Trapped by Scandal by Jane Feather

Trapped by ScandalNarrated by Jill Tanner

The blurb for this book proudly trumpets the author’s “return to the Regency” – about a story set in 1795. If that had been the only thing wrong with Trapped by Scandal, I might have enjoyed it, a story of adventure and espionage on the streets of London and post-Revolutionary Paris with an intrepid heroine and a dashing hero intent on rescuing aristos from Madame La Guillotine. What I actually got was a pair of bland, unlikeable protagonists with zero chemistry, a non-existent romance and a pointless kidnap plot involving a cartoonish villain with a stupidly-shaped eyebrow. Sadly, he didn’t twirl it around while emitting an evil “Muahahahah!”

Lady Hero Fanshawe has always been headstrong, but since the death of her fiancé she has become reckless, only feeling truly alive when she is walking that thin tightrope between ruin and respectability. When her brother Alec suddenly disappears in Paris, whence he has travelled to try to find what has become of his French fiancée and her family, Hero disguises herself as a boy and follows him, only to be arrested and thrown into La Force prison. There, she meets the handsome and enigmatic William Ducasse, half-French, half-English and an English viscount. The two manage to escape (using the oldest trick in the book – “you create a diversion, I’ll brain the guards”) and make their way to the house that is currently home to William and his followers, all of whom are dedicated to saving the lives of as many aristocrats as they can. (At this point, I had to ask myself how William got put in prison if he’s so great at his job.)  Alec turns up, and plans are made to rescue Marie-Claire. Once again, the rescue is ridiculously easy, and the four of them head cross-country to Calais. During the journey, Hero – who makes no bones about the fact that she slept with her fiancé “lots of times” and enjoyed it – makes clear her interest in William. He tries to resist her – but not for long and the two get down to business like bunnies while roaming the French countryside.

Near the end of the journey, she admits to herself that she has fallen in love – and here I had to pause and rewind to make sure I’d heard aright, because I don’t remember listening to a couple falling in love – something she had never believed could happen again; and even though she isn’t particularly interested in marriage, believes that, once returned to England, she and William can continue their relationship in some shape or form.

William, however, has no such intention, making it clear that he will not allow Hero to risk her reputation by carrying on their affair in England. They both agreed at the outset that theirs was a finite, no-strings, sexual relationship, and he is emphatic that it has reached its end.

Just over a year later, Hero encounters William again and all those old feelings come flooding back. This time, she’s not going to let him get away with shutting her out, but William’s double life as an English peer and saviour of French aristos doesn’t permit emotional entanglements and he tells her – again – that their relationship is over, even as he reluctantly admits that perhaps she can be of some help to his operation. (I can’t even begin to understand his thought processes here. Hero proves over and over that she is impulsive and headstrong and doesn’t like being told what to do. Methinks he’s asking for trouble.)

There are so many things wrong with this book that I’m not sure where to begin. Hero is, not to put too fine a point on it, a pain in the arse and the worst type of “feisty”, unconventional heroine. In fact, she’s not so much someone who laughs in the face of convention as she is someone who slaps it around the face, knocks it out, ties it up, bundles it into a box and then gives it a concrete overcoat. It’s true that, at this period, wealthy women could choose not to marry if they didn’t wish to, and that perhaps they could afford to have a more flexible attitude to their reputations, but even so they couldn’t ignore its importance completely if they wanted to have some kind of social life. Hero’s complete disregard for her reputation, her willingness to have a sexual relationship outside marriage, the fact she takes William to her bed in her brother’s house!! … with an historical romance come certain expectations, and while I don’t object to characters who push boundaries, I don’t like it when they’re completely trashed; Hero’s mindset is utterly out of time and character for a young woman at this period. I also couldn’t get my head around the fact that her brother knows perfectly well what she’s up to with William, yet basically turns a blind eye. Just – no. Fathers and brothers were very protective of their womenfolk and this is, again, too much like a 21st century mindset for it to have any place in a story set in the 18th century.  I also couldn’t help thinking that given Hero’s had sex “lots of times”, it would seem the withdrawal method in the past was 100% effective.

Then there’s the fact that she plans to practically force William to resume their liaison:

“Now Hero felt only a determination that what they had had was not over. She was not going to permit it to be over. Either he was going to convince her with a rational and honest explanation why they could not be together in some way—she didn’t demand marriage or any formal kind of commitment—or they were going to resume their relationship”

What? Well, I suppose it’s magnanimous of her not to be demanding marriage, but still… and just, for one moment, imagine the boot was on the other foot and that this was going through the hero’s head. We’d be calling for him to be arrested!

Okay, so it takes two to tango, and William is complicit in their relationship, despite his repeatedly expressed concern for Hero’s reputation and his repeated assertions that it’s over. There’s a feeble attempt to turn him into one of those heroes whose past losses are so painful that he cannot face the prospect of love, but – meh. By the time the author got around to trying to pull that one, I didn’t give a monkey’s.  One could see it as them both using each other for sex, but this is supposed to be a romance, and THAT particular commodity is conspicuous by its absence.

Jill Tanner is a very experienced narrator who has narrated books across a variety of genres. She has a large number of historical romances to her credit, but amazingly, this is the first time I have listened to her. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will be doing so again. She has a pleasant, contralto voice and performs the narrative and dialogue expressively and at a good pace. But there is little differentiation between genders and characters so that the listener is forced to rely on textual indicators to work out who is speaking the vast majority of the time. All the men sound the same, all the women sound the same (with one or two exceptions) and the men and the women sound the same. The exceptions are Hero’s maid, who has a slight cockney accent, and her aunt, whose slightly higher pitched, tremulous delivery suits that rather nervy lady. And speaking of accents, for a book in which several chapters are set in France and in which some of the characters are French, I’d have expected there to be a number of French accents employed – but there are none.  Marie-Claire is French – no accent. The villain is French and it clearly states in the text that he has an accent – not here he doesn’t. The little girl, Marguerite, is French – no accent. None of the rabble, soldiers or villagers in France have French accents, and on top of that, Ms Tanner’s pronunciation of the smattering of French words that appear in the book is poor, to say the least.

I’ve hardly touched the surface of what’s wrong with Trapped by Scandal, but if you want to subject yourself to it to find out the rest for yourself, then go ahead. Just don’t blame me when your brain tries to escape out of your ears, or when you find banging your head against a wall while listening to be strangely comfortable.

Caz


Narration: C-

Book Content: D

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in (especially for the shaving brush – eeew!)

Violence Rating: Minimal – mostly self-inflicted as I was listening

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Recorded Books

Trapped by Scandal was provided to AudioGals by Recorded Books for a review.

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