Duke of Pleasure by Elizabeth Hoyt

Narrated by Ashford McNab

Woohoo! Another Maiden Lane book! Narrated by Ashford McNab! How many exclamation points can I use in one paragraph?! J Listening to Duke of Sin was both a pleasure and sad experience. Pleasure because this historical romance combo is an auto buy/listen for me and sadness because the author’s next full length novel in this series (out Summer/Fall of 2017) is said to be her last. Sigh. I’m gonna miss it, let me tell you. But in the meantime, there is still Duke of Pleasure.

Duke of Pleasure opens several months after the events of Duke of Sin. Hugh Fitzroy, Duke of Kyle and bastard son of the king, has been tasked with bringing down the Lords of Chaos. Despite having the names of assumed members, Hugh hasn’t found any evidence of wrongdoing or infiltrated their ranks. Added to the frustration of his investigation is the migraine-inducing stress of his personal life – his two boys have yet to recover from the death of their mother several months before. Hugh knows he needs more information and there’s no one better at gathering information than Alf.

A hired informant who lives in St. Giles, he’s the one all the aristocracy goes to if they need information they couldn’t otherwise get. He, though, is really a she. She’s been hiding her identity for years to better navigate the streets and protect herself. There’s no room for a “woman” in her life. Meeting Hugh, however, awakens something that disturbs her. He makes her feel things it’s not safe to feel. She resolves to ignore the feelings and quickly find the information he needs so she can go back to her life. But the task Hugh gives her sets a band of thieves on her trail that forces her to take up residence in his house – still as a man. Now Alf must help the duke, keep her gender a secret, and protect her heart at the same time.

Duke of Pleasure was an enjoyable listen. Don’t get me wrong; Hoyt’s writing was superb as usual. She reminds me of Nalini Singh with the lyrical way she described scenery and emotions. However, it wasn’t as fantastic as I’d been expecting. This book just didn’t have the tension and passion I was hoping for from such characters. The spark between them felt more like a slow smolder than a blazing fire. He was a freakin’ duke and she was lower than the servant in his house! There should be tension there. Not to mention Hugh had a fear of passion. It burned him in his first marriage – in addition to the example of his mother and father’s relationship – he’s determined not to go down that road again. Heck, it’s the reason he’s considering marrying his wife’s best friend, whom he feels nothing for. But supposedly with Alf, sexual desired flared and singed him to such a degree he damned the consequences. It made it hard to believe in the connection between them. Still, Hoyt has a way with words and I’m sure this was just a blip.

Ashford McNab has narrated all but one or two of this series and understands Hoyt’s writing very well. She’s able to convey the right amount of emphasis on certain words and scenes. She ratchets ups the tension of the suspense moments by speeding up her pace and lingering and slowing down on the intimate scenes. I fell completely into the scene. I found myself rapt and held spellbound as she brought to life Hoyt’s lush descriptions. She seems to become the characters. When I listen to McNab, it’s truly as if I’m watching a movie in my mind.

But I have to admit, there is something about her performance that niggled at me. She did an excellent job of portraying the women. Alf’s transition from St. Giles urchin to aristocratic lady (or waif pretending to be a lady with the occasional slip) was downright impressive. But her upper class male voices tended to blend into the same voice. It’s not something I’ve noticed in her performances before now. I believe I only noticed it now because there were so many more men in this book than the others. It didn’t kill the overall performance but it did make general male conversations hard to follow. Regardless of this, McNab is still my one of my go to narrators and a wonderful choice for the book and the series.

Diana


Narration: A

Book Content: A

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: None

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Duke of Pleasure was provided to AudioGals by Hachette Audio for a review.

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