Splendor by Brenda Joyce

Narrated by Marian Hussey

Originally published in 2004, Splendor is a richly detailed and captivating story which moves from London to St. Petersburg over the course of a few months in the fateful year of 1812. With Napoleon’s army sweeping across Europe, Russia is under threat of invasion and Tsar Alexander has sent his cousin, Prince Nicholas Sverayov, to England in order to make peace with their former enemy and negotiate an alliance against Bonaparte.

The prince is highly intelligent, liberal in his views, well-read and honourable, with a dry wit he doesn’t display often to those who don’t know him well. He’s also very handsome and charming, and is certainly not averse to living up to his reputation as a ladies’ man, despite the fact that he’s married to one of the most beautiful women in Europe.

[If you’re someone for whom the hero falling for and sleeping with the heroine while he’s married to someone else is a dealbreaker regardless of the circumstances, then this is probably not the book for you. I’m not a fan of adultery plotlines in general, but there are some stories where I can forgive it, and this is one of them. The marriage was an arranged political alliance and his wife Is a self-obsessed beyotch who cuckolded him almost immediately and who will sleep with anything in trousers. It would be highly unrealistic for the author to have written Nicholas as living the life of a monk while his wife behaves like a trollop, IMO.]

Carolyn Browne is the daughter of a London bookseller who works in her father’s shop and earns a little extra money by penning a satirical column for The Morning Chronicle under the pseudonym of Charles Copperville. She disguises herself as a servant in order to gain access to the grand events where she picks up the juiciest gossip and makes her observations as to the depravity and self-absorption of the upper classes. When her pen turns to berating the morals of a certain Russian prince, Nicholas is furious and determines to try to discover the true identity of the mysterious Mr Copperville and put a stop to his persistent barbs. When fate throws the young Mr Charles Brighton into his path, Nicholas is fairly sure that not only has he found his satirist – but that the young man is not a man at all, and he decides to play “him” at his own game.

Nicholas eventually comes clean and lets Carolyn know he’s been wise to her all along. There is a very strong pull of attraction between them, and Carolyn, who has never been particularly interested in learning what all the fuss is about with what goes on between the sexes, suddenly finds herself more than curious. She’s already well aware that she’s dangerously attracted to Nicholas, and knowing he’s married, realises that anything more than a friendship between them would be wrong. It’s a tribute to Ms Joyce’s writing and to the fact that both protagonists are likeable and strongly characterised that the listener quickly starts rooting for them in spite of Nicholas’ marital situation.

The romance between Nicholas and Carolyn develops out of the friendship forged by two like-minded people and the connection between them feels deeply wrought and genuine. Carolyn’s uncertainties and reactions to Nicholas and the situation in which they find themselves feel very real and her conflicting emotions are very well written and explained. Nicholas is just as deeply in love, but divorce for a man in his position is impossible, and he knows Carolyn could never be happy as his mistress.

When Nicholas offers her a post as companion to his six-year-old daughter, Carolyn is naturally apprehensive, but seeing that the child needs her, she accepts, making it clear that that she will not be travelling to St. Petersburg with the family when they return. It’s the right thing to do, she knows… yet she can’t help wishing things could be different.

Splendor is quite a long book when compared to the majority of the newer historical romances released, but it’s well paced and I never found myself wishing things would “get a move on”. There are the usual obtrusive Americanisms (“sidewalk”, mostly) and some more modern turns of phrase, but the story overall is gripping, especially in the final stages which take place as our heroes are fleeing the advancing French army.

My principal complaint about the book – which I otherwise enjoyed very much – is that the ending is both drawn-out and rushed. Given everything Nicholas and Carolyn go through, it would have made sense to have ended it following the tense and tightly-written climactic scenes I’ve mentioned above. But instead, Ms Joyce veers off in another direction, stretching my credulity by inserting a couple of really implausible plot points, resurrecting a plot thread she’d left hanging half a book ago (and which, quite frankly, wouldn’t have affected the overall story if it had been omitted) and then dealing with it very quickly by having Nicholas make some strategically placed threats: everyone is saved, yippee, The End. That’s not to say the book was completely ruined, because it’s still a great story. I just wish the author had quit while she was ahead.

Marian Hussey is a narrator I’ve been aware of for a while, but this is only the second of her narrations I’ve listened to. She’s certainly a very accomplished performer and I’m going to be seeking out more of her work, as I enjoyed her performance in Splendor very much indeed. She has an attractive, youthful-sounding speaking voice which lends itself well to the role of Carolyn, but there’s also an undercurrent of maturity and conviction in her performance which come through as the story progresses and Carolyn has to delve deep to find the courage she needs to face a number of difficult situations. Ms Hussey performs the male roles well by adopting different pitches and timbres, and the accent she uses for both Nicholas and his brother is appropriate and consistent. There are a number of secondary characters in the book who appear throughout, such as Carolyn’s father, Princess Maria-Elena and little Katya, all of whom are instantly recognisable, as well as numerous minor characters such as servants, nobles, soldiers etc. who are all swiftly and clearly depicted through the use of a wide variety of tone and accent.

Ms Hussey delivers the narrative portions of the book very expressively and at a good pace. Her enunciation is clear and although I noticed one or two mispronunciations, they were not jarring enough to have taken me out of the story. All in all, Splendor proved to be an entertaining and enjoyable listening experience, and one I’d certainly recommend to anyone wanting something a little bit different in an historical romance.

Caz

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Narration: B+

Book Content: B

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in (but fairly tame)

Violence: Minimal

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Audible Studios