Silk is for Seduction by Loretta Chase

Narrated by Kate Reading

Chase is one of my favorite authors, and it’s a treat to finally have her books in audio format, especially with one of my favorite narrators bringing them to life! Her writing is clever and witty and lush, her characters fully fleshed out and the historical details accurate. Silk Is for Seduction is the first in the Dressmakers trilogy about the Noirot sisters, a branch of Chase’s fictional “Dreadful DeLuceys” (they remind me of Jennifer Crusie’s Dempseys in Welcome to Temptation). The Dreadful DeLuceys are, as a rule, con artists, swindlers and gamblers the lot of them. The sisters are now in trade in London, competing ruthlessly to be the best dressmakers, using any advantage or strategy. Marcelline, the eldest, schemes to design for the worst-dressed woman in London, who is fated to become the next Duchess of Clevedon. If the sisters can get her business, they think, they will attract more business away from their competition. Marcelline determines the way to get into the Duke’s purse (to pay for the wedding gown, trousseau and the rest of her wardrobe) is to get him to notice her. She goes to Paris, where he is living the high life and avoiding marriage, to catch his attention.

Unfortunately, she is extremely successful. There’s a strong attraction between them and, after she realizes what is happening, she steals away in the night to rush back to London in advance of the imminent scandal. She cannot succumb to an affair – this will ruin her chance at dressing fashionable women, who will no longer trust her. Luckily her sister, Sophie, is adept at marketing (think of it as the first social media) in the gossip sheets, so the story of the two of them appearing at the Italian Opera is printed with a spin. Clevedon, however, is also ruthless in his own way, and will not be put off.

I enjoyed the story both in ebook and audio, although it wasn’t as entertaining as some of her other works, especially the wonderful Lord of Scoundrels, a perennial favorite. There’s always slight button-pushing for me in a story where there is not only another woman to consider (the ill-fated intended) but also the crossing of class lines between 19th century protagonists. An author needs to make both these scenarios work seamlessly to avoid any feeling of manipulation. By that I mean, if my gut reaction is, “no way!” to a plot twist because it’s not plausible, I feel manipulated. I’ll let you decide if she accomplished the goal of credibility; each reader will react differently. On a scale of “no way” to “sigh-worthy”, I found the way she handled these issues satisfactory but not sigh-worthy.

Kate Reading is superb, as usual, in her narration. Although she is American*, she reads the entire book in British accents – which I appreciate, as I feel it contributes to the experience. Her accents in general are all excellent, as is her gender differentiation. She manages credible, deep male voices (deep being a relative term when a woman is reading a man, of course), and she gives Clevedon a wonderful, gruff, upper crust feel that contrasts well with Marcelline.

(*That she is American is actually an assumption, since she lives in the States and I have heard her read with American accents. Her nationality is not listed in her bio!)

Melinda

Narration: B+

Book Content: B

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: None (off-stage fight is mentioned once)

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Silk is for Seduction was provided to AudioGals for review by Tantor Audio.