Lord of Secrets by Alyssa Everett

Narrated by Courtney Patterson.

I reviewed Lord of Secrets for All About Romance in September, 2013 and gave it an A-. It’s well written and characterised and the story has some unusual elements for a historical romance that Ms. Everett treats with intelligence and sensitivity.

The eponymous Lord is David Linney, Marquis of Deal, a somewhat reclusive bachelor of thirty-one who came into his title aged ten after his father committed suicide. On a sea voyage from New York to London, he meets Miss Rosalie Whitwell and her cousin, Charles Templeton. Rosalie has travelled extensively over the past nine years with her father and while she yearns for a permanent home, and perhaps a family of her own someday, she is content to be her father’s companion and amanuensis.

It’s clear from the outset that while David is attracted to the lovely Rosalie, there is something holding him back from furthering his acquaintance with her – something he feels makes him completely unworthy of any relationship with an innocent young woman. When Lord Whitwell dies suddenly, it’s David who takes charge of the situation and makes all the necessary arrangements, which brings him unavoidably into closer contact with her and David finds he is unable, despite his best intentions, to keep his distance.

Their slowly growing friendship is beautifully written and reveals them to have various interests in common. It’s clear from their conversations that they are perfect for each other, even if they don’t know it yet, and it’s rather sweet when they bond over Lord Whitwell’s terrible puns. But his death has left Rosalie in an unenviable position. She has either to go to live with her uncle, a man with a very unsavoury reputation, or she must find paid employment. David tries not to become concerned, but the more he hears about her uncle, the less happy he is at the prospect of Rosalie living with him. Rosalie is pinning her hopes on becoming a ladies’ companion to the wealthy American, Mrs. Howard  (who reminded me of Mrs. van Hopper in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca). But when that lady declines to employ her, it seems Rosalie has no other option but to turn to her uncle for a home. It’s at that point that David suddenly realises that he can solve Rosalie’s problem and provide the home and security she needs – and he proposes marriage. Rosalie, already halfway in love with the reticent, though handsome, lord, accepts.

She’s a thoroughly engaging heroine. Though young, she’s not at all missish or coquettish; she’s thoughtful and caring, having spent most of her life travelling with her father simply because she loved him and he loved to travel. She thinks that perhaps she can be useful to David, too, by encouraging him to come out of his shell, helping him to rebuild the relationships with his neighbours and by – eventually – giving him children and building a family of their own. But once they are married, David wants to retreat from her; he won’t consummate their marriage and gives Rosalie no explanation as to why.

Being a respectable virgin, Rosalie doesn’t have much idea about that side of marriage but she shows him affection and tries to encourage him, at first thinking that perhaps he’s not very experienced, or that his past sexual experiences have been unpleasant ones. But when she finally learns that David, in fact, has a reputation for being somewhat promiscuous, she begins to think that she must be the problem, and that he has bound himself to a woman he does not find at all attractive.

But it’s David’s way of trying to protect her from the man he believes he is, one who is depraved and whose past actions have made him completely undeserving of the love and companionship of a pure young woman. The reader/listener doesn’t find out exactly why David believes such terrible things of himself until Rosalie does, although there are a few subtle hints dropped along the way. When Rosalie finally does work up the courage to ask why her husband – who she knows does feel some physical desire for her – won’t take her to bed, David confesses the truth, and it’s harrowing. To say much more would be to spoil the story, but suffice to say that Rosalie’s reaction is completely the opposite of the one David had expected.

Both protagonists are thoroughly engaging and well-rounded characters. The listener can immediately discern that David is a kind, intelligent, and thoughtful man and, as the story progresses, we come to realise that he is not at all what he believes himself to be, but rather a man to whom bad things have happened and who is allowing himself to be hemmed in by memories and guilt. The romance between him and Rosalie is beautifully done, building slowly through their interactions aboard ship as their awareness of each other develops and the romantic tension gradually creeps higher and higher.

I’d seen that an audiobook of this title existed, but I didn’t purchase it until after I’d read the book. I’d already listened to Rosalyn Landor’s excellent reading of Ms. Everett’s earlier novel, Ruined by Rumor, and enjoyed it very much, so I was a little disappointed to see that she wasn’t the narrator of Lord of Secrets. And after I’d read it, I was even more convinced that a story of such depth and subtlety  needed someone of her talent and experience to do it justice.

But I enjoyed Lord of Secrets so much, I really wanted to have it in audio format as well, so I listened to the sample on Audible and on the strength of that, decided to give it a try. The sample (and I really think Audible needs to do more than just use the first part of the first chapter in their samples, especially when the titles feature a relatively new narrator) featured two characters (Rosalie and Mrs. Howard) and I thought Ms. Patterson sounded promising, but having now listened to the audiobook in its entirety, I can’t say that I was completely happy with her performance. That said, I wasn’t desperately disappointed either, which is probably the more important thing.

I had a number of issues with her narration, most of which come down to just one thing. At the risk of sounding ridiculously xenophobic – I’m really not – I have a real problem when the producers of audiobooks set in Britain and wherein the majority of the characters are British, use American narrators. Before you sharpen the knives and look for the baseball bats, let me explain. I don’t dislike American accents. But I’ve yet to come across an American narrator who can successfully maintain a British accent 100% of the time. When considering the most experienced narrators, it’s true that slips of accent and mispronunciations are rare, but there are nonetheless little things that give them away. It’s hard to explain in print exactly what these are, but the best I can come up with is that it’s to do with idiomatic inflection, vowel sounds and, on occasion, a sense that they’re trying too hard, which makes the accent almost too perfect.

(I feel compelled to add that I expect an American listener might feel the same way about a British narrator using an American accent throughout an entire audiobook and would probably pick up on similar things that I might not notice.)

The latter is definitely a problem with Ms. Patterson’s narration in this story, especially with her performance of the heroine who sometimes sounds as though her vocal cords must be made of cut glass. And then there’s the other end of the scale, when, in her interpretation of Lord Deal, he would begin speaking in a British accent and end his speech with an American one. There were also some intrusive mispronunciations, and a couple that were simply excruciating, such as the way she pronounced “matter” as “MAHter” (or martyr), or the way that the word “calm” was consistently pronounced “COLM”, with the “l” clearly enunciated. “Cramped” was pronounced “crahm-ped”; “Mal de mer” was pronounced “Mahl de mer” and so on.

The thing is, I don’t really blame the narrator for those errors. Well, yes, she’s the one speaking, but she doesn’t have editorial control over the finished product. Including Lord of Secrets, Ms. Patterson has eight titles available from Audible (UK). She may have other voice work to her name but I Googled her to see what I could find, I didn’t find anything so I’m assuming she’s fairly new to this game. I can, perhaps, see that the “non-Britishness” I’ve mentioned might have been difficult to pick up on, but why on earth didn’t a director or editor pick up on the mispronunciations? It’s sloppy and unprofessional, and has, for me, marred a story I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

Fortunately, however, for about 80% of the book, Ms. Patterson’s narration was perfectly acceptable. She has a pleasant voice, her pacing was good, and she successfully delineated all the different characters. Mrs. Howard, the American lady on whom Rosalie pins her hopes, sounded suitably self-absorbed with an undercurrent of malice, while Rosalie’s aunt had a believable hint of the East End about her. Her performance of Charlie Templeton was quite good, too, as she lightened her tone and dropped the odd consonant which made him sound like the young man he is. She voiced Deal convincingly for the most part, conveying his reticence and underlying strength together with his vulnerability, but once again, I really think the director or editor should have picked up on the fact that her accent sometimes slipped and re-recorded sections as necessary.

Caz

Narration:  B-

Book Content:  A-

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence:  None – contains reference to sexual abuse, but there is nothing graphic.

Genre:  European Historical

Publisher:  Carina Press