M. C. Beaton, most of her publishers both in the U.S. and abroad use the M. C. Beaton pseudonym for all of her novels.

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