Category: reviews (Page 19 of 118)

Heartbreaker by Sarah MacLean, narrated by Mary Jane Wells

October 12, 2022 / Kaetrin

Heartbreaker by Sarah MacLean, narrated by Mary Jane Wells. Great narration and a cracking story.

When I heard that Heartbreaker was a road trip book where the love interests were together for most of the story and that Mary Jane Wells was narrating, I knew this would be a good first Sarah MacLean historical for me to try. Until now I’ve only listened to one other MacLean – a novella length contemporary – A Duke Worth Falling For – which I reviewed here as well. I was not disappointed.

Heartbreaker is the second book in the Hell’s Belles series but it stands alone well. I didn’t have any trouble following the story at all and there were precious few spoilers for the prior book too, for extra bonus points.

Adelaide Frampton (aka Addie Trumbull) grew up in Lambeth, the daughter of the leader of the local gang, the Bulls. That didn’t make her protected or pampered. Instead, she was required to earn her keep by picking pockets and she became a most excellent “South Bank nipper”. After she’s grown up, her father, Alfie Trumbull, arranges to give her in marriage to the leader of a rival gang – the Boys – in order to unite the two groups. Adelaide isn’t keen on the match but doesn’t have much choice. However, at the wedding ceremony it’s clear that a takeover is planned – by her would-be-husband over Alfie’s gang or vice versa – and in the violent fracas (which ends with Alfie the victor and king of the merged “Bully Boys”) she is offered an escape by a mysterious woman.

That woman is Duchess of Trevescan, the leader of what will become the Hell’s Belles.

Five years later, when the main action of the book begins, Adelaide is well established in London society as a distant relative of the duchess and is close with her and the other Belles – Imogen and Sesily. The women have a powerful network of informants and helpers all over England, their goal to take down powerful men who, without their interference, would face no consequences for their terrible actions.

In Sarah MacLean’s Victorian England, a group of overtly feminist women are kicking arse and taking names. It’s fun to read about and obviously influenced by modern (and current) sensibilities. Heartbreaker is not designed and doesn’t promise to be truly authentic to the period.

The Belles’ network includes some rather improbable conveniences but it worked for the story and I was having a good time so it didn’t bother me other than that I noticed them.

Adelaide and the Belles are involved in a plan to take down the Marquess of Havistock, an evil man who makes money from child labour (something quite legal at the time, the story notes) and who has various other nefarious activities. His daughter, Helene, witnessed her father murder another peer and if the Belles can protect Helene long enough to bring the matter before the law, this time, Havistock is going down.

Helene however, has other plans, which put the Belle’s to scrambling. She is in love with Jack Carrington, the younger brother of the Duke of Clayborn. Rather than hide at the Duchess of Trevescan’s house, she and her beloved elope to Gretna. Hired by Havistock, members of the Bully Boys are following. If they’re caught, Helene’s life is forfeit and probably Jack’s too and Havistock will likely get away with it all.

Adelaide follows to ensure Helene and Jack’s safety but on the pretence of stopping the match (her alter ego being “the Matchbreaker”). The duke follows to stop Adelaide from stopping the wedding – he knows nothing of the Belle’s plans for Havistock and the other context around the pursuit – so as to ensure his younger brother’s happiness.

Thus the promised road trip begins, with Adelaide and Clayborn sparring (verbally) and trying their best to one-up the other. Mostly it is Adelaide who is the victor.

As it happens, Clayborn has had his eye on Adelaide for the past couple of years. He thinks she’s beautiful and clever. He’s even noticed her nimble fingers picking ton pockets a time or two and that hasn’t put him off. Adelaide for her part, admires Clayborn’s staunch advocacy in the House of Lords to end child labour but thinks him rude personally as a result of some interactions they’ve had on social occasions. (Of course, Clayborn had his reasons.)

Over the course of their journey, their latent attraction comes to the fore but a HEA for them seems impossible. Adelaide is the daughter of a criminal – indeed she is one herself. She still picks pockets (only for good, not evil these days). The duke has his own secret which led him to vow never to marry but even leaving that aside, he’s a duke.

However, in this universe there is a way for them to be together and over the course of their whirlwind romance (about 10 days I think) the barriers are brought out, considered, strategized upon and, eventually surmounted. It is, after all, a romance novel.

Mary Jane Wells is a favourite narrator (I have a lot of them, it’s true – I contain multitudes) and I knew I was in safe hands with her. As expected, she gave a very enjoyable performance, with good accent work, character voices, emotion and pacing. I had some mixed feelings about the character voice she gave Adelaide. Clearly, Ms. Wells wanted to make each of the Belle’s distinct. This left Adelaide with a bit of a wobble in her voice – the kind I associate with difficult spinsters from Jane Austen movie adaptations – so it took me a little while to get into the groove with it. However, Adelaide herself won me over and by about a third into the book I just accepted the voice as “her”. On the other hand, Ms. Wells’ tones for Clayborn, while familiar, were very very good.

There were a few occasions where Clayborn’s voice was used when it should have been Adelaide’s or vice versa and there was one time where there was a clear error but I don’t know whether it was the text or the narration. Otherwise however, Mary Jane Wells delivered a great performance and remains high on my list of favourite narrators of historical romance.

I’m very much looking forward to Imogen’s book which I think must be next. I believe she will be giving a certain police officer from Scotland Yard continued indigestion and it promises to be glorious. I can’t help but wonder if the mysterious Duke of Trevescan may turn up in book four?

Heartbreaker was a lot of fun. I think I need to check out book one, Bombshell, soon.

Grade: A

Review at Dear Author

October 5, 2022 / Kaetrin

I’m over at Dear Author with a review of Bad Girl Reputation by Elle Kennedy. A bit of a mixed bag.

In His Protection by Sandra Owens, narrated by Patrick Zeller

September 28, 2022 / Kaetrin

In His Protection by Sandra Owens, narrated by Patrick Zeller. Enjoyable romantic suspense (mostly romance) and great narration but would have liked more of the dog!

I’ve enjoyed romantic suspense by Sandra Owens before and I love dogs so In His Protection caught my eye when it popped up at Audible. Unfortunately, there’s not quite enough of the dog – Fuzz – as I’d have liked. He does have a couple of pivotal scenes but the story is not very much about him.

Tristan Church is the chief of police in Marsville, North Carolina. The county sheriff is Skylar Morgan. (I admit I don’t understand why such a small area has two separate police forces but I’ve seen it in other books so I guess it’s a thing in the US, or at least some parts of it.) When Sky came to town to interview for the job, she met Tristan in a bar and they had a hot and steamy night together – first names only (her rule). Tristan was deeply smitten from the jump but when Sky returned to Marsville and realised who they were in relation to one another professionally, she pretended they’d never met and gave him the cold shoulder. Tristan has been trying to get her attention for a year.

Sky left Florida where she held a Chief Deputy position after a bad break up with a fellow cop. That man bad-mouthed her to her colleagues and started rumours she was dirty. She faced an investigation (she was cleared of any wrongdoing – she was actually innocent) and her reputation was severely damaged. She wanted a clean start but vowed not to date another cop. And what is Tristan? Argh.

However, the attraction between them won’t go away and when they are teamed up to plan the reopening of the Marsville UFO Museum (yes, that’s why it’s called Marsville), they’re forced into one another’s company even more and Sky’s fragile shield against his charm fails.

At around the same time, her ex turns up in town and someone burns down her apartment. Plus, there’s a deputy in the county sheriff’s department who has it in for her as well and after she fires him he makes threats against her. So there is a plethora of potential suspects available. It’s soon clear that someone is after something from Sky and won’t stop until they get it. This is where my biggest bone to pick with the story arises. Sky is an experienced and accomplished law enforcement officer. When Tristan asks her not to go anywhere alone it’s only because she’s a woman. There’s just no way he’d have made the same request had Sky been a dude. And, Sky went along with it rather than calling it out as the gendered BS it was! *frowny face*

The author does turn some things around though and Sky does get to do some heroics – just not without some Special Forces officers to help. Male of course. (Tristan’s brother Kade is a Ranger. He has another brother, Parker, who is the fire chief and a talented artist.)

The problem with the plot is that for Tristan to be protective of Sky and do any rescuing (and really, rescuing is one of my very favourite things in romance!) because she’s as talented and experienced as she is, it only serves to diminish her. Not entirely and not always a lot – but enough that I noticed and it grated a little.

The push/pull of the relationship is Sky’s reluctance to get in a relationship where, if it all went wrong, she’d have to leave town and start all over again AGAIN. This a real risk for her. Tristan does not think the town would turn on Sky if they broke up but he’s 100% all in anyway and wants her to be his forever. I do like a man in pursuit romantically (and respectfully) speaking. There again, sometimes Tristan made choices to withhold information from Sky that may have spooked her relationship-wise but which she had a right to know professionally so that was a minus in his column. It wasn’t egregious though and, lucky for him, it wasn’t anything that put her at risk.

That said, Tristan also overtly recognised that she needed to stand on her own with her deputies and not interfere with her work and he did treat her with due professional respect most of the time.

The narration was really good. It’s been ages since I’ve listened to Patrick Zeller and I had to ask myself why that was. He has a great range of character voices – from Parker’s 5-year-old daughter, Everly, to the old town matriarch, Ms. Mabel Mackle, to different tones for each Church brother and beyond. His pacing and tone are great and I really liked the emotion he brought to the performance as well. Not overdone; just right.

I’m sure I enjoyed In His Protection more on audio than I would have in print because of the narration. Some of the things which bothered me about the story were easier to manage with Mr. Zeller in my ears. In fact, I liked his performance so much, I immediately went and bought another Owens/Zeller audio collaboration.

Some of the suspense plot stretched my credulity to the breaking level but I enjoyed the romance and I liked Sky and Tristan (most of the time) and I liked them together.

Grade: B-

Review at Dear Author

September 27, 2022 / Kaetrin

I’m over at Dear Author with a review of Sailor’s Delight by Rose Lerner. Lots to like in this m/m romance between a navy agent and a sailing master set at Rosh Hashanah.

Review at Dear Author

September 21, 2022 / Kaetrin

I’m over at Dear Author with a review of A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy & Sierra Simone. Super hot, super funny and super sweet all at once. Recommended.

The Best Man Problem by Mariah Ankenman, narrated by Charlotte North

September 15, 2022 / Kaetrin

The Best Man Problem by Mariah Ankenman, narrated by Charlotte North. Didn’t love the conflict at the end but otherwise a fun listen with great narration.

I’m a big fan of Charlotte North’s narrations and this led me to try a new-to-me author so I can get more of her in my ears. The Best Man Problem is book two in the Mile High Happiness series but can be read as a stand alone with no problems at all.

Lilly Walsh and her two BFFs run Mile High Happiness, a wedding planning business in Denver. (I admit I don’t know much about the wedding planning business but the setup of Mile High Happiness seemed a little unusual to me in that it seems that Lilly does the actual wedding planning and the other two women run other aspects of the business.) The book starts with what I assume is the wedding of the couple who were the protagonists in book one. Lilly is a bridesmaid for her best friend and has a hot one-night-stand with a handsome man she meets in the hotel bar after the event. It’s unusual for her (not that it matters if it wasn’t) but Lilly had an amazing time and can’t stop thinking about the man she only knows as Lincoln. From their conversation in the bar, she believes he’s in town for business and isn’t staying so she doesn’t think there is any chance a relationship could come of it.

Then Lilly’s next clients come in and introduce their best man – and you guessed it: it’s Lincoln! Not only is he the best man but he’s moved to Denver after a messy divorce (two years ago) and in fact there is no barrier to a long term relationship for he and Lilly except for two things: Lilly has a strict “no dating a member of the wedding party” rule and Lincoln is soured on relationships and happy-ever-afters following the implosion of his marriage. Still, the attraction between Lilly and Lincoln is intense and they keep being thrown into one another’s orbit. Add to that a matchmaking bride and BFFs who don’t mind meddling and, as the wedding draws near, the couple are rethinking their attitudes.

I enjoyed the banter and the chemistry between the love interests and I liked the humour of the story and the general feel-good vibe of it. What I didn’t love is the conflict near the end. Lilly’s rule about not dating a member of the wedding party is as a result of a lesson hard learned and when she tells Lincoln about it, after the wedding and they’re free to explore things with each other, his reaction is pretty terrible. Lincoln’s ex-wife was a cheating cheater who cheated and he clearly has some work to do to put it behind him and be able to move on. As we all know, just because one relationship ends doesn’t mean they all do. The way he took his ex-wife’s behaviours out on Lilly was not okay with me. And, I didn’t really see him doing the work of processing his feelings so that I had confidence he wouldn’t massively overreact again. Lilly was altogether too forgiving in my view.

Still, overall, I did like both Lilly and Lincoln and I wasn’t unhappy they ended up together. It’s just that I’d have liked Lincoln to have either not freaked out the way he did or, having done so, made better reparations than a grand gesture. The man needed therapy!

Charlotte North’s narration was, of course, a delight and that made the story all the more enjoyable. Ms. North has a lovely tone and cadence to her voice generally which makes it pleasing to hear but she also delivers on character voices, emotion and humour. Her comedic timing is very good. I especially liked here that she had a distinct voice for all three of the ladies of Mile High Happiness.

The only thing I don’t love about Ms. North’s narration is a personal pet peeve when it comes to audiobooks. When there’s reference to a chuckle or a cough or similar, I want to either hear it in the dialogue or hear it described in words – but not both. She will do the “he coughed” and then make a coughing noise. Do not like. Like I said, this is a personal pet peeve and probably plenty of other listeners could not care less about it.

Most of The Best Man Problem was a lot of fun, though not without touching on some heavier topics (the bride Lilly is working with is a cancer survivor, cheating ex-partners on both sides and a problematic parental relationship) and the narration was very good. Lincoln showed his feet of clay near the end though and didn’t quite manage to convince me – though the epilogue some months later did help a little.

Grade: B-