Seven Minutes in Heaven by Eloisa James

Seven Minutes in Heaven by Eloisa JamesNarrated by Susan Duerden

I’m a huge fan of Eloisa James’ brand of historical romance. She always manages to infuse witty dialogue and tongue-in-cheek humor in her romances which is sure to bring a smile to my face and have me chuckling while my earbuds are tuned in. I also love the cat and mouse chase that she tends to make the hero and heroine jump through prior to achieving their HEA. Seven Minutes in Heaven is no exception. However, while I was entertained throughout the whole story, I must admit that the plot as a whole requires the listener to suspend belief a bit more than one would hope as the entire story requires one to accept one whopper of a misunderstanding. The narration by Susan Duerden, however, is superb and perfectly brings to life the entertainment factor of this comical, hate turned to love, historical romance. Therefore, provided you’re willing to go with the flow and accept the giant misunderstanding on which the entire story hangs (somewhat like one would do with a treasured TV sitcom), as well as a number of other related convenient facts (like two extremely precocious children who seem to be in an endless amount of trouble), then Seven Minutes in Heaven is definitely worth a listen.

Eugenia Snowe experienced love once. With the unexpected drowning of her first husband, however, she also believes she has lost her ability to ever be in love again. So, she does a rather unconventional thing for a lady of her time (she’s the daughter of a marquess and a widow of a viscount’s heir), she dives head first into a business venture (an exclusive governess agency) and devotes all of her time to her work.

Into this mix enters Edward Reeve (“Ward”), the illegitimate son of an earl. He has a big problem. He desperately wants to win custody of his half-brother and half-sister after his mother’s unexpected death but can’t seem to be able to retain a governess of a suitable character to help his custody battle (particularly given his already somewhat dubious reputation due to the consequences of his birth, not to mention that his mother was known for being an eccentric who ran off with a much younger man – the father of his siblings). Even the highly-coveted governesses of Ms. Snowe’s exclusive agency, who are known for their discretion and professionalism, refuse to stay on after short stints of experiencing the unruly siblings’ behavior (which include such questionable acts as the dissection of animals and constant wearing of a veil). Mr. Reeve being the confident man he is decides to take matters into his own hands. If Ms. Snowe cannot find the right governess for his household, then he’ll just have to convince her to do the job herself, even if he has to kidnap her to get her there. Further complicating matters is the fact that he is strongly attracted to her, and given that she is a widow, and his mistaken belief that, because of her profession and the fact that she goes by “Ms. Snowe”, she is not a lady of the peerage, he believes they can indulge in their mutual attraction without any negative circumstances.

Interestingly, Eugenia too is tempted with her attraction to Ward, particularly due to her rather lonely life for the seven years following her husband’s passing. Thus, aided by her assistant’s encouragement, she becomes willing to see if a dalliance may indeed scratch her itch for Ward, particularly after his offer of giving her “seven minutes of heaven”: one minute for each of the years she has been in mourning for her husband (though one would hope he could give more than seven minutes!). It is amidst this backdrop that Eugenia allows herself to be “kidnapped” by Ward and taken to his household. She figures there would be no harm in indulging in a little bit of fun for at least a short while, at least until they can find Ward a suitable governess. Thus begins Eugenia’s and Ward’s adventures together, where it becomes clear that they are completely matched in the chemistry department and enjoy each other’s company to boot. Moreover, Eugenia’s time in Ward’s household also is beneficial for his siblings, even if she does accomplish her results in very “unladylike” ways, according to Ward. But when the custody battle is taken to its pinnacle, Ward must decide what is more important: his attraction to Eugenia or what he believes may hurt his chances of keeping the guardianship of his siblings.

Susan Duerden’s narration is simply marvelous. I really enjoy the tone of her voice which I find extremely pleasing. Moreover, her ability to deliver distinguishable voices for each one of the many characters is fantastic. Given her differentiation, I never felt like I had to rely on dialogue tags. Additionally, her characterization of Eugenia seemed spot on, with her personality making her sound equal parts confident (as you would expect the head of business to be) while at the same time a little bit wary of how her taking a trade (even if a rather respectable one) would make her look in the eyes of the ton.

Then there is Ward. I liked that Ms. Duerden lowers her voice sufficiently to sound like a genuine male while at the same time not making the voice for the hero sound forced. Additionally, she adeptly captured his self-assuredness while at the same time also masterfully delivering the witty banter between Ward and Eugenia to achieve maximum laughs. The only reason I did not, however, give Ms. Duerden’s performance an A was because I did catch a few intermittent places in the narration where her delivery sounded somewhat breathy (ie, audible breathing between phrases). However, with such a soothing and entertaining rendition, I hardly noticed this effect.

As previously noted my biggest issue with this story was the unbelievable nature of the misunderstanding trope (for example, why did Eugenia go by “Ms. Snowe,” rather than “Lady Snowe” as one would expect). Also, how is it possible that Ward didn’t know of her parentage (even if he wasn’t prone to go to social gatherings because of his own background, surely someone would have mentioned it)? Additionally, there was one other thing that niggled at me with respect to the plot line in this story. The hero seemed to experience whiplash changes in his judgment and acceptance of the heroine. While I was willing to overlook that someone who had experienced prejudice given his birth status might discriminate against someone who would also bring undue attention to his station and as a conduit his siblings’ status, I felt like once he had taken this position, he too quickly changed his mind back to accepting the heroine. It almost seemed like finding out the truth of his misconception about her upper-class status was part of the catalyst that allowed him to accept her, and yet I don’t think that was the intended result. Nonetheless, these inconsistencies aside, I did really enjoy the repartees between the hero and heroine. I also was convinced of the chemistry between the hero and heroine until this bias became apparent. Then it seemed like a double standard making it acceptable in the hero’s heart and mind to have an affair with the heroine but not actually open up his heart to her. I suppose the end message, however, was that absence makes the heart fonder which is a good message.

All in all, while this was not my favorite Eloisa James romance, I still enjoyed it. Therefore, if you are a fan of Ms. James’ writing style, then I still recommend you add this title to your to-listen list, especially given the well done narration by Susan Duerden.

BJ


 

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3 thoughts on “Seven Minutes in Heaven by Eloisa James

  1. I’m fascinated by this, because our taste in narrators generally aligns almost perfectly. I enjoy Eloisa James, but find Susan Duerden unbearable to listen to. She has a strange verbal tic in her “neutral” narrator voice of ending sentences that aren’t questions with an uplift. It’s Regency uptalk, and it drives me maaaaaad.

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