Sweet Enemy by Heather Snow

Narrated by Kate Marcin

Heather Snow’s début novel, Sweet Enemy, was originally published in 2012 and is the first in her Veiled Seduction trilogy of historical romances featuring smart, scientifically minded heroines. I remember reading and very much enjoying the third book, Sweet Madness, but I haven’t managed to get around to reading the other two books, so I was delighted when Sweet Enemy popped up at Audible and immediately requested a review copy.

Liliana Claremont has lived alone since the death of her father and has devoted herself to scientific pursuits, mostly her overriding interest in chemistry and how it can be applied to healing. She’s dedicated, intelligent and continually frustrated at not being taken seriously by the scientific institutions of the day which are, of course, only open to men. Returning to her home following yet another rejection, she discovers it has been ransacked – and worse than that, the intruder is still there. She manages to escape unharmed and is gradually setting things back to rights when she finds a secret compartment she’s never seen before, and inside it, a large bundle of letters. When she finds one dated two days before her father’s death, something within it kick-starts her memories of that day and of his final words to her – and she realises that his death had been no accident.

Geoffrey Wentworth, Earl of Stratford, is a former officer who, as a younger son, never expected to inherit an estate and title. Unlike many heroes of historical romance, Geoffrey is no rake or scoundrel; he’s a decent, honourable man who takes his responsibilities seriously and is mindful of his duty to use his wealth and position to do some good in the world. The cause of the soldiers returning from war to find a country that has nothing to offer them is one that is close to his heart, so he is annoyed at his mother’s urgent summons back to the country when he’s in the middle of drafting an important bill, only to discover that her “dire emergency” was to tell him she’s organised a house party to which she’s invited a number of eligible ladies from which he is expected to choose a bride.

Liliana’s investigations have led her to the fact that the answers she needs may well be found at Somerton Park, the country estate of the Earl of Stratford, which is the reason she decides to accept the invitation to the house party and accompanies her cousin and managing aunt, who is determined that one of them shall bag themselves an earl. Liliana has no interest in husband hunting of course, just as Geoffrey has no interest in seeking a wife; both are wary and suspicious of each other, albeit for different reasons – Liliana thinks perhaps he had something to do with her father’s death and Geoffrey thinks Liliana is trying to trap him into marriage, and their initial antipathy and verbal sparring is well done. But as they begin to spend more time together they both let down their guard a little and get to know more about each other; Geoffrey is keen to know more of Liliana’s interest in chemistry and she finds his determination to do something to help the returning soldiers most admirable. They make a pact of sorts; if they pretend to be romantically interested in each other, it will please Liliana’s aunt and put a stop to her constant harping on how to catch a husband, and it will infuriate Geoffrey’s mother, who doesn’t like the idea of a bluestocking for a daughter-in-law; and of course, it’s not long before the pretend relationship turns into a real one.

This part of the romance is nicely done and the dialogue between the pair is entertaining and well written. But after the initial sparks and the gradual getting-to-know-you phase, the pace starts to flag and the “I want you, but I mustn’t” and “I want you, but I can’t tell you the truth” gets a little bit repetitive. Plus, Liliana persists in hiding the truth about her reasons for her presence for too long, and I lost patience long ago with nineteenth century heroines who jump into bed with the hero and then refuse to marry him when he asks – it’s too modern a mindset, as are some of the other things Liliana does, like trudging around the countryside wearing trousers and riding astride, which just scream “LOOK AT HOW UNCONVENTIONAL I AM!” and make me roll my eyes rather than anything else.

I liked the plotline surrounding Liliana’s father, and the way she and Geoffrey agree to work together to get to the bottom of things even after she’s hurt him, which made them seem like adults rather than spoiled children and I appreciated that. But although they’re likeable enough, they’re somewhat bland, and given the stodgy middle section, I had to wonder if there was really enough material here for a full-length novel.

The biggest barrier to my enjoyment, however, was the narration. Kate Marcin is new-to-me, although she’s clearly an experienced performer; her voice is pleasantly modulated, her pacing is good and the tone and timbre she adopts for Geoffrey work well to differentiate his character. I have to say though, that she makes him sound a bit sleazy in the sex scenes, although I suppose lines like “Your very skin is a conduit of sexual energy” aren’t helpful in that regard. And nor is the way poor Liliana keeps exploding…

Ms. Marcin doesn’t have a wide range of character voices, though, so many of the other male characters sound similar to one another as do some of the female characters, so I had to rely on dialogue tags sometimes. The biggest problem though is that it’s obvious Ms. Marcin is employing an English accent from pretty much the moment she starts speaking; I noted more than half a dozen mispronunciations in the first two minutes, and they continue throughout. Some are worse than others, but it’s very hard to concentrate on a story when the words are being mangled on a regular basis, and I suspect this contributed considerably to my overall dissatisfaction with this audiobook. When you enjoy listening to a narrator, the time just flies by, but when you’re listening and just waiting for the next mispronunciation, it’s easy to lose track of what the words mean and find yourself concentrating on what they sound like.

Ms. Marcin is American – I looked her up – but even if I hadn’t, it’s obvious from the way she pronounces certain words and letter groups. I could make a list of the errors I can remember off the top of my head and it would be merely the tip of the iceberg, there are so many! I’ve noted some of the most common errors in other reviews and won’t repeat them here, but I will say that someone in post-production really should have picked up the numerous times the hero’s name is mispronounced – as “Strahtford” – and had them corrected, because that really is a no-no. And then there was the moment when the hero says that “Don comes early” and I thought – “does he?” I was trying to figure out who Don was and how he fit into the story when I realised he was actually saying DAWN comes early!

Perhaps a non-Brit will find most of these to be inconsequential, but for me, it was like listening to nails scraping down a blackboard, and I’m left wondering – AGAIN –why a British narrator wasn’t used.

TL:DR – Sweet Enemy is probably an enjoyable story in print, but give it a miss in audio.

Caz