Once Upon A Countess

Love and Devotion, Book 2

By: JR Salisbury

Narrated by: Mary Sarah

Best laid plans.

Lady Clare MacDougal, the sharp-tongued daughter of the duke of Renfrew, has been sent to spend the summer in London with her cousin, the duke of Clevedon. Her father's heartfelt wish is for her to marry well. Lady Clare has other plans....

Forbidden love.

Milton Parr, the earl of Wexford, has no plans for marriage. Widowed from a previous, unhappy marriage, Wexford's only plans are to finish raising his younger siblings. But Lady Clare's tart tongue and love of life intrigue him.

Can he convince her they belong together, or will her secret love keep them apart?

Contains mature themes.

©2021 JR Salisbury (P)2021 Tantor

Excellent

Loved this cute love story but thought there wasn’t closure from the evil marques who tried to steal away the Scottish heiress from the Earl before going into another unrelated chaotic issue, then another one, too many loose ends by the end of the story. Narrator is not my favorite, I always have to speed up the narrative & male voices are not realistic.

Aggravating Narrator

The characters and the plot are interesting, though there were some inconsistencies,, For example, the H&h were totally opposed to an arranged marriage for the heroine at the beginning of the book but later in the story they were more than willing to consider arranged marriages for his sisters. There were some dropped storylines also. The heroine’s main suitor/villain suddenly disappears from the story despite ominous threats. Maybe he will show up in a later book, but that aspect of the story should have had more closure.
By far the most negative thing about this book was the narrator. She has a sing song, voice, strange pronunciation, and an overly dramatic, breathless style. For example, she pronounced “back” the way you would pronounce the word “balk.” Her style of speech was so exaggerated that at times it was actually difficult to understand what she was saying.
I probably would rate the story 4.25, but I rounded up because it kept my interest throughout and because I can’t be sure that the irritating narrator didn’t drag my rating down.