Narrated by Corrie James

I approach a book by Sherry Thomas with a great deal of anticipation and wonder. The woman is pure magic with words and I have found her plots to be unfailingly unique and riveting. It was with that level of expectancy that I started listening to The Luckiest Lady in London.

Felix Rivendale, the Marquess of Wrenworth, is the Ideal Gentleman; Louisa Cantwell is a woman in need of a rich husband. Felix puts on a great façade to hide the pain of his upbringing, to cope with those feelings of unworthiness; Louisa also has a façade, one to make herself attractive enough to catch the right husband. Her needs are less complex than his – she is the eldest of several daughters, one with special needs, and she wants to be able to help them all.

In Sherry Thomas’s capable hands, these two characters are brought to life. They meet and feel an instant attraction, but Louisa is pragmatic – the Ideal Gentleman is too high above her. She keeps her eyes on the prize, and it isn’t Felix. While Felix doesn’t plan to marry for many more decades to come, he is intrigued enough to pursue her, and also to do anything to sway her to form an alliance when she feigns disinterest. When he wins her hand, she is considered – The Luckiest Lady in London. But will her luck hold…

Thomas’ writing is, as usual, deep and complex – she takes two characters with dark secrets and motives, and weaves a story around their journey to find love. She is also a master at building the tension between her protagonists so that when their inevitable conflict seems to tear them apart, you ache with them.

Corrie James is new to me, and I was pleased with her narration. She gives the characters differentiation with pitch, accent and tone. Her delivery and pacing were also very good. Most of the dialogue is between the main protagonists, with a few other characters – Lady Tremaine from Private Arrangements among them.

Overall this was a good audiobook. If I don’t seem effusive enough, it’s because it doesn’t quite reach the level of wonderful that I anticipated – other books she has written have brought me more satisfaction and entertainment. While the characters were drawn with exquisite detail, the actions they took were less comprehensible. The Big Conflict was just enough outside of my experience that I could not empathize, and the lengths to which each character went to pin-prick each other started to wear. I loved hearing her lyrical prose delivered by a truly capable narrator, but the plot in general and the resolution in particular, while still better than a great deal of the existing genre, were less inspiring than I had hoped.

Melinda