This review originally appeared in 2013

Narrated by Rosalyn Landor

Ruined by Rumor is another of the books that’s been languishing on my TBR mountain for a while that I decided to listen to rather than leaving it buried on the pile for much longer.

The marriage-of-convenience is one of my favourite plots in romance novels, so I came to this one with fairly high hopes of enjoyment, and I wasn’t disappointed. The story is well-told and the writing and characterisation are very good and the author, while basing her story on a series of misunderstandings and misconceptions, managed to make them fairly believable, even though there were times I felt like I wanted to smack both the hero and heroine and tell them to sit down and talk properly!

One of the things I enjoyed and found a little different from the norm was the fact that in this story, the hero has been secretly in love with the heroine for years. He’s titled, rich and good-looking and takes his responsibilities as landowner and lord of the manor very seriously, so seriously in fact, that he is thought by some to be rather dull. He has some very deep-seated insecurities about his suitability for the position he occupies and works himself incredibly hard as a result. Roxana, however, has eyes only for her handsome, soldier fiancé, and has in fact been convinced of the hero’s indifference due to the fact that he rarely speaks to her or seeks her out. What she doesn’t know of course, is that Alex Winslow, despite being an earl and a highly respected politician, is so much in love that he is terrified of making an idiot of himself around her and therefore opted to keep his distance. He’s a lovely beta-hero, the epitome of the strong, silent type who will take a lot of crap, but only to a point – after which he comes out fighting and God help whoever gets in his way.

At the beginning of the book, Roxana Langley is shown to be rather an immature heroine. Blinded by the looks and charm of her fiancé, George Wyatt, she is easily lead by him into thinking ill of others, especially of Alex, whom George categorises as a ‘dull dog’ and crashing bore. In that respect, she reminded me a little of Elizabeth Bennet, who is lead into similar cruelty and insensitivity under the influence of Wickham.

When George breaks off their five-year engagement, Roxana is devastated. The author has already sewn enough seeds of doubt as to the true nature of George’s character by that point for the reader to realise that his protestations to Roxana that amount to ‘it’s not you – it’s me’ are hiding something else entirely, but I thought it was a clever move not to reveal him as an out-and-out cad right from the start.

As stated in the synopsis, Alex and Roxana have to marry due to gossip that he has compromised her. Unlike many of the marriage of convenience stories I’ve read where the hero tells the heroine she can do whatever she likes as long as she is discreet, in this, the one thing Alex insists on is fidelity. Roxana cannot conceive of ever being unfaithful to him – principally because she believes herself to be frigid; she had not enjoyed George’s kisses or embraces (although she liked Alex’s well enough!).

Alex has also given Roxana to believe that he is in love with a girl he met in London, so both protagonists enter into the marriage believing their partner is in love with someone else, and many of the misunderstandings between them actually arise as a result of Roxana’s rather clumsy attempts to explain her feelings to Alex.

Both Alex and Roxana grow as characters during the course of the book. Alex learns to let his hair down a little on occasion and that having a wife means that he doesn’t have to bear all his responsibilities alone; and Roxana learns to appreciate her husband for the man he is (I liked the way he became more and more outwardly attractive to her as the book progresses) and to understand why he works as hard as he does and to share his aims and enthusiasms.

If I had a niggle with the story, it’s with the fact that the early part of it is perhaps a little too focused on Roxana’s family life, and we wait a teeny bit too long for our first sight of Alex. But the scenes dealing with Roxana’s disappointment at George’s lack of attention work very well to build up a picture of his true character.

Rosalyn Landor’s narration is, as always, excellent. Her voices for the different female characters are all very distinct so there is never any confusion as to who is speaking, and George is suitably pompous-sounding, while Alex is somewhat softer, She does a really good job in conveying his below-the-surface frustration at his awkwardness and his insecurities. Her narration is also beautifully nuanced – I’ve listened to some narrators who, while quite good with the characters seem rather wooden when simply telling the story, but that is never the case with Ms Landor.

Overall, Ruined by Rumor is an enjoyable take on a well-used trope. The storytelling and characterisation are excellent and the central couple are both likeable and engaging. Add in the fabulous narration and you’ve got a winner in audio format.

Breakdown of Grade: Narration – A; Story – B+

Running time: 10 hours 10 minutes