How to Master Your Marquis by Juliana Gray

Narrated by Heather Wilds

I reviewed the first title in Ms Gray’s A Princess in Hiding Romance trilogy – How to Tame Your Duke – narrated by Veida Dehmlow, and enjoyed it in spite of a few reservations about both story and performance. This second book in the set boasts a different narrator, and having enjoyed Ms Wild’s performance in Julie Garwood’s Castles, I was keen to listen to her again.

The premise of the series is that three princesses from a minor (and fictional) German principality have to go into hiding following the assassination of their father. Their uncle – the powerful and machiavellian Duke of Olympia – has arranged for each of the girls to be smuggled to different parts of Britain, disguised as young men and given employment in lowly occupations, incognito, in order to ensure their safety. To say I’m not a fan of the whole cross-dressing thing is an understatement, but it’s a tribute to Ms Gray’s storytelling ability that she was able to make me like this book despite my dislike of that particular trope.

Princess Stefanie, the youngest of the three sisters, is the joker in the pack. She’s unconventional, spirited and full of fun, so placing her in the stuffy chambers of one of London’s foremost legal minds may not be the best fit for her, but Olympia has his reasons. At her first meeting with her new employer, Sir John Worthington, she also meets his friend, James Lambert, the Marquis of Hatherfield, who happens to be the most gorgeous man on the planet. As a result, she finds the prospect of spending time under Sir John’s roof a much more attractive one.

Much of the story is told in flashback, a device I rather enjoy. When done well – as here – it really helps to build tension, and I like getting glimpses of the characters “in the present” and then finding out how they got there.

Following the first meeting between the principals in the prologue, we jump forward a few months to the Old Bailey, where Hatherfield is on trial for the murder of his stepmother. It’s clear that he and Stefanie are already in a relationship, but as Stefanie is still in disguise and working for the counsel for the defence, whatever is between them must remain a secret, so as not to reveal Stefanie’s true identity.

Despite the fact that the story centres around a murder trial, there’s a lot of humour in the book, much of it stemming from Stefanie’s rather “manful” attempts to be seen as one of the boys. There’s also some terrific dialogue between her and the Marquis; her natural vivacity and impish sense of humour make her a very attractive character and a perfect match for Hatherfield, who might be the most beautiful man she’s ever seen, but is also a bit of a dull dog. However, he wouldn’t be the perfect romantic hero without a bit of a tortured past, and his is a particularly distressing one. He’s the antithesis of the sort of hero who typically inhabits the pages of many an historical romance, because most of the time he behaves like a responsible adult!

On the whole, the story is tightly plotted and well-structured. The comedy nicely balances the more sombre aspect of the trial, the love scenes are romantic and very sensual and there’s plenty of action, too, as Hatherfield has to thwart kidnap and murder attempts aimed at both Stefanie and her sister Emilie. The book has emotional depth as well, especially when Hatherfield has to face up to the very real possibility of losing everything.

Heather Wilds delivers an accomplished and enjoyable performance. She has a naturally deep voice, and has no trouble pitching it lower for the male characters, although she also differentiates by use of tone and accent. There are quite a large number of secondary characters in the book and Ms Wilds makes good use of regional accents and vocal timbres to portray them all. She distinguishes clearly not only between characters of different genders, but between those of the same gender very well.

Romance audios often stand or fall on the narrator’s interpretation of the hero, and I’m happy to report that Ms Wild’s portrayal of Hatherfield is especially good. She expertly projects his air of natural authority and his dry sense of humour in a very naturalistic manner, by a small drop in pitch and the addition of a slight edge to her tone. As with Castles (in which the heroine is also German), she gives Stefanie just the hint of a Germanic accent, which suited her and which Ms Wilds sustains very well. I was surprised to hear her using a similar accent for the Stefanie’s governess, however, as I’m sure she is supposed to be English. Ms Wilds also performs Stefanie as a female character (i.e in a slightly higher register) throughout, even when she was supposed to be a man. I can understand why she may have chosen to do this; it just struck me as odd in a story when the heroine spends most of the time pretending to be male.

The narration is well-paced for the most part, although I did feel there were a few places where Ms Wilds’ delivery was a bit too pedestrian, and where her phrasing was a little off – when it sounded as though she’d reached the end of a paragraph without realising it continued on the next page. Fortunately, this didn’t happen very often.

There was, however, one thing which really got on my nerves: the continual mis-pronunciation of the word “clerk”. In England, the word is pronounced CLARK. Given a lot of the story is set in a law office, the word is used many times and this frequent error was extremely jarring each time it happened. And about half way through the book, Sir John Worthington’s home is mysteriously transplanted from (the correctly pronounced) Cadogan Square to the non-existent CARDIGAN Square! I really don’t blame the narrator for errors of this sort. I can imagine it’s easy, during a long recording session to make the odd slip up. But surely an editor or producer should have noticed such a mistake in continuity.

In spite of those misgivings, however, I’m still going to give the narration a fairly high grade, because it’s otherwise very good indeed.

Caz

Narration: B+

Book Content: B

Steam Factor: For your burning ears only

Violence: Minimal (fighting) – warning: reference to sexual abuse but not explicit

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Penguin Audio

How to Master Your Marquis was provided to AudioGals for review by Penguin Audio.