The Carousel

By: Rosamunde Pilcher

Narrated by: Helen Johns

Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Celebrate life's journeys with the beloved author whose stories of life and love have touched the world. Return to the sun-drenched settings of The Shell Seekers and the rich emotion of Coming Home, as Rosamunde Pilcher takes listeners on an unforgettable journey of the heart.

The Carousel tracks the emergence of a young woman from a relationship that has become too tame and predictable to the excitement of a new life brimming with possibilities and the thrilling promise of love. And along the way, all the hopes, secrets, and desires that enrich us construct a joyous carousel of life that only Rosamunde Pilcher can create.

©1982 Rosamunde Pilcher (P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.

The Carousel

I have long enjoyed Rosamunde Pilcher for light, comfort reading. The narration was excellent. Recommend.

Love Rosamunde Pilcher

I enjoy Rosamunde Pilcher’s stories and the descriptions of Cornwall. Helen Johns is a perfect narrator for these stories. The characters are always vividly drawn.

Descriptions of the landscape and people that live there.

I just love listening to Rosmunde Pilcher books and this one is no exception.

Too short

Unlike Pilcher’s long novels, there wasn’t enough time for her deep character development. The story builds up well, but ends with uncertainty. Can a man who was never reliable before suddenly commit to anything for life? I love Pilcher’s descriptive writing- but I especially love her more full and mature later writing in her novel’s: The Shell Seekers, September, Coming Home, and Winter Solstice. I got The Carousel because I was hungry for more of Pilcher’s writing- and I enjoyed this book but her earlier books like this one are just too short to show case the author’s full character development and the wonderful writing style of her later books. I wish she had another one.

Enchanting!

I love all of Rosamunde’s books as they keep you interested and full of hope and positive endings!
Time to start another one of hers!!!

One dimensional and dated

Wanted to love it, I’m from Cornwall. But it was too patriarchal and I hated it. It was well written and narrated, but I just wanted to slap the main character 🤣. I’m in my 50s so not exactly young, but I couldn’t stand how the men were all talked up and women were weak and submissive. I wanted to vomit.

Not Her Best

I found the characters believable but not well developed. It seemed as though the author was relying on scenery descriptions to fill in. Definitely not the same caliber as Winter Solstice or Coming Home.

Too many coincidences, unbelievable characters

Coincidences. Somebody sitting right next to you on a long-distance train just happens to be going to the same stop, same village, AND is close friends with your relative? How often does that happen? Then a random dude you spot the next morning just happens to be ANOTHER close friend of that same relative? AND he happens to know that first person on the train too? I know in small villages, everyone knows each other, but these people are incomers, not natives. It's not like there are 10 characters in this book, these are just out of the main 5.

Characters. A guy, who's supposed to be timid, kisses a girl whom he had just met that morning???

If I am given to rolling my eyes every time something sounds contrived, I would have done so 10 times, and I am only 2/3 through the book. My eyes might have ended up permanently lopsided.

Pilcher's main female characters for some reason are always so weak, useless, and shallow. The questions they pose are so clueless. I don't know why I come back to her books. The covers are very pretty. The narrators can get pretty annoying. I just like the scenery she depicts.