Love in the Time of Scandal by Caroline Linden

Love in the Time of ScandalNarrated by Beverley A. Crick

Caroline Linden’s Scandalous series has been one of the most consistently enjoyable sets of historical romances to appear over the last few years, and I’ve read and enjoyed all the full-length books and novellas that make it up. The first two books – Love and Other Scandals and It Takes a Scandal have been available in audio format for a while, and now, the last two books are being released, but with a different narrator. Listeners are frequently frustrated when narrators are changed part-way through a series, but here, I think it’s a good switch , as Beverley A. Crick is making herself a place on my “narrators to trust” shelf and in spite of a few reservations, I enjoyed her performance.

We met the hero and heroine of Love in the Time of Scandal in the previous book, which saw Benedict Lennox, Viscount Atherton and heir to the Earl of Stratford courting Penelope Weston’s sister, Abigail, in spite of the fact that Abigail had already fallen for Benedict’s former best friend. With Abigail now happily married, Penelope is feeling a little adrift; the Westons are nouveau riche, and while Penelope is lovely and has a large dowry, the fact that her father works for a living means that the highest sticklers in society will not accept her, and that most of the young men who would court her are only after her money. Penelope is pleased when she strikes up a friendship with seventeen year-old Frances Lockwood, a young woman who clearly looks up to Penelope and values her advice, especially when it comes to men, and how to spot a fortune hunter.

When Frances, starry-eyed, tells Penelope that she thinks she’s found “the one”, a gorgeous, charming viscount in the King’s Life Guards, her friend is at first delighted for her – until she realises that this paragon is none other than Benedict Lennox, the young man for whom she had nursed a tendre a year earlier, even though he was trying to court her sister at the time. Penelope now dislikes Atherton intensely, not only because he had pursued Abigail knowing she was in love with someone else, but also because he had stood quietly by while his closest friend was accused of theft and murder.

Even though Benedict had been somewhat smitten with Penelope, he decided that Abigail’s even temper and her quiet nature made her ideal wife material and thus courted her instead. Thanks to an extremely trying relationship with his dictatorial, unforgiving father, his life is difficult enough, and the last thing he needed was a sharp-tongued, passionate and impulsive wife to complicate things still further. A year later, he is still affected by Penelope’s beauty and attracted to her quick wit, but continues adamant in the belief that he wants a nice, quiet, biddable wife and not one who will challenge him at every turn.

Events take that decision out of his hands, however, when, in order to help preserve Penelope’s reputation from being destroyed by some truly unpleasant and false rumours, he steps in and offers to marry her. At first, Penelope refuses, convinced that she will be able to weather the storm, but it soon becomes clear that will not be possible. She has no alternative but to accept Benedict’s proposal, but oh, how she wishes he was making it because he truly wanted her and not because he was riding to her rescue.

I do love a good enemies-to-lovers story, and this is an extremely good one. The sparks that fly between Penelope and Benedict are palpable, and they are both attractive, well-rounded characters with flaws that make them seem that bit more real. Thanks to Penelope’s reading of the popular and scandalous Fifty Ways to Sin pamphlets, she is more clued up about bedroom matters than most young ladies of her ilk, and I liked that she isn’t afraid to ask for what she wants in bed (on the sofa, against the wall…) – something which delights her new husband, who is only too happy to indulge his bride’s naughtiest whims.

Naturally, when a couple who hardly know one another make a hasty marriage there are bound to be false-starts and misunderstandings, and while Benedict and Penelope set the sheets alight in bed, out of it, they find it difficult to adjust. Penelope is keeping a secret – to which the listener is privy – in order to help a friend, and Benedict is very close-lipped about his family, something which is not surprising considering that his father is a cruel despot who isn’t above threatening Benedict’s mother and sisters in order to keep his heir toeing the line. Fortunately, however, Ms Linden doesn’t stray into Big Misunderstanding territory, and the picture she paints of two people who can’t quite manage to connect properly is a realistic and, at times, poignant one.

Beverley A. Crick narrates both this, and the following and final book in the series (which will be released shortly), and she gives another accomplished and enjoyable performance. Her pacing is excellent in both narrative and dialogue and I really can’t fault her acting choices. I’ve said before that she’s a narrator who acts; laughs, giggles and sighs are incorporated into the characters’ dialogue where indicated, and this is something I particularly enjoy and actually look forward to about her narrations. I know that for some, however, that might sound off-putting, but what she does is not obtrusive or over the top – we’re not in “he laughed, ha, ha!” territory – and I’d definitely encourage anyone on the fence to give her a try. My only real criticism is that her range isn’t particularly large pitch-wise, so if there are more than a couple of male characters of similar age and station in a scene, it isn’t always easy to tell the difference between them. She does, however, differentiate well by means of accent and tone, and does a very good job here in establishing different personas for Penelope, Abigail and their friend Olivia (heroine of the next book) and in distinguishing them from the other ladies who appear in the story.

Caroline Linden is one of my favourite authors and I really hope that more of her books find their way into audio. She writes with a great deal of intelligence and wit, the romance is fully developed and the love scenes are nice and steamy, making Love in the Time of Scandal an absolute treat for anyone who enjoys a well-written historical with a wonderfully sensual love/hate relationship at its heart.

Caz


Narration: B+

Book Content: A-

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: Minimal

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Love in the Time of Scandal was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for a review.

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