Narrated by Alison Larkin
Tempting Fortune
One of the plot threads left over from My Lady Notorious is picked up at the beginning of this book, with Bryght travelling to Kent in order to retrieve a letter written by his former mistress. The letter is located in the Earl of Walgrave’s country house, but the Wares and the Mallorens being enemies, Bryght can’t just turn up, ring the doorbell and ask for it, so he has to break in. He is confronted at pistol-point by the diminutive Portia St. Clair who promptly threatens to shoot him. She’s no match for him, however, and he overwhelms her, finds the letter and departs, but not without – in the best traditions of the hero-turned-housebreaker – a kiss.
Walgrave is an old friend of the St. Clair family, and Portia and her half-brother, Sir Oliver, have approached him for financial assistance. Oliver has a taste for the gambling tables and has managed to lose everything but his shirt, and they hope that Walgrave will fund a mortgage on their estate.
The siblings travel to London to make their request, and while there, they again encounter Bryght Malloren, whose attentions to Portia are marked. But she wants nothing to do with a man who is known to be a high-stakes gambler. Her father ran their estate into the ground because of his addiction to the tables, and now Oliver has incurred further disaster in the same way, so her disdain of Bryght is understandable. Yet she can’t help but be attracted to his handsome face and charming manner. When they hear that the old earl has died and that his son, Fortitude Ware (Fort) is the new earl, they have reason to feel optimistic, as Fort is sure to help them. With that weight off her mind, Portia has more leisure to worry about Oliver, who is still intent on re-building their fortune at the tables. But Oliver doesn’t have the means, the skill or the luck to play and win, and very quickly loses more money than he can pay. Portia is confronted with a terrible choice: allow Oliver to be beaten up by his creditors and then be thrown into debtor’s prison, or obtain the necessary money by auctioning off her virtue. For her, it’s a no-brainer.
Fortunately for Portia, Bryght is present at the scene of the auction that night. She’s heavily disguised, but he recognises her anyway, and comes up with a way to get her out without having to deflower her in front of a room full of people.
This is merely the first in a series of difficult situations Portia lands in from which she is rescued by Bryght – even as she continues to protest that she wants nothing to do with him. And that aspect of the story is a stumbling block for me. For about the first two-thirds of the book, I managed to maintain some sympathy for Portia – she’s had a lot to contend with, after all – but after that I wanted to smack her because of the way she treats a man who, while not perfect, has her best interests at heart. There’s nothing in his behaviour that warrants her continual insistence that because he gambles, he’s the lowest of the low and an all-round terrible person, yet she continues to repulse him and to say really stinging things to him up until almost the end of the book. And when she finally sees the error of her ways, she doesn’t grovel enough! :P
The pace never flags and Ms Beverley’s attention to historical detail is superb. Her descriptions of Georgian London, the customs and costume are very informative and evocative. But the story does suffer from a number of flaws, not least of which is the fact that Bryght and Portia don’t actually spend all that much time together, and when they do, most of it is taken up by Portia saying hurtful things and hurling unjust accusations at Bryght’s head. As a result, the listener never really discovers exactly what it is they see in each other, and there’s not much sense of relationship development.
Regular readers will know that I find Alison Larkin’s narrations to be a bit hit-and-miss, but this is one performance I can get behind as all the different aspects of it work very well. Her narrative is well paced and expertly nuanced, and all the characters are clearly differentiated and appropriately voiced. In her review of My Lady Notorious, Kaetrin mentioned that the Malloren brothers (Bryght, Cyn and Brand) sounded a little too alike, but here, Ms Larkin differentiates well between them so there is no confusion when they appear in scenes together. She uses her naturally soft, breathy tones to good effect with Portia, making her sound suitably youthful and a bit neurotic (!) and was especially good in her interpretation of Portia’s poisonous cousin, Nerissa. Oliver is given a very rounded, plummy, and rather pompous tone which expertly conveys his immaturity and also gave me a mental picture of him twenty years down the line – self-satisfied, rotund and balding! I enjoyed Ms Larkin’s performance of Bryght, too – I’ve often had issues with her hero voices, but not here. I suspect that may be because the book is set at a time when the men were as extravagant in dress and manner as the women, and frequently adopted a very affected manner of speech, with languid drawls and fake lisps being popular. Her portrayal of Bryght definitely owed much to the laconic drawl (thankfully without the lisp!), and sounded completely right for the period.
Overall, I enjoyed Tempting Fortune and would recommend it with the caveats expressed above. The story is compelling and action-packed; and in spite of my desire to throttle the heroine, I was very quickly hooked and couldn’t put it down!
Caz
Narration: B
Book Content: B-
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Minimal
Genre: Historical Romance
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Tempting Fortune was provided by Tantor Audio to AudioGals for a review.
You didn’t mention Rothgar…..were you just being polite?
Portia ruined this one when I read it in print, but then I am not enamored of this kind of trope. Sometimes the plain pigeon/gorgeous alpha works, but not in this book.
I will pass on this, but the next ones Brand/Rosamund and Elf/Fort I look forward to.
Erm… ask my editor! :P
Basically, I did mention him, but the review was running too long, so I removed the comments in order to concentrate on the specifics of this book.
But I share Kaetrin’s concerns. I liked what Alison Larkin did in this book very much, but Rothgar isn’t right. My original comment is as follows:
“I do, however have similar reservations about Ms Larkin’s performance of the Marquess of Rothgar to those expressed by expressed by Kaetrin in her review of My Lady Notorious. He’s a very important secondary character, a kind of cross between a Mafia boss and James Bond – but here, he sounds overly pompous, and, for want of a better expression, far too “posh”; his vowels are pronounced in the manner of a 1940s BBC announcer and Ms Larkin’s interpretation just doesn’t match the character as I envision him.”
I’m glad I’m not alone in my concerns about Ms. Larkin’s portrayal of Rothgar. But I wish I wasn’t concerned because I expect that means that I won’t like the audiobook and that is a major shame for me. Devilish is one of my favourite books of all time. :(
It’s an amazing book! Rothgar and Diana are the epitome of the “Georgian Power Couple”. I relish Devilish every time I read it.
I hope Tantor is listening.
I forgot to say that yes, I’m looking forward to the rest. I read Secrets of the Night quite recently, and enjoyed it. Portia is a pain in the arse for a lot of this book, it’s true, but there was something so compelling about the plot, that it kept me going. Also – I have to hand it to Ms Larkin in this one, because her narration was good enough to keep me engaged even when Portia was annoying the hell out of me!
Yes, Caz, what did you think of the portrayal of Rothgar?
I have the same reservations as you do. My review was running long, so I took out the references to him in order to concentrate specifically on this book, but have pasted my comments in my reply to Mel, above.
Like you in MLN, I thought AL did a very good all-round job. In fact, I think this is one of her better narrations and perhaps because of the period, she can get away with some of those vocal affectations that haven’t worked with, for example, Freddy in The Winter Bride.