Three Weeks with Lady X by Eloisa James

Narrated by Susan Duerden

With every book, I grow more enamored with Eloisa James and I simply loved Three Weeks with Lady X. I usually try to lead more gracefully into my reviews, but I had so much fun with this one, that I can’t help but burst out with it: this book was clever, fun, entertaining, charming.

Lady Xenobia (nicknamed India), gifted with an intimidating name and intellect, has built a business that creates order out of chaos, a natural evolution for someone with bohemian, absent-minded parents whose only child became more of an adult than they had ever been. Despite her innocent appearance, (“at twenty-six, she looked fairly the same as she had at sixteen: too much hair, too much lower lip, too much bosom”), India is highly-sought by society to handle household disasters and organize domestic makeovers. Restless at having dealt so well with other households, yet never receiving a suitable proposal, India is ready to set her organizational wizardry on setting up her own household, getting married and having children. Enter Thorn Dautry, a ruthlessly ambitious adopted heir to a duchy, who has his own sights set on acquiring the perfectly beautiful and kind Leticia as his wife and the future mother of his children. He needs that paragon in order to fulfill his dream of domestic respectability and enable him to leave his ignoble childhood as a “mudlark” behind. To achieve his goals, he is determined to employ the genius of India to set up his country manor in order to woo society (and his potential mother-in-law).

As the immoveable object (India) meets the irresistible force (Thorn), the sparks – and humor – fly. Some of the most entertaining aspects to the book are the letters written back and forth between Thorn and India. They begin in a formal manner, but progress to show a developing relationship with the humor, innuendoes, and flirting. I have loved this mechanism in a story since I read Daddy-Long-Legs as a child; I don’t know why more authors don’t use this entertaining enhancement to a love affair.

When India begins to “flip” the manor house, she writes to Thorn describing the previous owner’s surprising taste in decorating and the resulting actions she is taking (she does not ask for permission to move the suggestive Cellini Satyr statue into Thorn’s bedroom, with the attached note, “Dear Thorn, I tried to make this room a refuge for those of passionate sensibilities. Perhaps it will inspire you to new heights.”)

The author unveils surprises and twists as often as India enters new disastrous rooms in the manor. Thorn, who has been bequeathed the tiny precocious child of one the friends of his mudlark past, insists on bringing the young girl to his manor for the opening weekend, presenting India with the challenge of explaining what looks like Thorn’s “byblow” to high society. As India falls in love with the small Rose, she becomes even more entangled in the affairs of this unusual man. The narrator, by the way, does an excellent job with the slight lisping voice of the mature-for-her-age Rose.

Susan Duerden is a wonderful narrator and actress, with a naturally cultured voice and an impressive resume on IMDB (her voice actually reminds me of some of the roles played by Kate Winslet). You can tell that she brings a lot of experience into her performances; her characters are so detailed, nuanced and individual! She does have a slightly sing-song pace to the non-dialogue pieces of the narration (many narrators adopt that characteristic in order to better differentiate between that and the speaking bits), but once I got used to it, I was no longer distracted by it. I had just finished another audiobook where the narrator struggled to create unique voices, and listening to Susan Duerden was like suddenly finding a hidden fairy spring that bubbled with mischief – so refreshing and enabling me to believe in magic again.

I would definitely listen to another historical fiction by Eloisa James, with the pairing of Susan Duerden – together they made my heart lighter, my daily commute easier and my smile bigger.

Victoria

Narration: A

Book Content: A

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: Fighting

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Harper Audio

Three Weeks with Lady X was provided to AudioGals by Harper Audio for review.