Untamed by Pamela Clare

UntamedNarrated by Kaleo Griffith

Following on from the events in Surrender, Morgan MacKinnon, the middle brother, is now the leader of MacKinnon’s Rangers. Ambushed by French soldiers while on a scouting mission, Morgan is injured and taken prisoner. The French plan to give him sufficient medical aid so that they can interrogate (read: torture) information out of him and then give him to their Abenaki allies to burn to death in payback for the Rangers’ destruction of their village previously.

Amalie Chauvenet is the daughter of a deceased French officer and a half Abenaki woman. Under the wardship of the commander of the fort, she helps in the hospital and there, meets Morgan.

Despite being on opposite sides of the war and the Rangers being responsible for her father’s death, Amalie develops feelings for Morgan and prevails upon her guardian to spare Morgan from the Abenaki’s fires. I will admit to some reservations on how Morgan acted with the French. On the one hand, it was completely understandable that he would have no loyalty to the French. On the other hand, I think I have a very old fashioned notion of honor. To his credit, Morgan does struggle with these issues too and I think that is what saved this from becoming a big issue for me.

The actual romance between Morgan and Amalie is fairly straightforward. Almost all of the barriers to their happiness are external, due to the war between the British and the French.

There is rich description of the time period and the setting and I kept picturing Daniel Day Lewis from The Last of the Mohicans in the lead role (which isn’t at all accurate on a number of levels but, in my defense: Daniel Day Lewis.)  And, in the latter part of the story, there is a strong “I WILL find you!” vibe.  Be still my heart.

I’ve listened to Kaleo Griffith narrate all of Pamela Clare’s I-Team books as well as a couple of contemporary romances from J. Lynn. I was curious and kinda-sorta nervous wondering if the accents would work for me here. However, apart from a couple of words I felt were probably mispronounced, they really did. I can only say probably on the mispronunciations because part of me is thinking that I’ve learned most of my “Scottish dialect” from other historical romance audiobooks and I’m pretty sure that’s not a very reliable teaching academy.

But, I am pleased to report that Kaleo Griffith does a very good Scottish accent – and I liked that it wasn’t super broad, but that it sounded like it had been softened somewhat by years of living in the Americas – which fit.  What I was really impressed with, to be honest, was his British accent for the Redcoat officers. His voicing of Wentworth in particular was just superb. There was a soft menace to it and a kind of oiliness which fit his character so well, while at the same time, there was enough in his characterization to leave room for him to eventually become a romance hero himself (as I understand it, Ms. Clare does plan to write his book at some stage).

In addition to Scottish and English, Mr. Griffith also produced a convincing French accent too (mostly, again, for me there were just a couple of words…) so he is indeed a man of many talents and ought not to be confined only to contemporary stories.

I think fans of the book will love the audio as well as those new to the story.  I think I shall go watch The Last of the Mohicans now… why, yes, it is in my DVD collection. :D

Kaetrin


Narration:  B+

Book Content:  B

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence:  Fighting

Genre:  Historical Romance

Publisher:  Tantor Audio

 

Untamed was provided to AudioGals for review by Tantor Audio.

6 thoughts on “Untamed by Pamela Clare

  1. I haven’t started this one yet, but I agree with you about his voicing of Wentworth – in Surrender, I felt that he put some menace in his voice but he also made him real, and very human. It was a superb touch, very professional not to give in to the inclination to make him the b-b-b-bad guy.

  2. Wentworth has always intrigued me and I have wondered more than once about his potential as a future hero. After his forcing of Iain into service and his later punishment of Iain (who could live through that?) in Surrender, I didn’t think he was anything but a major villain. But by the end of Defiant, I was convinced Pamela was going there – even if only in a secondary romance. Now to think he’s to have his own book – that should be quite interesting to say the least!

    1. That’s my understanding anyway Lea – I could be wrong. But I know that readers have been bombarding Ms. Clare with requests for a book about Joseph and also about Wentworth and I think she has positioned Wentworth to be redeemed in a romance of his own. I’m not sure how far advanced her plans are on the series though.

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