Ayala's Angel

Good story and excellent narrator!

This was a pretty delicious listen. Complex, fun, sad, happy, socially awkward and interesting. Just what one might want in a romantic period drama. The narration is spot on and delightful.

I found this to be a great distraction from today's problem's. The narrator managed to define each character by modifying her voice.As I find this a problem with audio books in keeping track of the characters this was a big help.

Fans of Jane Austen are encouraged to try this wonderfully funny and romanticTrollope novel which brings Austen-like touches into the late 1870s where eligible young men might need to consider working for a living instead of just being rich and young women insist upon independence of choice no matter how dire their straits. The story follows more than one young couple - heroic, calculating or just plain silly-- as they seek their hoped-for happy ending. The central focus is on Ayala, one of two penniless orphaned sisters who are left to their relatives' care. Beautiful and captivating, Ayala attracts one smitten suitor after another but she has created such an impossible fantasy of the perfect man in her imagination (her "angel") that she does not recognize her soulmate among them. Will she work through her prejudices before it's too late? Trollope's kindness toward his character's flaws and foibles and his warm insight into human nature come alive beautifully under the genteel narration of Tabithat; this audiobook is perfectly narrated. Her calm tone underscores the propriety of 19th century England while leaving room for the listener to feel the anguish of rejected love as well as the laugh-out-loud comedy of certain relationship dilemmas. Courtship in a Trollope novel has rarely been so satisfying.