Audio Book Review: Landry Park by Bethany Hagen
Media Type: Audio Book
Title: Landry Park
Author: Bethany Hagen
Narrator: Leslie Bellair
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Format: MP3 CD
Length: 7 hours 50 minutes
Source: Library
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Content Screening: Mild Violence
HDB Rating: 3 Keys to My Heart
Recommended to: Fans of dystopian fiction, science fiction and historical romance!
Add it on: Goodreads / Amazon / BookLikes
Downton Abbey meets The Selection in this dystopian tale of love and betrayal
In a fragmented future United States ruled by the lavish gentry, seventeen-year-old Madeline Landry dreams of going to the university. Unfortunately, gentry decorum and her domineering father won’t allow that. Madeline must marry, like a good Landry woman, and run the family estate. But her world is turned upside down when she discovers the devastating consequences her lifestyle is having on those less fortunate. As Madeline begins to question everything she has ever learned, she finds herself increasingly drawn to handsome, beguiling David Dana. Soon, rumors of war and rebellion start to spread, and Madeline finds herself and David at the center of it all. Ultimately, she must make a choice between duty – her family and the estate she loves dearly – and desire.
Narrator Review:
Not too impressed with Leslie Bellair’s narration, honestly. It felt very flat, and that made Madeline feel like a very boring character. I kept wishing for more emotion in her reading! Still, she is an easy voice to follow along with. I just wouldn’t listen to an audio book from this narrator again.
Book Review:
Here’s the thing: I don’t like flighty female characters. I have a hard time associating with female protagonists who whine, worry, and change their opinions of things every other chapter. In Landry Park, however, it’s hard to fault Madeline for being the way she is. Raised as a gentry girl, in opulence and wealth, she’s a product of her environment. To Madeline, her home is everything. Her title, is everything. Every now and then I saw this little spark of rebellion in her, and I’d start to cheer, and then it’d vanish under the promise of everything she had being taken away. Can I blame her? Not really. Did I like her? Not so much.