Narrated by Pilar Witherspoon

I haven’t read or listened to anything by Elizabeth Camden before, but one of my fellow reviewers at All About Romance is a big fan of her work, and after reading the synopsis of the author’s latest release, The Spice King, I decided to give it a try. It proved to be an entertaining listen; the writing is smooth and flows beautifully, the story has obviously been very well-researched, and the characters are engaging and three-dimensional.

Gray Delacroix has spent much of his life
abroad in service to his family’s business, Delacroix Global Spice, finding new
and unique flavours to excite the palate and building on the work done by his
late father in restoring the family fortunes after the Civil War. But his
success hasn’t come without a price. He’s tired, he suffers regular bouts of
ill-health due to malaria, and he feels he has neglected his younger
half-siblings, who, he feels, have been overindulged during his absences and
have become rather spoiled and aimless as a result. He has also decided that, at
forty, it’s time for him to settle down and have a family – and life – of his
own.

Over the years, he has amassed an extensive
collection of rare and unusual plant specimens, and rumour has it he is in
possession of an incredibly rare Vanilla Orchid. It’s this rumour that brings
Annabelle Larkin, a junior botanist at the Smithsonian, to Gray’s door.

Annabelle moved to Washington with her
sister Elaine – who lost her sight after a serious illness – and recently
gained a volunteer position at the Library of Congress’ reading room for the
blind. Annabelle secured a six-month position at the Smithsonian, and
desperately needs it to be extended so that she can remain in the city, as
Elaine needs her help on a daily basis, and Annabelle’s salary supports them both.
Annabelle’s boss is obsessed with orchids and desperately wants to obtain a
cutting from the vanilla orchid in Gray Delacroix’s collection, but his
requests have always met with a refusal. Realising that obtaining entrance to
the greenhouses on the Delacroix estate could be a way to obtain the permanent
position she needs, Annabelle determines to try to gain access to the
collection – but her written requests, too, are met with refusals.

Undaunted, she decides to try a direct
approach and arrives on Delacroix’s doorstep unannounced, bearing an unusual
gift and, all good-natured charm, talks her way inside and is very soon
face-to-face with the enigmatic, somewhat reclusive man she believes may be
able to help her to obtain what she needs. After an initial awkwardness,
Annabelle and Gray spend some time in easy discussion, but he ends the visit by
making clear, once more, his distrust of anything relating to the government
and his opposition to sharing any of his discoveries with the Smithsonian.

But while Gray may not be interested in
cooperating with anything government-related, he IS interested in the smart,
funny and curious Annabelle, recognising in her a kindred spirit, and decides
to court her. So a few days later, a surprised Annabelle receives a note from
Gray inviting her to visit the greenhouses at his remote property in Fairfax
County.

Over the following weeks, Gray and
Annabelle meet often, the hour they spend together each lunch time rapidly
becoming the highlight of Gray’s day. Their early courtship is delightful,
showing their growing feelings for one another as they bond over their mutual
love and fascination for plants of all sorts. Gray is unused to spending time
with young ladies, but Annabelle, a down-to-earth Kansas farmgirl, is far more
impressed by his sincerity and kindness than by fancy words and sentiments, and
all is going well between them – until Annabelle is approached by two US
Generals and asked to spy on Gray in return for their securing her a permanent
job. It’s true that Gray has made no secret of his disdain for the U.S.
government and his disapproval of how it is handling the aftermath of the
revolts in Cuba, and its effect on trade – but surely the man she is coming to
know and love can’t be a traitor?

There’s a lot to enjoy about The Spice King, but don’t go into it
expecting the romance to be the central focus; it’s more like historical
fiction with a romantic sub-plot. The relationship between Gray and Annabelle
is integral to the story, but I got the overall impression that they spend more
time apart than together, and their final reconciliation is of the
blink-and-you’ll-miss-it variety. But if you adjust your expectations on that
score – as I did – it’s easy to get lost in the intrigue of the espionage
plotline (which I suspect will run through the other two books still to come in
the series) and in the historical detail about the early days of the regulation
of the food industry (fake apple sauce, adulterated coffee, even baked beans
come under discussion!) and the inauguration of the Good Housekeeping Institute
Seal of Approval. The debates over accurate food-labelling and ingredients used
in processed foods are still very much alive today, and the discussions and
arguments in the novel most definitely continue to resonate.

New-to-me narrator Pilar Witherspoon delivers
a more than decent performance. Her mid-range voice is melodious and pleasant
to listen to and her enunciation is clear, although her pacing is perhaps just
a tad on the slow side. She differentiates effectively between the main female
characters – Annabelle, Elaine and Gray’s sister, Caroline – and also between
Annabelle and Gray, although the differences are generally subtle and I
sometimes needed to rely on the dialogue tags to work out who was speaking. Ms.
Witherspoon does inject a degree of emotion and expression into the
performance, although at times, she doesn’t go quite far enough. This is
generally a ‘quiet’ book and the characters are fairly reserved and/or
restrained, but on the few occasions where the emotions are heightened – at one
point, the text says “Elaine screeched”,
for example – that intensity isn’t present in the performance. (Elaine may have
screeched, but the narrator doesn’t even approximate it.)

I enjoyed listening to The Spice King and would recommend it to anyone interested in
listening to a story that’s well-grounded in its historical period and setting.
Ms. Camden’s books are listed on Amazon as “Religious Romance” or “Christian
Fiction”, but mentions of God or faith are rare and seem very much in keeping
with the way people of the time would have included thoughts and prayers in
their daily lives, so there’s nothing at all preachy here. I may read the next
book (which is Caroline Delacroix’s story) but as I generally prefer narrations
that are a little more animated, I’ll probably stick to print.