Narrated by Justine Eyre

Historical romance fans who enjoy the “guardian falls in love with his ward” stories, as well as a good dose of tongue in cheek humor based on improbable facts and play on words, will be the most intrigued by A Scot in the Dark. That said, this story provides an interesting twist to this common trope by presenting us with a ward who is more a woman (in her twenties) than a girl.

As for the narration, if you have listened to Justine Eyre before, you know that she has a very distinctive sound. For the most part I enjoyed her narration, though I must admit that at several points where the hero is described as having a heavy Scottish brogue, I had a bit of trouble discerning what he was saying. So if you’re interested in trying this title, I suggest you listen to a sample of it first before going for the audio version. (Editor’s note: the SoundCloud sample below does not have the hero’s voice, but the Audible.com sample does.)

“Lonesome Lily” has grown up mostly as a ward in the keeping of the Duke of Warnick. Unfortunately for her, the Duke of Warnick has been many different men in just her short twenty-something years. Due to a string of impossible, terrible luck, the current Duke of Warnick (Alec Stuart), a 6 1/2 foot Scot who many have described as “The Highland Devil” due to his brute strength, was 17th in line and still managed to inherit the title. As a result, Lily has been left mostly to herself over the years, including the last five when the current Duke chose not to visit England due to his general aversion to all things English. Thus Lily never had a season much less even friends. It is amid this backdrop that she falls victim to an extremely vain and yet equally poor actor, who is the first man to show her an ounce of attention, but who uses her as his muse for an indecent painting and then leaves her thoroughly ruined, refusing to marry her.

Once Alec learns that he has a ward and that she is about to be involved in a scandal (as the painting will be revealed in a number of days), Alec finally visits London to convince Lily to marry before the unfortunate event. To Alec’s great dismay, however, true to her legend, not only is Lily the most beautiful woman he has ever met (a fact which I feel like the author may have ingrained in our heads a few times too often), but she is thoroughly determined not to marry – that is, anyone other than Alec. Alec, however, due to a sad history of being shunned for his brutish, Scottish ways believes himself unworthy and is equally determined not to marry. Can there possibly be a satisfactory resolution that will work for all parties involved? Moreover, will the Alec/Lily team be able to stop the unveiling of the painting in time to spare Lily the inevitable humiliation that is sure to ruin her in British society’s eyes?

Justine Eyre delivers an interesting narration in A Scot in the Dark. I have to say that I have enjoyed Ms. Eyre’s distinctive sound in the past (see my Ecstasy in Darkness). I also think she is very well suited for tongue in cheek style humor as I thought she effectively delivered the punchlines. Moreover, her ability to vary her voice to deliver highly distinguishable voices is superb and makes it easy to discern which character is talking.

However, I think I prefer her contemporary romance (American) narrations. In that regard, I had a difficult time understanding Alec at times, though this may have been intentional, as Alec seems to heighten his accent when he was trying to rub British society the wrong way. Then again, I haven’t had difficulty understanding other Scottish accents in the many historical romances I’ve listened to. It did help when I listened to these passages a few times and slowed down the speed, so ultimately I was able to capture what Alec was saying.

All in all, while I don’t think the events in A Scot in the Dark could have ever really happened with all of the completely unlikely facts, I did find myself chuckling from time to time and wanted to see the story to its end. From a sheer entertainment perspective, I think the book did its job. However, I will note that towards the end, I did find myself a bit frustrated with the hero when he kept going back and forth in whether he was worthy enough for the heroine. Ultimately, overall I was happy I had a chance to listen this story.

BJ

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was provided to AudioGals by for a review.