Hazard by Stella Riley

Hazard by Stella RileyNarrated by Alex Wyndham

Note: Minor spoilers for previous books in the series follow

Hazard is the latest Stella Riley release, book five in the Rockliffe series. There are two romances here each with a HEA – though the relationship between Aristide and Genevieve takes the front seat.

Aristide Delacroix is the co-owner and manager of Sinclair’s, an upscale gaming house in London catering to an elite clientele. He is a French émigré and a good friend of Adrian Sinclair Devereaux, the Earl of Sarre and hero of The Player. He and Adrian became friends in Paris and they have remained so in London.

Aristide is assisted in Sinclair’s by his sister, Madeleine. She deals with the private dining rooms. At the end of The Wicked Cousin, Nicholas Wynstanton (brother to the Duke of Rockliffe), who has been in love with Madeleine for some time gave her an ultimatum: go out with me or I will bow out and never ask again. Madeleine loves Nicholas but believes she is not worthy of him and that he is way above her station in life.  Their romance and HEA progresses alongside Aristide’s with Genevieve Harcourt.

Genevieve Harcourt first met Aristide when he was an undersecretary to Genevieve’s stepfather in Paris. He taught her French when she was 16. I gather he wasn’t a great deal older, maybe around 20? If it was mentioned in the book, I missed it. Aristide had a bit of a crush on Genevieve but nothing ever happened between them and he never said or did anything to further it. After Genevieve’s mother died, her brothers demanded her return to England and as her stepfather was not her legal guardian, there was nothing he could do about it. Genevieve begged Aristide to carry a letter to a gentleman whom she hoped would rescue her from her brothers but he didn’t get that far; her brothers beat him up and injured him quite severely. The whole thing led to disaster for Aristide and Madeleine.

Genevieve is now a widow. To escape the crusty old men her brothers wished her to marry, she eloped with a young, handsome Kit Weston. Only Kit was a depraved man who treated her very badly indeed when he took any notice of her at all. He died nearly a year prior to the main action of the book, being stabbed outside a house of particularly ill repute.  Genevieve’s brothers wish to marry her off again and as Kit was such a loser, there is no money for her and she is pretty much at her brothers’ mercy again. She resolves to marry a man of her choice, hopefully to make a better choice than Kit this time, before her brothers can pick someone for her.

When she meets Aristide again, she decides he is her best bet, restrained as she is by still being in mourning and by the reputation of her late husband which has led many in society to cut connection with her.

It sounds very mercenary of her but she is merely being practical. And, she does intend to be a good wife to Aristide. In any event, as she knows full well, once she is married, she will be her husband’s property essentially and he can do with her what he wills. So even if she is being a bit mercenary, she knows if she chooses badly it is she who will suffer.

Genevieve was young and foolish when she ran off with Kit. She is wiser now. Aristide has his own reasons for accepting Genevieve’s proposal (yes, she proposes to him!) and they are far less attractive actually. He wants Genevieve in his bed and he wants revenge on her brothers for beating him up all those years ago. However, as inauspicious as the beginning of their relationship is, they are both, at heart, good people and it isn’t long until they both tumble into love and eventually, to their HEA.

As well as the romances between Aristide and Genevieve and Madeleine and Nicholas, there is another storyline too. When in Paris some years earlier, Aristide cheated a man out of a significant sum of money and he has now publicly accused Aristide of card sharping. Because it happened so long ago and in a different country, there is no proof of course but the accusation is very damaging. Aristide doesn’t cheat anymore and Sinclair’s is a reputable establishment but if the rumour takes root, the club and Aristide’s livelihood could be ruined.  I admit I felt some discomfort about Aristide’s history of cheating; it wasn’t terribly honourable behaviour. In this particular instance however, there was a story behind it (which is revealed late in the book) but it is clear that Aristide was a card sharp to support himself after he lost his job following the intervention of Genevieve’s brothers the day they beat him. In the end, I decided that, as he had changed his ways and did not cheat anymore, I could let it go. He wasn’t proud of his actions and I believe in second chances. I did wonder that Rockliffe ended up being as forgiving but I was prepared to go with it for the sake of the story.

Alex Wyndham narrates with his usual skill and aplomb. He has a wide range of character voices and does a particularly good female voice. My only complaint here was that occasionally Aristide’s French accent slipped and became more British and there was no textual indication it should be so. Also (I lied, there are two complaints), Genevieve’s terrible oldest brother sounded an awful lot like Rockcliffe and I had a bit of cognitive dissonance about that. Perhaps I am holding Mr. Wyndham to too high a standard here though. He has such a wide range of character voices and many narrators do not.

Otherwise, the narrative performance was smooth and well-paced, with good emotion and intimacy when the situation called for it.

I did, at times, become a little impatient with the story; there was a lot of internal monologuing and I wanted a little more action rather than introspection. The Mésalliance remains my favourite Stella Riley so far, but Hazard was still very enjoyable and a solid addition to the series.

Reviewer’s note: There are references in the story to domestic abuse, child abuse, sexual assault which are not graphic or explicit.

Kaetrin


AUDIOBOOK INFORMATION

 

Buy Hazard by Stella Riley on Amazon

4 thoughts on “Hazard by Stella Riley

  1. I really don’t get your ‘content warning’, Kaetrin. ‘domestic abuse, child abuse, sexual assault’. I’ve read AND listened to this book and there are no such details. In fact Kit’s proclivities are mentioned only in passing and then only to make the reader/listener aware of why Madeleine is so lacking in self esteem. Her deceased husband was dissolute but the author doesn’t actually dwell on his past activities. By giving such a warning you have probably put some readers off reading/listening to this book.

    1. Hi Wendy,

      The details are not specified and there is no torture porn I agree, However, Kit had a thing for prepubescent girls and had them procured for him at certain brothels – and that is mentioned explicitly in the book. Kit also regularly sexually and physically assaulted Genevieve when they were married. There are readers and listeners who want to be warned if any of that appears in a book at all.

      Readers and listeners are free to look at other reviews or ask questions if the want to clarify how graphic the scenes are (in this case, not at all graphic) but these are not matters I can let pass without a content warning. Even mentioned in passing they can be harmful to some people and I choose to privilege their sensibilities over other considerations.

      However, in case I have given the wrong impression, I have asked that the review to be edited to add in the content warning that the abuse referenced in the book is not graphic/explicit.

  2. We’ll have to agree to disagree on this subject I’m afraid. Kit is not a character in this book otherwise I wouldn’t wish to read about him myself. But in any case these things happened and the author doesn’t dwell on it, just gives us enough information to explain Genevieve’s lack of self esteem. I don’t see how mentioning them in passing can be seen as ‘harmful to some people’ when there are no explicitl descriptions. I’m also not sure what you mean by ‘privelege their sensibilities’. But I reckon I’ve had my say and will leave it there.

Comments are closed.