Narrated by Heather Wilds
I was impressed with Lauren Smith’s historical romance debut, Wicked Designs. Weaving elements of suspense around a well-developed romance, this story grabbed my attention from the start and kept me captivated throughout. I also enjoyed Heather Wilds’ narration, making this a good choice for an audiobook listen if you enjoy historical romances with alpha heroes who are not afraid to go after what they want.
Wicked Designs is the first book in the League of Rogues series. As the story begins, the League of Rogues is a group comprised of five rakes who have each others’ backs and are not above skirting society’s conventions to achieve their goals, both financial and otherwise. Over the course of the book, as a secret is revealed, one additional rogue joins their group. Having dangerous reputations, as the type of men that do not settle down, no reputable lady would be caught in their midst without risking tarnishing her reputation.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, that is exactly the situation that Miss Emily Parr finds herself in when the League of Rogues abducts her. Godric St. Laurent, Duke of Essex, the leader of the League, originally kidnapped her with the intent to use her as leverage to force her embezzling Uncle to pay an overdue debt. Soon, however, the captive captures the hearts of her captors with her charm, bravery and wit, and intoxicating innocence. All are smitten, but following League rules the other men defer to Godric who stakes his claim first.
Emily greatly resents Godric for holding her captive. Most of her life she has had to bend to the whims of dominating men. After her parents’ death, she was left relying on her Uncle for all her needs – an Uncle who would sooner sell her off to an evil business partner in exchange for his financial freedom, than allow her to search for happiness. If only she could find a husband who would allow her discretion over her affairs, she could finally take charge over her modest inheritance.
Therefore, notwithstanding that she feels an attraction to Godric, she tries her best to push him away and attempts on numerous occasions to run away. Godric, however, is a man who will not be deterred; he takes extreme measures to ensure that Emily remains his captive and has no choice but to eventually capitulate to his relentless seduction. He wants her in his bed and is not above any means to make it happen, including making her his mistress and tasking the other League members with her 24/7 surveillance. Love and marriage, though, is something that given his dark past, he is unable to ever offer her. Can Emily change his mind? Moreover, when a dark secret from Emily’s past is revealed, will Godric and his League of Rogues be able to keep her safe?
Heather Wilds delivers a talented rendition of this tale. Both her male and female voices are believable and she does a good job of varying accents to distinguish characters of different classes. Additionally, she also manages to create slightly different intonations for each one of the League of Rogues members, even if in a few minor cases, I still had to rely on dialogue tags to distinguish the speaker. Given the large number of young British males who play substantial parts in this romance, this is not to be completely unexpected and really did not detract from the overall work.
Ms. Wilds also does an admirable job of communicating the various emotions. From the passionate romantic scenes to the suspense-filled action ones, she appropriately varies her cadence and tone to fully convey the particular scene.
The best aspect of Ms. Wilds’ performance is her characterization of Emily and Godric. The higher, lighter sounding voice that she uses for Emily manages to communicate both her innocence and sweet nature while at the same time conveying her intelligence, loyalty, and bravery – seemingly contradictory traits and yet, Ms. Wilds manages to nail this crucial aspect of Emily’s nature. Likewise, Godric comes across as sounding both like a rake and a leader even if at times Ms. Wilds cleverly finds a way to let his insecurities shine through – again seemingly disparate traits but nonetheless important ones that are necessary to understanding his character’s development and motivations that at first blush may seem unforgivable.
As of the date of this review, Wicked Designs is the only book that has been released in the League of Rogues series. Nonetheless, this is not an issue, as this book can be read on a stand-alone basis, given that the main hero and heroine’s relationship is resolved. Now that my curiosity has been piqued by the introduction to the other League members, however, I can’t wait until the release of the others! I also look forward to listening to future works narrated by Ms. Wilds.
BJ
Narration: B+
Book Content: B+
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Minimal
Genre: European Historical Romance
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Wicked Designs was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for review.
