The Duchess in His Bed by Lorraine Heath

Narrated by Kate Reading

I’ve said before that I’m a fan of Lorraine Heath’s and it’s no secret that Kate Reading is one of my all-time favourite narrators. But The Duchess in His Bed, book four in the Sins for All Seasons series was a real slog and I had difficulty getting through it. The plot is fairly simple, albeit one that presented certain ethical dilemmas, but there was so much padding that I zoned out for periods of time, and found that so little had happened during those periods that I didn’t need to rewind to catch up with what was going on.

Her Grace, Selena, Duchess of Lushing, has been recently widowed. Hers was an arranged marriage, but her husband was a good man and while she wasn’t in love with him, she did love him and is genuinely grieving for him. Or she would be, if she had the time to grieve, but she doesn’t, due to another pressing concern. She and Lushing have no children and he came from a family that was not only short-lived, but also not prolific when it came to procreation. Thus, there are no male heirs to his title or the wealth that goes with it and everything will pass to the crown, leaving Selena with a comfortable income, but not one comfortable enough to enable her to ensure her sisters make good matches. Her brother, the Earl of Camberley, spends most of his time and money gaming and living the high life, despite the parlous state of the family finances, so there will be no help for her sisters coming from that quarter. But Camberley comes up with an incredibly risky plan. If Selena can bear a child within ten months of her husband’s death, he or she will be recognised as Lushing’s legitimate heir. If the baby is a boy, he’ll become the next duke, it it’s a girl, the title will pass into escheat, but the entailment is constructed in such a way as to allow a female to inherit the wealth and lands of the dukedom and will thus retain an elevated position in society.

Desperate to find a way to secure her sisters’ futures, Selena decides the idea is worth a try, and has set her sights on Aiden Trewlove, the handsome and charming owner of the slightly risqué, ladies-only Elysium Club. She’s seen him a few times, just briefly, at the weddings of her friends, Lady Aslyn Hastings, the Duke of Thornley and Lady Lavinia Kent (who have all married Trewloves), but is in no doubt that he’s the man she needs.

Aiden’s interest is sparked the moment the masked, self-possessed young woman in dark blue enters his club. Although he generally avoids taking a marked interest in any of the club’s patrons – it would be bad for business – he can’t resist flirting with the mysterious woman, who fairly quickly expresses her desire to go to bed with him. Flattered, but also wondering just what could have brought a beautiful young woman to his club with the intention of having sex with a stranger, Aiden decides there and then that whoever she is and whatever her reasons for being there, she deserves a proper seduction, a man who can make her feel ardent desire as well as desired. Over the next few nights, Selena continues to visit the club and Aiden, who, while he certainly introduces her to some of the many pleasures to be had in the arms of a good lover, frustratingly refuses to bed her. Selena knows time is running out and that she should find someone else to do the deed, but she just can’t walk away from Aiden, whom she is coming to know and genuinely like and respect.

Around the first half of the book is devoted to Aiden and Selena getting to know each other and getting it on in various places within the club. During their conversations, Selena gets to know more about Aiden’s background, that he’s the illegitimate son of an earl who didn’t give a damn about any of the bastards he sired and handed him over to a baby farmer shortly after his birth; that he’s one of five by-blows brought up by Ettie Trewlove, and most importantly, Aiden’s feelings about his illegitimacy and how he has taken great care not to produce any bastards himself. But even knowing that, Selena continues with her plan, clearly not understanding – or not concerned about – what it would mean to Aiden if he were to give her the child she wants. When they do finally make love, Aiden uses a sheath, something Selena has, of course, never seen or heard of, and in desperation she resorts to a course of action that I found deplorable – I’m sure I was supposed to. Fortunately, she comes to her senses in time and can’t go through with it, but the incident left something of a sour taste behind. I hadn’t warmed to Selena by that point because she comes across as rather cold and distant, and even though she does start to become more sympathetic in the second half of the book, I never really took to her as a character. I also found it hard to credit that she’d decide that her brother’s suggestion that she get herself knocked up by some random bloke was a good one rather than telling said brother to man up, stop frittering money away and do something for their sisters himself. (She does do that eventually, but not until near the end.)

I liked Aiden, who is an attractive hero, although his immediate feelings of possessiveness towards Selena don’t have much foundation – there’s a fair bit of insta-lust/love going on here. But he’s a decent and honourable man, which made Selena’s determination to use him for stud services even less palatable, especially when she realised what it would cost him.

The biggest problem I had with the book, however, was that it felt like a novella-length plot had been stretched to fill a full-length book. There’s a lot of padding around the middle, and some of the love scenes – the first one especially – were so drawn out that I got bored and just wanted them to be over. I also didn’t feel there was a great deal of chemistry between the leads; actually, I found the background story of the unspoken love between the dead Duke and his best friend to be more affecting than the romance between Aiden and Selena. I did enjoy the plotline that emerges in the second half about Aiden’s biological parents and was pleased to see the villain of the piece get his just desserts, but otherwise I have to say I found the story rather dull overall.

Kate Reading is a truly gifted performer and a big favourite of all of us here at AG. Her narration is easily the best thing about this audiobook; her pacing and character differentiation are excellent, her vocal characterisations of everyone, from the nasty, blustery Earl of Elverton (boo!) to useless Camberley, motherly Ettie Trewlove and sexy Aiden are superb, and her portrayal of Selena went a long way towards helping me to like her a little more as the story progressed and she started to see the extent to which her planned deception would hurt the man she loved. But even a performance in which the Great Kate (!) doesn’t put a foot wrong wasn’t enough to keep me glued to The Duchess in His Bed. The fact that it took me a week to listen to it is telling – I usually listen to two or three audiobooks a week, but even Ms. Reading’s flawless performance couldn’t elevate what was basically a fairly dull – if well-written – story.

Caz

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