Manners & Mannerisms by Tanya Chris

Narrated by Joel Leslie

Manners & Mannerisms is a standalone m/m historical romance by Tanya Chris, who is the author of a number of contemporary and paranormal romances – and based on this, I’d suggest she should stick to those, because historicals clearly aren’t her forté. The story is dreadfully dull, and had I not agreed to review it, I’d probably have DNF’ed; even the fabulous Joel Leslie can’t turn this audiobook into anything other than it is – painfully uneventful and completely devoid of chemistry and humour.

Our PoV character is Lord William Bascombe, younger brother of the Marquess of Eldridge. The family is very strapped for cash thanks to their father’s mismanagement, and they have avoided destitution by the marquess’ marriage to an heiress. William and his younger siblings, Frederick and Catherine, still live at the family home, although William knows that he should be considering taking a wife for himself and setting up his own household. He also knows that he is not inclined towards women, and has instead resigned himself to living alone. His aunt, however, has other ideas; Mr. Reginald Abernathy of Virginia – the new owner of the neighbouring estate of Albon Manor – would be an excellent choice of suitor for Catherine, and more than that, he has a sister of marriageable age who would no doubt make William a good wife.

Reginald Abernathy had no idea he stood to inherit property in England until he was informed of the deaths of a distant relative and his heirs. He also has no idea that his arrival is so eagerly anticipated, or that he and his sisters are already the cause of much speculation.

William is not particularly interested in the new arrivals. He’s more concerned with continuing to help the family get back on its feet financially, and to learn more about how to manage the estate so he can be more of a help and less of a burden to his brother – until the Abernathys finally arrive and he gets his first sight of Reginald who, if not precisely handsome, is somewhat compelling with a very attractive smile.

The ‘eagerly anticipated new arrivals’ is a fairly stock-in-trade plotline in historical romance, as is the idea of the incumbent family thinking about making matches with the newbies (it’s the basis for the plot of Pride and Prejudice after all), and also familiar is the story of the young, country-bred innocent who has their head turned by the older, worldly gentleman who takes up residence nearby. That’s fine; tropes are tropes are tropes and they all have their place when done well. Manners & Mannerisms could indeed have been a charming comedy of manners, with the author juggling not one, but three romantic relationships, but COULD is the operative word in that sentence, because… it’s not charming or a comedy or any shape or form. There’s a lot of info-dumping and much of the dialogue is awkward and stilted (and in some cases, laughable); but what really nails the coffin lid shut on this one is that the whole thing is told from William’s PoV and he’s just So… Incredibly… Dull. And dense. I mean, it’s easy to see that Someone Is Up To Something Underhanded, but William has no clue (and the resolution to that plotline is ridiculous). It’s also easy to see the solution to the romantic dilemmas, but again, William is completely oblivious to them. And that ending – OMG! (And not in a good way).

A story that doesn’t fully engage me makes the flaws easier to spot. The characters are barely two-dimensional and there is nothing remotely interesting or appealing about them – they’re bland and completely unmemorable with no defining traits. The story is so weak as to be almost non-existent, and the Americanisms are easy to spot. For instance – no English person would describe themselves as “plenty tall” (we’re “quite tall”) or would walk down the road “a ways”. Boys wore short trousers (not short pants) and men wore nightshirts, not nightdresses. And as for the sex scenes *facepalm* – they’re overly drawn out and cringingly unsexy.

The only thing this audiobook has going for it is the narration by Joel Leslie, which is excellent. His English accent is spot on, he adopts an attractive Southern drawl to portray Reginald and Susan, and all the secondary characters – male and female – are clearly differentiated according to age and station. Mr. Leslie has a great line in cantankerous dowagers and snotty upper-class ladies – I always enjoy listening to him when he Brings the Dame Maggie ;) and his portrayal of William perfectly reflects the character’s youth and innocence. His performance is well-paced, he infuses the dialogue with an appropriate degree of emotion, and he does his absolute best to inject a sense of life and vibrancy into the story, but even a performer of his calibre can only do so much to paper over the cracks in a dull and unengaging book. Someone as incredibly talented as he is deserves better than this.

Caz