Labors of Love: Complete Box Set

By: Shiloh Saddler

Narrated by: John Lowe

Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Daniel, a member of the southern gentry, soon learns the harsh realities of being poor. His father dies with a mountain of debt and leaves him very little. Daniel sells his mount in order to keep his manservant James. He and James are secretly lovers but must hide their feelings to meet society's expectations.

Together they must work themselves to the bone to get their farm to pay. It's not long before their relationship is discovered by their nosy neighbor who bent on owning their land. They are separated, but it is forever? It's up to James, a man with few rights, to protect his master if he wants to keep their love alive.

©2016 Shiloh Saddler (P)2017 Shiloh Saddler

Not what I expected

I have mixed feelings about this book. Although the story is interesting, I did not really understand the characters... On the one hand, they were willing to sacrifice any thing for each other, and that was moving, but on the other hand, their behaviour was risky and reckless, they kept having sex in the open, where anybody could find them... It takes a big suspension of disbelief to take them seriously
As for the performance, it was not smooth, I had the impression the narrator was reading the story for the first time. The rhythm was inexistent and the narration did not flow in a way that was easy to follow, no different accents to identify the various characters, the changes in pitch and intonation seemed quite random to me. It was a bit confusing
I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher

Worse narrator ever!

Narration was horrible. It ruined the story. The stressing in certain names was done at in appropriate times, the intake of air was very hard to miss, and many times the narration was done in monotones.

I couldn't get through this mess!

To tell the truth, I only listened to maybe 15 or 20 minutes of this and could not go on. So I cannot really review the book itself of the author's work.
The narrator was absolutely horrible! He mispronounced words in the announcements such as the warning that this is a work of fiction, blah, blah, blah.
There was a prologue, which he read in an awful southern accent. Then he began chapter 1 alternating between no accent and a southern accent in the same sentences. The way he speaks, he runs over words, mispronouncing or not enunciating them properly.
Also, beginning with Chapter 1, it suddenly sounded like he recorded this on a cassette recorder, complete with background noise! It was tinny sounding. He obviously had not prepared by reading the book ahead of time. It brought me back to high school English, listening to other boys in class reading out loud, not knowing exactly what they are reading, and sounding very monotone. He even broke a sentence into fragments and drew out a word while turning the page.

I just could not listen to more of this mess it was so awful. I'd suggest to this author that she/he (not sure if Shiloh is male or female) have this redone by a better narrator. I won't recommend this to anyone!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Good story, but so-so narration

I really liked this story of the intimate relationship between a former Southern gentleman and his African-American slave/lover. The lengths they go to to stay together and the struggles they overcome in the face of bankruptcy, discrimination, and other misfortunes are both heart-breaking and heart-warming. The story was good, but the narration was not as strong. It was broken up and the narrator seemed to stumble over some words and names. The delivery was very uneven and there was minimal to no distinction between the educated white Daniel's voice and the slave James'.
I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator.