Isabelle and Alexander

By: Rebecca Anderson

Narrated by: Antonia Bath

London, 1850.

Isabelle Rackham knows she will not marry for love. Though arranged marriages have fallen out of fashion, hers has been settled for some time to combine the upper-middle-class wealth of her father’s coal mines with Alexander Osgood’s prospering Northern country textile mills. Though not a man prone to romantic gestures, Alexander is well known as an eligible bachelor. His good looks have turned more than one head, so Isabelle is content to think of herself as Alexander’s wife.

However, her marriage is not what she expected. Northern England is nothing like her home farther west in the lake country. Cold, dreary, and dark, the soot from the textile mills creates a gray hue that seems to cling to everything in the city of Manchester. Alexander is distant and aloof, preferring to spend his time at the mill rather than with her at home. Their few conversations are brief, polite, and lacking any emotion, leaving Isabelle lonely and desperately homesick.

Sensing his wife’s unhappiness, Alexander suggests a trip to his country estate. Isabelle hopes this will be an opportunity to get to know her new husband without the distractions of his business. But the change of scenery doesn’t bring them any closer. While riding together on horses, Alexander is thrown from his and becomes paralyzed. Tragedy or destiny? The help and care that Alexander now needs is Isabelle’s opportunity to forge a connection and create a deep and romantic love where nothing else could.

©2021 Becca White (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

The Will to Recover and Love

This was such an heart felt story of 2 people overcoming adversity and falling in love. I also appreciated the inclusion of the family with a young lady with special needs and their love for her.
The narrator was good. She was expressive and I could hear her. So many narrators use a soft breathy voice that is annoying so thank you.
I recommend this to anyone who wants to feel good after listening.

Hit the Spot for a Historical Romance

I was both anticipating the release of this book and nervous to read it. This historical romance seemed right up my alley of reads but it seemed almost too perfect of a choice. I was pretty certain this book wouldn’t be as good as I hoped it would so decided to stay away from it. I succeeded in staying away from it for 2 months then caved once I saw there was an audio and ebook sale on it.

To be honest, this wasn’t a perfect book for me but it hit my desire for an enjoyable historical romance. The building of Isabelle and Alexander’s relationship was nicely done. We got to see Alexander’s servants and friends root and bolstering of the romance and support of their individual bosses. It would have been nice to see more of Isabelle’s family and friends support her. She faced hardships and started a new phase in her life basically alone. It would have been nice to see a mature development between Isabelle and her family. Her relationships between her parents and her have always been distant it seems and i guess it’s okay that they’ll remain so. Her deep loving friendship with her cousin seemed to cool as she matured though. I wish it could have developed more. Instead they both seemed to separate and become more dependent on their romances. Luckily I loved seeing Isabelle and Alexander falling in love but didn’t see any reason to care about Edwin and his bride.

The audio was a little off with pauses but they were easy to look past. Definitely think the ebook was the better choice but feel the audio made for a nice experience.

Warm and Original

Time was taken to unravel the characters. I loved the tenderness with the treatment of the various disabilities. I hated Alexander. It was hard to redeem him. But the end was very moving.

Unexpressed love.

A lovely story of unexpressed love. The performance of the book was wonderful. I loved the speaker having a beautiful singing voice.Thisvoice just added to the performance.

Great listen!

What a wonderful listen. The narrator does an amazing job of distinguishing characters and helping the listener imagine the characters, their struggles, and their joys!