Falling into Bed With a Duke by Lorraine Heath

Narrated by Helen Lloyd (and Rich Cope, who performs the epilogue)

I’ve become a big fan of Lorraine Heath’s historical romances over the past couple of years, and Falling into Bed With a Duke (Hellions of Havisham series, book 1) is a truly terrific read; poignant and emotionally satisfying with superb chemistry between the two leads, it’s one of my favourite books of 2015. I did, however, hesitate to experience it in audio because I had been so disappointed with Helen Lloyd’s performance in When the Duke was Wicked, which I found lacking in emotion and completely devoid of any sense of the sexual tension that simmers between the protagonists. But Ms Lloyd has continued to narrate more of Ms Heath’s books and I reasoned that perhaps she has improved and decided to give her another chance. Happily, I can report an improvement, although not to the extent that I would give this audiobook the sort of strong, wholehearted recommendation I gave the printed version.

Minerva Dodger is more or less resigned to spinsterhood, having gone through six seasons without finding a man who wanted to marry her rather than her massive dowry. She knows she is no beauty and that most men find her intelligence and her insistence on speaking her mind to be intimidating, but she is not prepared to stifle herself in order to settle for second best. For her, it’s marriage for love or no marriage at all… and it looks very much as though it is going to be the latter.

The Duke of Ashebury – Ashe – was orphaned when his parents were killed in a horrific railway accident when he was just eight years old. Some twenty years later, he now spends very little time in England, preferring to travel the world while he indulges his passion for photography. But he is still haunted by the loss of his parents and by the fact that the last words he ever spoke to them were spoken in petulant anger.

When he is in London, Ashe sometimes goes to the Nightingale club when he wants female company. The club is a very exclusive place – modelled on the real-life Parrot Club which was set up in the 1850s as a place where women could go to seek sexual satisfaction in secret. The ladies who go to the Nightingale attend anonymously, and it’s a house rule that the men they choose as their lovers should not press them to reveal their identities. It’s also a house rule that the ladies approach the men rather than the other way round.

Minerva is sure that she is doing the right thing for herself in visiting the Nightingale club. Having given up on marriage, she isn’t prepared to give up on experiencing passion, and hopes to find someone who will give her that, her anonymity guaranteeing that he will want her for herself and not for her money. She is surprised when Ashebury – one of the handsomest, most sought after men in London – seeks her out and makes clear his interest in her, but she agrees to go upstairs with him, knowing that a man of his experience and innate sensuality will make the night a memorable one.

Things don’t go according to plan however. Ashe longs to photograph Minerva – tastefully – but she doesn’t feel comfortable with the idea, even though she had gone to the club looking for something far more intimate. And when Ashe realises that his mysterious “Lady V” is a virgin, he gently tells her that he is not the man to whom she should be giving her virtue.

After sharing a passionate kiss, they part, but Ashe finds himself unable to forget the captivating woman with the lovely legs who had been such an enticing mix of innocence, suppressed sensuality and vulnerability. He finds himself looking at all the women he encounters at society events, wondering if she could be Lady V, and much of the story is devoted to a rather delicious game of cat-and-mouse, with Ashe almost certain he has found her and Minerva trying desperately to throw him off the scent. She believes he will be just as disappointed in her as every other man should he find out the truth, and even when Ashe begins to pay court to her in earnest, Minerva still can’t believe he is actually interested in her for herself.

I really enjoyed the story, which is beautifully written with a lovely underlying sensuality. Minerva is a wonderful heroine; fiercely intelligent and strong minded, yet insecure in many ways, she can afford to afford to live life on her terms rather than become the wife of a man who does not like or respect her. There is a hitch, of course, as the path to true love can’t ever be allowed to run completely smooth, but fortunately, it’s not dragged out for ages and is resolved fairly quickly.

The one niggle I have is to do with the characterisation of Ashe. Ms Heath gives him a tragic backstory (which serves to set up the background for the rest of the series), but I wasn’t completely convinced by the idea of his pursuit of perfection in his photographs being some kind of therapy for his nightmares. Other than that, however, he’s a gorgeous hero and I liked that he fell so hard for Minerva, relishing her inner strength and the way she keeps him on his toes.

When it comes to the narration, Ms Lloyd does a decent job and I was able to listen to the book without wanting to rip out my earbuds, but it still leaves something to be desired. She has a beautiful, well-modulated voice that reminds me a little of Corrie James, but is sadly lacking Ms James’ ability to differentiate successfully between large numbers of characters and to bring out the sexual chemistry between the central characters, which, surely, is key to successfully narrating a romance. Minerva and Grace – who still sounds like she is in her fifties rather than a vivacious twenty-something – are difficult to tell apart in their many conversations together, and there are times it’s difficult to tell the difference between the hero and heroine. In fact, Minerva’s “Lady V” voice is deeper than Ashe’s, which I found rather odd. Ms Lloyd is more successful with the secondary characters on the whole, although I wondered why she gave Ashe’s friend Locksley a slight northern accent when he was brought up with Ashe and the other “hellions”, who don’t have accents at all. She does a reasonable job in her portrayal of Edward, (another hellion, and hero of the next book in the series), by injecting Edward’s devil-may-care attitude into his voice, and her portrayal of Minerva’s father worked well.

The narrative is smooth, reasonably expressive and well-paced – if a little on the slow side. But my biggest complaint is that I didn’t find the emotional resonance I was hoping for in the exchanges between Minerva and Ashe, and the intimate moments and love scenes – which are highly sensual in the book – are rather lacking in heat. Taking her performance overall, it strikes me that Ms Lloyd doesn’t go in for a lot of vocal acting. She reads dialogue and narrative well, but gives nothing “extra”, no laugh in her voice when we’re told a character is laughing, no tears if they’re crying. I realise this is very much down to personal preference and some listeners prefer a narrator who just reads – but I like one who acts.

I have no idea why a different narrator was brought in to perform the epilogue, unless it is because all the other audios by this author use two narrators. In the previous series, for example, the story is bookended by diary entries by the hero, so using a different narrator for those makes some sort of sense. But that isn’t the case in this book, and Mr Cope’s brief performance adds nothing to the overall appeal (or otherwise) of the audiobook. Given his appearance is so brief, I have not added a separate grade for his narration, which was fairly uninspiring.

All in all, Falling into Bed With a Duke as an audiobook is a bit of a mixed bag. The story is superb and I would strongly recommend it to any fan of well-written, character-driven historical romance – but the narration doesn’t do it any favours. Had I not read the book first, I would have missed out on the depth of the emotional connection between the protagonists and on the superb chemistry between them. Ms Lloyd’s narration may work for some, but for me, it proved another disappointment.

Caz

Narration: C+

Book Content: A-

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: None

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Harper Audio

Falling into Bed with a Duke was provided to AudioGals by Harper Audio for a review.

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