A Lady's Powerful Duke

By: Matilda Hart, Historical Deluxe

Narrated by: Anneliese Rennie

Emilia MacNeil is an independent miss. Truth be told, she's a bit of a tomboy, and many's the proper lady who has called her a hussy for her sometimes less than ladylike behavior. But Emilia remains unrepentant. She's as good as any man, and better than some, and the last thing she wants is to be married to any of them. She'll happily be an aunt to her siblings' children, but she wants nothing to do with marriage.

Enter Lord Cedric Hanson, Duke of Roxburgh. According to her father the Marquess, the Duke is to be her husband, but Emilia refuses to comply. When she is brought back after her first attempt at escape is foiled, she vows to take the battle to the enemy, so to speak. But every attempt she makes to escape is hindered, first by the guards who accompany her and her father to the Duke's seat, and afterwards by the Duke himself. Their game of hide and seek eventually leads to more, as Emilia finds herself reluctantly admiring the man who would take her freedom. Admiration becomes arousal...becomes more. In the end, on her wedding day, Emilia must choose between the independence she has fought for all her life and the man she has come to love.

©2016 Historical Deluxe (P)2017 Historical Deluxe

Not Inspiring

What did you like best about A Lady's Powerful Duke? What did you like least?

All of the escape attempts.

Would you recommend A Lady's Powerful Duke to your friends? Why or why not?

No. This was not an inspiring story for me.

What three words best describe Anneliese Rennie’s performance?

Strange, stranger, and weird

What would have made this romance irresistible?

I am not sure.

Any additional comments?

This had to be an earlier copy of the story. the narrator made scenes run together and when she made mistakes in her narration they were not taken out. I got this book via audiobook boom.

A nice story. Narration not to my taste.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I would change the narrator.

Would you recommend A Lady's Powerful Duke to your friends? Why or why not?

I would recommend buying the ebook rather than the audio version.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Anneliese Rennie?

I would have cast Elizabeth Klett or Melanie Fraser. Both are fantastic narrators and I love how they perform with a flawless English accent which adds an air of authenticity to historical romances set in England.
Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the narration here.

I felt that the Anneliese Rennie's style of reading the story as opposed to performing it is more suited to non fiction. There were also a couple of mispronunciations, e.g. Michaelmas

Any additional comments?

I voluntarily received a review copy.

good

Any additional comments?

This audiobook was given to me for a honest unbiased review. This was a good short read. I love these regency books. This was a perfect size novella that had all the stops, between love historical details, and passionate characters. A very sweet good read.

Sweet and sassy young lady meets her match

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Talk about fulfilling a stereotype. Honestly the ending lost this book a star.

What about Anneliese Rennie’s performance did you like?

Anneliese did a great job with the voices, the were well done for both male and female characters and were in keeping with the period theme.

What would have made this romance irresistible?

I both liked and disliked the Cedric (the Duke); a fair bit of what he did and said came across as playing a game to me, and I didn't like that.

Any additional comments?

A few production issues in chapter 7 (of the recording) where the narration repeats several times and has a few odd sounds added. The music at the end is also messed up (I hope) or it's supposed to be discordant. The music that plays between chapters is just a bit too loud, makes me want to decrease the volume each time it plays.

Wow, what a harsh review so far. Honestly I didn't dislike the book at all, I just found the ending a bit unbelievable.

Emilia is a lovely strong character and well ahead of her times as far as her desire for independence goes. And the story itself is well crafted and quite amusing.

I'd try another book by Matilda Hart.

Note: This book was provided free by the author/narrator/publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.

let down from what I was expecting

From the description this seemed like it was going to be a really great book, but sadly the description was the entire book. This all came across as a pouty child rather than a 20 year old woman. And the male came across as stiff and more of a rehearsed part. Don't get me wrong I did enjoy the story, but at the same time it was a let down. Honestly I probably won't listen to the story again because it's not one of those that I just have to hear again. The narration was ok. There were a few parts that you could hear the narrator clearing her throat and a line was repeated several times. I know that there are some books that this happen's but you can tell its part of the story and in the cases in this book it just didn't fit what was going on at all. There was also the music at the beginning of every chapter and what was played just didn't fit this story for me (it did fit the time period but that's not the point I'm trying to make). I know that other have different opinions than me I'm just trying to honestly express mine.