Love and Other Scandals by Caroline Linden

Love and Other ScandalsNarrated by Veida Dehmlow

Love and Other Scandals was one of my favourite books of last year. It’s a splendidly written story, full of humour, snappy dialogue and delicious sexual tension, and I’m pleased to say that I found the audio version just as enjoyable.

One of my favourite things about the story is that, other than two people falling in love, not very much happens. There are no spies, pirates, evil relatives, swapped babies, swindled inheritances or other form of drama, and I take my hat off to Ms Linden for being able to sustain the novel solely on the back of the charm and wit of her principal characters and on the searing chemistry between them.

Joan Bennet and Tristan, Viscount Burke, have known each other vaguely since childhood.  Tristan is her brother’s best friend and carousing mate, and is widely known for his wild, rakish behaviour, poor manners and his disregard for the social niceties. He’s also gorgeous, ridiculously charming and immensely wealthy, the latter fact accounting particularly for the fact that he is tolerated in those circles where the sticklers are prepared to turn a blind eye.

Joan is twenty-four and practically on the shelf. She tries hard to be a dutiful daughter, which consists of doing pretty much everything her mother tells her to, even down to wearing clothes and hairstyles which are completely unflattering. Joan is tall and curvaceous, while the current taste runs to the petite and svelte;  and the ruffles, flounces and ringlets dictated by the fashions her mother is so keen to keep up with do not flatter Joan at all.

I suppose this could be described as a combination of the ‘rake-meets-spinster’ and ‘Ugly Duckling’ stories. The sparks fly between Tristan and Joan from the minute they set eyes on each other, and despite the inner voice telling Tristan that Joan is absolutely not the sort of young woman he should become involved with, and the disapproval of Joan’s mother, the pair can’t ignore the irresistible pull between them.

The thing I really like about the ‘Ugly Duckling’ part of the story is that, although Tristan is rendered all but speechless by the sight of Joan in a becoming gown, he doesn’t need it to know there’s a lovely woman underneath all the ruffles  –  he’s already hooked by her liveliness and wit.

I also like the way Ms Linden turns some established tropes on their heads.  For example, Tristan has an unhappy past – his parents died when he was a small child and the relatives who took him made it abundantly clear they didn’t want him – but he’s not an emotional wreck and doesn’t dwell on it, instead just getting on with his life and indulging his passion for gadgets and new-fangled inventions. And while Joan’s mother is rather controlling and her father seems to be somewhat absent-minded, the couple is obviously devoted to each other, which speaks to there being considerably more to them than those simple characteristics would suggest.

I listened to Veida Dehmlow’s recording of How to Tame Your Duke by Juliana Gray, a few months back, and, despite a few reservations, came away with a positive impression of her narration overall. I don’t know which title was recorded first, but I think her performance in Love and Other Scandals surpasses that in the other book. There is a smaller supporting cast here, which I suspect made it easier to portray each of those characters distinctly and appropriately. While Ms Dehmlow does not make a huge distinction between her hero and heroine in terms of register, I thought that what she did here – a slight lowering of pitch for Tristan and a small variation in tempo when he spoke – worked very well and in fact made him sound quite sexy.

Ms Dehmlow  brings out the humour in the story very well, and her narration is clear, if a little slow at times. As before, her naturally soft and slightly breathy tones lend themselves particularly well to the more romantic aspects of the story, and she throws herself into the love scenes with gusto.

She’s a narrator who acts – by which I mean, if the character is described as laughing, then she laughs – rather than simply reading that information in character. I admit, the narrator/actor is my preference when it comes to audiobook narration. I want to hear the smile in someone’s voice or hear them intone something breathlessly, rather than just be told that’s how they are speaking, and while Ms Dehmlow doesn’t follow every single “stage direction”, she makes a good job of it when she does.

There were a few places where she seemed about to trip over her words, or made a small mispronunciation. I don’t know if that was due to a hiccup in the recording process, or simply human error, and in all honesty, those are very minor details.

I’m sometimes apprehensive when I acquire an audio version of a book I enjoyed so much, because I know there’s a chance that the narration won’t work for me. This is especially true when the narrator is one with whom I am still becoming acquainted and who is fairly new to the world of romance audiobooks. I am, however, delighted to be able to say that I can add Love and Other Scandals to my library with no qualms and that I’m definitely planning on listening to it again in the not too distant future.

Caz


Narration: A-

Book Content: B+

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: None

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Tantor Audio

 

Love and Other Scandals was provided to AudioGals for review by Tantor Audio.

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