Fool Me Twice by Meredith Duran

Fool Me Twice lgNarrated by Alison Larkin

In Fool Me Twice, Olivia Halliday applies for a position of maid in the household of the Duke of Marwick, Alistair de Grey in order to sneak about and locate certain (she hopes) incriminating information regarding a common enemy, Lord Bertram. Apparently, Lord Bertram, for reasons that are unclear for most of the book (which is fine), wishes Olivia dead. Olivia wishes for safety and she hopes that working for Marwick will give her the ammunition she needs to achieve it. She is most surprised to find herself installed as housekeeper with a household in disarray.

Following the death of his wife, Alistair found out she had cuckolded him with multiple men (one of them Bertram) and this added rage to grief. He had a rather profound psychiatric reaction and has become a recluse – he doesn’t even leave his rooms anymore and is prone to violent tempers which has left him short-staffed. Without a firm hand, the remaining staff members are pretty much doing their own thing.

Olivia dislikes the slovenly way the house is kept but she has an ulterior motive for putting the staff back to proper work. If she cannot rely on them to be about their assigned tasks, anyone might walk in on her when she is searching. Similarly, she becomes very invested in getting the duke out of his rooms. How can she search them when he is there?

I found it a little difficult to understand Marwick at first and then I had a lightbulb moment when I realised that mental illness, depression in this case, does not need a reason and, if there is one, it does not have to meet some arbitrary standard of suckiness to be warranted. Mental illness occurs and it is not a sign of weakness. I knew that, of course, but in my attempts to get behind what was going on with both characters, I searched for explanations where (at least in this case) none was truly needed.

Olivia doesn’t “heal” Alistair but she does challenge him. I believe (and Olivia herself says) that Alistair was coming out of his depression at around the time she arrived and that, in combination with her boldness, courage, and persistence (he sacks her repeatedly) engages his intellect and inspires change.

The pair has a marvellous battle of wits and their dialogue is lively and sparkling. They fall in love over time; Olivia, in searching through his papers comes to admire him very much and he is a very attractive fellow as well (of course).

Their road to a happy ever after is not smooth however. Their stations are quite disparate and Alistair has determined never to remarry after the farce that was his first encounter with the state. Perhaps there is some suspension of disbelief required to immerse oneself into the story – but given the plethora of dukes which abound in romance, that’s nothing new, is it?

I quite enjoyed Alison Larkin’s narration. She had a good range of accents to use for the various classes of characters in the book and, for the most part, each was differentiated quite well. Her depiction of Alistair was very good indeed. He is a brute at first, violent and uncertain in temper and not at all nice. But as he comes back to himself – well, remakes himself I suppose – he is changed after his experience and the listener hears his hurt, grief, and rage and his determination to rise to Olivia’s challenge. We hear the gradual growth of love, each for the other as they learn and begin to know one another. It wasn’t just the words on the page, but the effect of the narration enhancing those words.

Ms. Larkin has a “tic” in her narrations (having listened to a few of her performances now, I’ve noticed it each time). Every now and then, she will speed up – leaving barely a pause between sentences – almost talking over herself in fact. It works occasionally but it mostly jars me out of my listening rhythm.

I found it difficult to differentiate when a character was thinking to him or herself or speaking aloud. I was caught out a few times thinking the words were spoken, only for it to later become apparent they were internal thoughts.

There were also some occasions where the text described Olivia’s voice as “high and tight” or “much higher than normal”, a “shriek” and one where Alistair was described as talking in “a whisper” but that was not reflected in the narration. Most of the time, the narrative performance matched the prose very well, but when it did not, it grated. And it was so very obvious. One of those times occurred during a love scene and the tone was much more demanding than the coaxing whisper of the text.

I have read most of Ms. Duran’s books in print. Usually I find the language dense and often beautiful but I find I have to concentrate a little more when I’m reading her books as opposed to say, one by Tessa Dare (that’s not a criticism, merely a comparison). I did not find this to be the case during this listen but I’m unable to say if it was the audiobook medium that made the difference or that possibly this book was more “lightly” written. It is elegant prose but it didn’t feel as dense. Perhaps it is merely that the natural pace of an audiobook is slower than my usual reading pace and that accounts for the difference.

I had a few niggles but I enjoyed the listen very much and I’m happy to recommend this audiobook for those who love a good historical romance.

Kaetrin

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Narration:  B

Book Content:  B

Steam Level:  Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence:  Fighting

Genre:  Historical Romance (Victorian)

Publisher:  Tantor Audio

 

Fool Me Twice was provided to AudioGals for review by Tantor Audio.

12 thoughts on “Fool Me Twice by Meredith Duran

  1. I loved Fool Me Twice in print, but the audio was a DNF. I was barely into it and I just couldn’t continue. Larkin’s narration didn’t work for me…..again. :(

    On another note. Do you think you gals might do a “whatcha listening to” post every month or so?

    1. Can you explain your request a bit further Mel? A post once a month where we all say what we are listening to? Or a post asking our listeners what they are listening to?

      1. Both. It would be fun. Lauren Willig does a weekly reading round-up and Sarah at SBTB does it monthly. I love seeing what everybody is reading and how they feel about it. Most of my new reads come from suggestions made in comment threads at those reader blogs and others. I don’t care for Goodreads and AAR doesn’t have comments after reviews like you do, so I am sometimes at loss to find ways to talk about the audiobooks I’m listening to.
        It was just a thought…..

    2. I’ve heard from a few people that Larkin is hit or miss (mostly miss) for them. Possibly because I hadn’t read the book first, I mostly enjoyed this narration. But I have a generally more benevolent opinion of her skill I think.

      1. *nods* While I thought she did a decent job in the previous book, I really couldn’t see her getting to grips with Alastair, which is why I still haven’t listened to this. Rather like your concern over her portrayal of Rothgar in the Malloren books, I just don’t think she’s got the chops for it. I may listen at some point, but for now, I’m content with the printed version.

        1. I haven’t read That Scandalous Summer (?) yet so I had no pre-conceived notions of Alastair at all. That may have helped.

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