stacey_is_sassy
Written on Oct 9, 2018
This is my second unsuccessful attempt to get through The Wolfe. The first attempt I tried to read and the second was to listen to the audio. Both left me wanting to pull my hair out.
Reading...I hate to admit it but I'm an impatient reader. Some of the best and epic reads out there, left me frustrated with the excessively descriptive passages. I don't need to know minute details, I want a quick and clear description to move me forward so I can get to the plot and characters development. With nearly 900 pages to get through, it was definitely more descriptive. After hours and hours of reading, I didn't feel like the percentage read moved at all which was disappointing.
Listening...getting the speed right was almost impossible. The narrator is very slow but if you speed up too much you lose the breaks in between sentences. It became one long sentence with only a small change in tone here and there. I couldn't tell when the characters changed or if the narrator even attempted to bring them to life. Slowing the speed down to 1.5 made it easier to listen to but made a very long book feel even longer. The narrator is an older gentleman, and listening to him narrate the sex scenes was a wee bit awkward. If I had to hear him (as Jordan) say "Sweet Jesu" one more time I was going to lose it. There is no way I could have made it to the end.
The storyline had the potential for greatness but I was never fully invested. I felt that such a loyal and trustworthy knight wouldn't have caved into lust so quickly and easily. The heroine was too immature for her age. If she had been as young as a lot of potential brides of that time, I would have accepted her thoughts and actions as appropriate. It was hard for me to fall in love with William and Jordan as a couple. They knowingly went into their relationship with the belief that Jordan would be marrying another. Their plan was to keep on with their affair after her marriage. It was all just a wee bit off and I never really settled in.
Unfortunately, there won't be a third attempt as I am done.