The King of Threadneedle Street by Moriah Densley

Narrated by Heather Wilds

This is book two in Ms Densley’s Rougemont series, the first of which (Song for Sophia) I awarded a B grade at All About Romance. I enjoyed listening to The King of Threadneedle Street, although it is very different in tone to the earlier book, and I feel it to be the weaker of the two in terms of plot and characterisation.

The hero and heroine are Andrew Tillmore, Earl of Preston, heir to the Marquess of Courtenay, and Courtnay’s ward, Alysia Villier. The pair have grown up together and as the years have passed, their childhood friendship has turned into something more. Andrew is determined to marry Alysia but, even though she is just as much in love with him as he with her, she turns him down, insisting a marriage between them would be to his detriment, for Alysia is the orphaned, bastard daughter of the Marquess’ former mistress, left to his guardianship upon her mother’s death.

For the past few years, Alysia has run the Courtenay household (Andrew’s mother being too indolent to do so) and has been acting as the Marquess’ steward, being in essence an unpaid servant. But as soon as Alysia has finished overseeing the arrangements for the imminent marriage of Andrew’s sister, she is expected to leave the house and make her own way, which means turning to her mother’s profession and finding herself a rich protector.

Andrew is furious, and his father, in his desperation to separate them, bundles Alysia off to Paris, where she is introduced to society by Madame Desmarais. The Madame is, unbeknownst to her, nothing more than a high-class pimp preparing to sell Alysia off to the highest bidder. When Andrew manages to find out where she is, he spirits her away to Rougemont, the home of the Earl and Countess of Devon (Wil and Sophia from the previous book).

Andrew’s plan is to wait until Alysia attains her majority, at which point his father’s guardianship will end and she will be free to do as she pleases. But that is almost three years away at the beginning of the book, and it will be a long and difficult wait that will see Alysia discovering her true parentage, and Andrew pursuing her across Europe.

While the story is enjoyable, and the fact that the central couple is already in love is a refreshingly unusual one, I can’t help but feel that there was just TOO much happening in terms of the plot to allow for much by way of character development. We first met Andrew in Song for Sophia and at seventeen, he was already a formidable financial whizz-kid. At twenty-two, he speaks several languages, owns a castle, is acquainted with royalty and has earned himself the moniker of “The King of Threadneedle Street”. In fact, he has already made himself a substantial fortune and has no need of his father’s money, so I couldn’t help asking myself why he and Alysia didn’t just elope! But Alysia doesn’t want Andrew to be disadvantaged by marrying the daughter of a notorious courtesan, and believes that separation is the best course for them both. She does genuinely love him, but her insistence on not marrying him for his own good becomes wearing after a time.

In the second half of the story, it becomes clear that Andrew has hatched some sort of long-term plan which will enable him to shake off the match-making efforts of his mother and win him Alysia once and for all, but as most of the story is told from Alysia’s point of view, the listener doesn’t become fully aware of the extent of Andrew’s machinations until she does. I assume this was a deliberate authorial decision in order to create tension, but I would like to have seen more of Andrew’s thought-processes here, and throughout the rest of the book.

While Andrew is undoubtedly highly intelligent – brilliant, in fact, when it comes to financial matters, he is sadly immature when it comes to his personal life. He wants Alysia and doesn’t care who knows it – often embarrassing her in front of others with his displays of affection or with unwise comments, things she finds utterly mortifying. It’s an interesting contrast, and struck me as being quite plausible – twenty-two year old men are not generally known for their emotional maturity! But on the positive side, he’s constant in his devotion to Alysia, has a wicked sense of humour, and by the end of the book he is showing signs of mellowing and began to convince me that he would, in fact, turn out to be a good husband.

The pacing of the story is somewhat uneven. This is partly due to the fact that the protagonists spend a fair amount of time apart, and partly due to the insertion of a number of lengthy flashbacks, which, while they might provide some light on Andrew and Alysia’s past, disrupt the overall flow. But the story is well-written on the whole, and in spite of the sometimes melodramatic directions taken by the plot, the central relationship is clearly a deeply felt and very affectionate one.

Heather Wilds once again delivers an accomplished performance in which all the characters are clearly and appropriately differentiated. Her voice is pleasantly modulated, with a very slight huskiness to it; and it sits in an attractive middle register, which enables her to voice male characters convincingly by applying a slight drop in pitch that never sounds strained. She adds weight to her characterisation of the men by giving her tone a harder edge and an added resonance, and, in her portrayal of Andrew, makes fitting use of a slight regional accent, which she applies well and consistently. One of the things I’ve heard Ms Wilds do quite a few times now is to voice her heroine using a hint of a French or German accent – it seems to be a speciality of hers! – and she does so here to good effect, opting to give Alysia a slight French accent. The text doesn’t specifically say that Alysia’s speech is accented, but it’s a perfectly plausible acting choice, given that we’re told she spent several years living in Paris.

Having listened to a number of Ms Wilds’ narrations now, there’s one vocal tick I’ve identified which can be a little irritating, which is her tendency to take breaths mid-sentence where one isn’t really called for or indicated. Her narration is generally well paced and while perhaps a tiny bit on the slow side, it’s not slow enough to require such interruptions. It doesn’t happen often enough to completely ruin her performance, but it’s something I find myself noticing more and more often.

I’m going to give a qualified recommendation to this audiobook based on the reservations I’ve expressed about the nature of the plot. Ms Densley is a talented author who is clearly able to deliver an intriguing storyline peopled with engaging characters and I look forward to reading and listening to more of her work. But if you’ve not come across her before, I’d recommend starting with Song for Sophia rather than The King of Threadneedle Street.

Caz

Narration: B-

Book Content: C

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in but at the very tame end

Violence: Minimal

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Tantor Audio

The King of Threadneedle Street was provided to AudioGals for review by Tantor Audio.