Reviewed by Women Using Words
The details…
- Title: Infamous (Audiobook)
- Author: Lex Croucher
- Narrator: Ellie Kendrick
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publication date: March 21, 2023
- Length: 10 hours, 55 minutes
- Other available formats: ebook, paperback
- Print length: 336 pages
- Print publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin (March 21, 2023)
- Genre: humorous Regency romance
- Themes: coming of age, family, friends to lovers, siblings, women loving women, sapphic romance
The blurb from the publisher…
Twenty-two-year-old aspiring writer Edith (“Eddie”) Miller and her best friend Rose have always done everything together—from climbing trees and sneaking bottles of wine, to extensive kissing practice. But Rose has started talking about marriage, and Eddie is horrified. Why can’t they continue as they always have?
Then Eddie meets charming, renowned poet Nash Nicholson––a rival of Lord Byron, if he does say so himself––and he welcomes her into his world of eccentric artists and boundary-breaking visionaries. When Eddie receives an invitation to Nash’s crumbling Gothic estate in the countryside, promising inspiration (and time to finish her novel, a long-held dream), she eagerly agrees. But the pure hedonism and debauchery that ensues isn’t exactly what she had in mind, and Eddie soon finds herself torn between her complicated feelings for Rose and her equally complicated dynamic with Nash, whose increasingly bad behavior doesn’t match up to her vision for her literary hero.
Will Eddie be forced to choose between her friendship with Rose and her literary dreams––or will she be able to write her own happily ever after?
My thoughts…
If you are a fan of the classic tale Little Women, then you’ll delight in Lex Croucher’s new audiobook. Narrated by Ellie Kendrick, Infamousis a sapphic take on Alcott’s original. Listeners will no doubt delight in the many parallels between these two tales of family, friends and self-discovery.
Infamous is a Regency romance. WLW fans that relish period pieces filled with subtext immersed in the language, fashions, and social norms of the early 1800’s will find this audio enchanting. Like all true Regency stories, this features fast-paced, intelligent dialogue and implied sexual tension. It comes off like a swoon-worthy Jane Austen—romantic and sensible. However, Croucher infuses it with a bit of modernism that’s quite appealing. Listeners will surely walk away from this witty romance with a smile.
Though Infamous is somewhat predictable, it still delivers in all the essential ways any well-written narrative should. It makes good on its promise to be entertaining. This is an inviting friends-to-lovers romance filled with zestful, coming-of-age themes. Listeners find the characters persuasive and fitting for the era. Eddie isn’t exactly the most sympathetic character as she’s self-absorbed and short sighted, but her flaws plant themselves on listeners’ hearts in a way that can’t be denied. Rose, on the other hand, is easy to love. Together these two work to create a “queer Regency romp” that one cannot resist.
As far as the narration, Ellie Kendrick does a fine job of transforming the words of this tale into a layered and dynamic production. At a running time of nearly 11 hours, listeners will learn to appreciate the nuances of her voice and pitch as she breathes life into Croucher’s characters. She’s a good fit, and I’d listen to her again.
Strengths…
- Well-structured prose
- Smart, witty dialogue
- Nicely crafted story world
- Engaging characters
- Strong, well-suited narration
This audiobook is available from…
A bit about the author…
Lex Croucher is a writer, producer and YouTuber based in London, with over 100,000 followers across their social media platforms. Lex published a YA non-fiction book in 2019, called You’re Crushing It. Their first adult novel, Reputation, was published in 2021. Find more about her on her social medians website.
A bit about the narrator…
Eleanor Lucy V. Kendrick is an English actress best known for playing Anne Frank in the BBC‘s 2009 miniseries The Diary of Anne Frank, Ivy Morris in the first series of the 2010 revived Upstairs Downstairs, and Meera Reed in the HBOseries Game of Thrones. She also voices Taelia Fordragon in World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth. Follow her on her social media.
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