Lord of Vengeance by Lara Adrian

Narrated by Antony Ferguson

Interestingly, what originally attracted me to Lord of Vengeance was author Lara Adrian, whose paranormal romance series, The Midnight Breed, has been a long-time favorite of mine. I was curious to see how her skills would translate to the vastly different historical romance sub-genre. Well imagine my surprise when I started listening to this audiobook and got that niggle of familiarity. I did a little investigating, and discovered that I had already read the book long ago – way before The Midnight Breed was even written! Turns out it was originally published by Ms. Adrian in 1995 under the pen-name Tina St. John. Although I am not a huge fan of rereads, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Antony Ferguson’s narration made this interesting story even more engaging.

Gunnar Rutledge is obsessed with one thing: revenge. His father was murdered in a tournament, and when his mother refused to become the killer’s mistress, he killed her too. If that wasn’t bad enough, Gunnar was just a small child, but he was also stabbed and left for dead.

When Gunnar finally attempts to fulfill his destiny, he is devastated to find his nemesis missing from his castle. Instead he finds his daughter, Raina d’Bussy. So he determines to do the next best thing and takes her away. As his hostage, she infuriates him like no other. He finds himself constantly battling his attraction to her, and is disgusted with himself for his own feelings. How could he possibly feel this way for her under the circumstances?

Raina is a tough woman though. Even as his captive, she endeavors to make the best of her situation and soon she finds herself strangely attracted to Gunnar. But how can she be falling for a man who is so clearly wrong about her father? Even worse, how can she support a man who has made it his life’s mission to kill her father? Will forgiveness or love triumph?

Moreover, there is another plot twist that adds to the intrigue of this story as there is someone close to Raina, who has been plotting for years in furtherance of his own dark agenda, and who is determined to make Raina his own, willingly or not. Will Gunnar be able to sort his feelings in time to save her from imminent peril?

This was my first experience with Antony Ferguson, and what a pleasure it was. His sexy, baritone voice is perfect to recreate the strong and commanding nature of the knights featured in this story. In fact, he reminds me somewhat of Phil Gigante, one my favorite male narrators. Not only does Mr. Ferguson adeptly create distinguishable voices for the multitude of characters in this story, but he also imbues them with role-appropriate intonations and accents.

My only observation, which I frequently find with similar types of male narrators, is that the women in this book do not sound as feminine as I would hope. All that said, I easily became accustomed with Mr. Ferguson’s depiction of Raina, and the other females, and was able to let this observation dim into the background.

Mr. Ferguson’s method of delivery is also great. You could hear the emotions and garner the theme of the scene from his cadence, appropriately speeding up in the many action scenes, and slowing down for the romantic ones. His performance definitely helped bring the story to life.

Lord of Vengeance is enjoyable both from a storyline and narration perspective. If you’re looking for a historical romance that contemplates whether true love can cause people to truly change, Lord of Vengeance is a good choice.

BJ

Narration:  B+

Book Content:  B+

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence:  Fighting

Genre:  Historical Romance

Publisher:  Tantor Audio

Lord of Vengeance was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for review.