Narrated by Faye Adele
The Lost Lords of Pembroke are three sons of a duke whose uncle tried to do them all in to inherit the title himself 15 years earlier. The 2 older boys, twins, were old enough to take care of themselves, but the youngest, Rafe, was only 10. The twins left Rafe in a workhouse and split up. Rafe escapes the workhouse and grows up on the streets of St. Giles. He never lost the feeling of being abandoned and alone, even though the brothers are currently reunited. Rafe is now the owner of the Rakehell Club, still not acknowledging his status as a lord.
Evelyn Chambers is the daughter of an earl – but her mother was not the countess, she was the mistress. When her mother died, the earl took Evelyn in and raised her alongside his legitimate heir, Jeremy. When the earl dies, Jeremy essentially sells Evelyn to Rafe to partially pay his gambling debts.
The conflicts for Rafe and Eve are both internal and external. The previous owner of the Rakehell Club turns Jeremy against the couple, endangering their lives. Meanwhile, Rafe has major issues with intimacy left over from his childhood, both from the workhouse and the streets. Attempts by his brothers to get past their separation now that they are restored to their familial status are continually rebuffed.
Faye Adele narrated the second book in the series, Lord of Temptation, and I have the same criticisms I had of that narration – the odd pacing, with pauses disrupting the flow, and some odd pronunciations. For one notable mispronunciation, she said “rack hell” at least twice in a row before switching to “rake hell” as the name of the club. There are words I’m used to hearing pronounced one way: blackguard as “blaggard”, waistcoat as “weskit”. She pronounced them as they are spelled, black-guard and waist-coat. Who is pronouncing them correctly – veteran British narrators like Anne Flosnik and Rosalyn Landor, or Ms. Adele? I said of Lord of Temptation that I still loved her narration; this time I’m a little less impressed. The pacing more than anything was a major stumbling bock, possibly because I had just come off another audio narration with the same issue. She still has a lovely voice and she differentiates well between characters.
I enjoyed the story – Rafe wasn’t the besotted hero Tristan was, but his inability to allow anyone into his life still created a fetching and emotional story, with a little suspense to spice things up. While I’m not putting this on my favorites list, it’s worth a listen if you like tortured heroes.
Melinda
Narration: C
Book Content: B
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in although it was pretty tame
Violence: Minimal
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: Harper Audio
Lord of Wicked Intentions was provided to AudioGals for review by Harper Audio.
