Narrated by Angela Dawe
This is the final book in the Mackenzie series – four Scottish brothers, the eldest a Duke. The series takes place in Victorian England, and has some interesting real-life politics in it, with Irish Home Rule up for a vote. Hart Mackenzie is chomping at the bit to be Prime Minister, and he’s working on getting the votes to squash the Home Rule initiative, which is a part of the storyline. In addition, he’s decided he needs to settle down and get married so that he fits the mold of PM. If you’ve read the entire series, you already know that Eleanor Ramsey was his first fiancée, and that she ended the engagement in a fight ten years before this story starts.
One of the things I love about series is bringing back the earlier characters – the other three brothers are now happily married and indeed all have children, so it is a few years after the last book. Eleanor’s father is an Earl, but in these times it’s not uncommon for peers of the realm to have a title and entailed properties but not much in the way of income. Eleanor decided when she threw Hart over that she would remain a spinster and never rely on a man, but now she does need some financial help. When she receives an odd package – a nude photo of Hart – she decides to show it to him and offer her services to help him locate the potential blackmailer, in exchange for a salary.
Now that I’ve set the story up for you, I’ll wax poetic about the narration. First, I’m a big fan of Angela Dawe’s narration. She creates a world of characters, and for the first book in this series, she truly nailed Ian Mackenzie’s almost monotone delivery to create a character with high-functioning autism in The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie. Her accents are wonderful, her delivery just right. But I found I had two quibbles with this book.
The first came from a comment from Brenda about pauses. Sure enough, I noticed an inordinate number of just-a-little-bit-too-long pauses between sentences in sections. I’m not talking about between chapters, or even between pieces inside of chapters where the action changes. It made me wonder if that was perhaps an engineering thing – maybe she stopped narrating for a break, and she or the engineer just allowed a teensy bit too much time before her voice came back. It wasn’t a deal breaker, and probably most people won’t even notice.
But the second bothered me a little more – why doesn’t Eleanor have a noticeable Scottish accent? Generally, the Scots accent Dawe gives the brothers is very mild – no Jamie Fraser here, with verra and canna and all that. Hart has the mildest, no doubt because he’s a Member of Parliament and has tamed his Scots burr. That is even mentioned in all the books, that the characters have a more pronounced accent in times of stress or, shall I say, “whatever”. (Yeah, like when they are in the sack.) As the story wore on, I thought maybe I had confused her background – but no, near the end, she gives an impassioned speech (this is not a spoiler) about her Highland heritage. So if she’s so impassioned about being a Scot, why does she sound as Sassenach as her sisters-in-law? Maybe it’s my Yankee ears that don’t hear it, but I admit it bugged me.
Again, not a deal breaker but a puzzlement. Still and all, a great book with great narration.
Melinda
Narration: A-
Book Content: A
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Minimal
Genre: Historical Romance
Publisher: Tantor Audio
I’m just finishing my review of this audiobook, I agree with you about the Scottish accents, not the best really, but I love the way she does the male voices, so I gave her a pass, This is the first book in the series I felt more comfortable listening a 1.5 speed, maybe it had something to do with the long pauses you mentioned, even tho. I really didn’t noticed them.
I really enjoyed this one, but it didn’t make to my top listens of this series.
Great review! I’m posting a link to it on my review :)
Let me take this chance to wish you all a Happy New Year, and lots of great listens!!