A Wild Hope

I’ll admit, I approached *A Wild Hope* skeptical of yet another ‘plucky heroine finds herself’ historical novel. But within an hour, Anne Flosnik’s narration—all clipped vowels and simmering emotion—had me hooked. She doesn’t *perform* Alexandria so much as *inhabit* her, making the protagonist’s prickly intelligence and buried longing feel tangible. The real surprise, though, is how De Blasis subverts expectations: this isn’t a story about a woman saved by love or family, but one who saves *herself*, even when it hurts. The Falconers’ estate, with its wild gardens and secrets, becomes a character in its own right, and Flosnik’s pacing mirrors the novel’s unhurried unfolding, letting tension build in the silences. That said, the audiobook isn’t without flaws. The middle act drags slightly as Alexandria’s internal debates repeat, and Flosnik’s male voices (particularly St. John’s) occasionally veer into caricature. But these are quibbles. What lingers is the raw, almost brutal honesty of Alexandria’s transformation—her mistakes, her cruelties, her hard-won joy. The production is pristine, with no distracting edits, and the prose shines in audio form, its rhythmic cadences begging to be heard aloud. If you love audiobooks that reward patience with emotional payoff, or heroines who are flawed but never weak, this is your next obsession. Just clear your schedule; you won’t want to pause.