Daniel

There is only one point I'd like to make which is, Anni's best friend is gay.
I think he'd have had an inkling that Daniel is too.

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Distinctly Underwhelming

Would you ever listen to anything by Hilary Boyd again?

If it had first-rate reviews that promised a much meatier plot.

Was Tangled Lives worth the listening time?

No

Any additional comments?

Some titles have been so bad I give up altogether so I must have liked this enough to stick with it. The characters are drawn well enough and are likeable enough and there seems to be the promise of a storyline that could take off, the problem is it never does. The little dramas that do occur never really grab and the entire book is just rather dreary and flaccid.

There's gentle and heart-warming and then there's this - gentle and blandly insipid. The spice one thinks could be just around the next corner never happens and I was surprised when I heard the narrator say 'Epilogue' because, despite things seeming to wrap up towards the end of the preceding chapter, I still seemed to be harbouring hopes that the story would really take off.

There are so many audios from writers who manage to do satisfying and lovely whilst engaging us with a human drama that has a bit more bite and heft - seek them out first.

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Great story

Lovely story. Shame about narrator! Why does she speak so slowly when putting on character voices! Hard listen. Sorry!

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Let down by poor narration

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The narrator! She voices the character of Annie extremely well but all the other characters voices are spoken very loudly, very slowly or both!

What did you like best about this story?

Despite the appalling narrator I kept listening to this book because I was interested in the story and the outcome. It is similar to a Joanna Trollope family saga and I was interested in all the characters and their reactions to the revelation.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narration was so poor that I almost stopped listening. However I did persevere and could cope with listening in small doses. I have never heard a book narrated by Maggie Mash but will avoid her in the future. There are so many fantastic narrators who would be perfect for this book!

Any additional comments?

I did like this book and will try not to let the narrator put me off listening to another Hilary Boyd

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4 people found this helpful

Terrible narration....

Although I enjoyed the storyline the narration was awful and totally OTT but I persevered to the end of the book simply because I wanted to know how it ended!
I often listen to audiobooks again a couple of years later, but not this one I'm afraid!

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I am a DARLEK

What did you like best about Tangled Lives? What did you like least?

the story itself was quite interesting....BUT the narration was diabolical, i kept expecting her to say i will exterminate you. i am positive this could be a highly rated book if it wasn't for the narration. Her intonations were all wrong and it really got on my nerves.

Would you be willing to try another book from Hilary Boyd? Why or why not?

with a different narrator i probably would

What didn’t you like about Maggie Mash’s performance?

everything

Was Tangled Lives worth the listening time?

sort of, but i could have 'really' enjoyed it

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2 people found this helpful

Great easy read...

What did you like most about Tangled Lives?

Just a really nice story that helped me on the treadmill! Actually looked forward to my workout thanks to Tangled lives!

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2 for 1 Disaster

The story was full of references to upmarket restaurants, wines and clothes, with strangled delivery of names.
Weak dreadful characters, I really didn't care what these Hooray Henrys got up to, would hate to spend any time with anyone of them.
I agree with the other reviewers about the narration which made the shallow characters more ridiculous, I even checked the ipod speed setting. Read at an agonising slow speed, each syllable dragged out.
I got the book on a 2 for 1 Credit, a waste of my precious credit.
Having heard Maggie Mash before reading a Sarah Dunant I can only guess she was following instruction. I doubt any style of narration would have made me feel any empathy with the self obsessed characters.
Having just listened to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry read by Jim Broadbent, Tangled Lives was a dreadful bargain basement mistake.

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