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Breaking the Rules

By: Barbara Taylor Bradford
Narrated by: Zoe-Anne Phillips
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Summary

Forty years ago, the world was introduced to Emma Harte. Now meet M, a new woman of substance guaranteed to win our hearts all over again. A new era has begun…

When those you love are threatened, there’s nothing you won’t do to protect them… you’ll even resort to Breaking the Rules.

Following a terrifying encounter in the quiet English countryside, a dark beauty flees to New York in search of a new life. Adopting the initial M as her name, she embarks on a journey that will lead her to the catwalks of Paris where she becomes the muse and star model to France’s iconic top designer Jean-Louis Tremont.

When M meets charming and handsome actor Larry Vaughan they fall instantly in love with one another. Soon they become the most desired couple on the international scene, appearing on the front cover of every celebrity magazine, adored by millions. With a successful career and a perfect marriage, M believes she has truly put the demons of her past to bed.

But M’s fortunes are about to take another dramatic turn when a dark figure from her past, someone who she thought she’d never see again, is back and determined to shatter M’s world forever.

From the chic fashion capitals of London and Paris, to the exotic locations of Istanbul and Hong Kong, Breaking the Rules is an enthralling story of love and redemption, secrets and survival from the bestselling author of A Woman of Substance.

©2009 HarperCollins Publishers (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers
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Critic reviews

Praise for Barbara Taylor Bradford:

'Queen of the genre.' Sunday Times

‘Few novelists are as consummate as Barbara Taylor Bradford at keeping the reader turning the page. She is one of the world’s best at spinning yarns.’ Guardian

‘As romantic and thrilling as the rest’ Independent on Sunday

‘Another great yarn from the ultimate storyteller’ The Sun

‘The storyteller of substance.’ The Times

What listeners say about Breaking the Rules

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Boring, unimaginative, disappointing!

Really struggled to finish and could not believe it was written by the same author.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Breaking rules

I disliked the author A feeble annoying voice almost wanted to stop listening to the story which was very weak and disappointing

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

I loved the other books in this saga narrated by Bea Holland but this narrator was poor. It was very mills & boon sing song no drama or passion in the reading of it. Made the characters sound either lifeless or snobby something I had not felt with the previous narrator. Disappointing listen.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

A story that could have been good, but was too Mills and Boon-ish. Also, it was made virtually unlistenable by the narrator. Bea Holland, who narrated the previous books, was fantastic and made the books come alive. This narrator was WAY too dramatic and whiney. I skipped quite a lot- not great when it cost £7.99.🤨

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

disappointing in my opinion

not as good as the other books in the series and some inconsistancies in Story

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Not too sure about this one

I'm finding this book rather difficult to listen to, I think it's the narrator. She sounds very wooden and plummy. Quite unnatural. I'm not sure if the book itself is bad, maybe would have a different experience reading it rather than listening to it. It gets a good review on amazon, so maybe it's just me.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Narrator

Having listened to the previous books in this saga I was extremely disappointed to find that this book was narrated by a different narrator. This person ruined the book for me and if it hadn’t been for the fact that this was the last book in the series I would not have continued to listen. She completely ruined the book for me

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Awful narrator

I have enjoyed all 6 of the Emma Harte series, but really struggled with this story line. Whole pages of useless boring information was offered to the reader. Many times I wanted to give up on this book as I was not only bored but often cringed at the cheesiness of the interactions between nearly all the characters. I found majority of them pompous and arrogant. I did finish the book only to finalise the full series but it was most definitely the worst book of them all...the narrator didn’t help either, the accents of different characters changed regularly and sometimes appeared quite robotic.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Good Book, Dreadful Narator!

This is a classic case of how a good book can be totally and utterly ruined by a dreadful narator! Barbara Taylor Bradford's elegant prose and great storytelling is mangled almost beyond endurance by the stilted, wooden, plummy reading of an actress who can't even do a decent American accent! And this story begins in New York. It is a testament to the authoress that I persiveered with the book, because I wanted to know what happened, but I will never buy anything read by this narator again.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not the usual high standard

Sad to say this book was ruined by the narrator. I only got to chapter 5 before I gave up.

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1 person found this helpful