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Title: The House at Tyneford

Author: Natasha Solomons

Narrator: Justine Eyre

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-27-11

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 643 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

An irresistible World War II story of a forbidden upstairs-downstairs romance in a great English country house.

Its the spring of 1938 and no longer safe to be a Jew in Vienna. Nineteen-year-old Elise Landau is forced to leave her glittering life of parties and champagne to become a parlor maid in England. She arrives at Tyneford, the great house on the bay, where servants polish silver and serve drinks on the lawn. But war is coming, and the world is changing. When Kit, the son of Tynefords master, returns home, he and Elise strike up an unlikely friendship that will transform Tyneford - and Elise - forever.

A pageturning tale of family, love, loss, and the power of the human spirit set against the perennially popular backdrop of World War II England, Natasha Solomons The House at Tyneford is upmarket romantic fiction at its best.

Natasha Solomons is a screenwriter and the internationally bestselling author of Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English and Mr. Rosenblums List. She lives with her husband in Dorset, England.

Critic Reviews:

Natasha Solomons has writtena lovely, atmospheric novel full of charming characters and good, oldfashioned storytelling. (Kristin Hannah, New York Times best-selling author)

Members Reviews:

Highly Recommend This Book

I know I've just read a good book when I can't wait to share it with my friends.

The publisher's summary makes it seem like a typically-formulaic romance novel. IT IS NOT. For one thing, it's pretty clean. No bodice-ripping scenes involved, but there is some "colorful dialog" just to keep things "realistic". Normally, I don't dig romance novels, but my daughter raved about it, so I gave it a listen. It is the first book by Natasha Solomons that I have listened to, but it won't be the last. She is such a gifted writer. Her style is descriptive without being verbose which, as I'm sure any writer knows, can be a challenge. I would compare her writing to that of Susanna Kearsley because it has that same overall sense of elegant melancholy. She made me feel such compassion for Elise, who just didn't fit in anywhere. I was able to sense her loneliness and profound loss without pitying her. This is one of those books that I wanted to stretch on into eternity. The characters are well-developed, but not overly so. The author did her job well, leaving me wanting more.

Now, about the narrator: she usually grates on my nerves. I forgot that I had promised myself never to listen to anything she narrates ever again, but I decided that I wasn't going to let her ruin the book for me. To give credit where it is due, she didn't do a bad job with this book, aside from not voicing men very well (it IS difficult for a woman to read masculine dialog). In fact, there are some scenes that just would not have had the proper pathos had I just read the book. The scene where Elise first meets Kit (while she's trying to expres her frustration by shouting at the sea, using all of the English swear words she knows) would not have been nearly as funny either if I hadn't listened to the audiobook.

Without giving away any of the plotlines, I'd like to add that you should have a box of tissues handy before you listen. I wish someone would have warned me ahead of time.

Mixed Opinion

I didnt realize I even liked this book until I got to the end and found myself sobbing in the car on the way to work. Clearly it affected me.