The Cocoa Conspiracy

A Lady Arianna Regency Mystery Series, Book 2

By: Andrea Penrose

Narrated by: Mary Sarah

Lady Arianna, now the Countess of Saybrook, is settling into married life with her new husband. To celebrate his birthday, she finds the perfect gift: a rare volume of botanical engravings on Theobroma cacao - or chocolate - in an exclusive bookshop. But she is forced to fight off a stranger who tries to steal it way from her.

Arianna forgets about the strange incident - until she and her husband attend an important government party on a country estate, where her assailant reappears and turns out to be a Russian diplomat. Events grow more ominous when Arianna discovers sensitive government documents hidden in the book's binding - documents that suggest someone she and Saybrook hold dear is a traitor to King and country.

Murder. Treason. Money. Power. Once again, Arianna and Saybrook are drawn into a shadowy world of international intrigue. To unmask the real villain, they journey to the Peace Congress in Vienna, where amid the seductive pomp and pageantry of Europe's royalty, they must root out a cunning conspiracy - armed only with their wits and their expertise in chocolate....

©2014 Andrea DaRif (P)2018 Tantor

Did someone say cocoa

I’m flying through this series. The sarcasm and wittiness are such a refreshing combo to this period series when women are so usually portrayed as weak and looking to marry up.

Inconsistent and repetitive

The author is inconsistent with the Arianna character. One moment it’s written she can be a lady or anything she sets her mind to, despite not being raised as a lady after her father’s banishment to the Caribbeans. Yet, loses her composure the minute someone irritates her with replied curses and angry shown in her demeanor. A lady is defined by her composure, not an attribute of this heroine.

Another issue is the repetition of Adrianne’s background and raising in the Caribbean as to her strong and independent ways. Yes, but this is book 2 why is the author repeating this same information over and over again.

Give her background and move on with the story, character is shown not stated. No matter how many times said.

The author has the same issue in another of her book series. I’ve stopped reading both series because of the constant reference to the heroines background to demonstrate them as strong and independent women.

The narrator did a good job with character distinction and accents. And the cocoa information was very interesting.

appalling narration

this story was entertaining, but completely ruined by the narration. the pronounciation of words like "father" as "fother" (that is the only one i can remember at the moment) made a sentence unintelligible from time to time. rather get a hard copy of this book. (and the previous one, for that matter)

Struggled to follow

I typically like these books but I struggled to follow the story. There were so many different characters.
Additionally, the constant whispers (trying to be sultry?) voice of the narrator was not appropriate for so many of the scenes.
Not one of my favorites by this author for those two rwasons.

Book could be better with a different narrator

This narrator whispered as though she was imparting a secret and lifted her voice at every sentence. It was quite annoying.