Performance spoiled the story

Stilted and rushed awful pronunciation and characterisation. Not an easy listen and no engagement with story listened all the way through but not enjoyed

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Dying for a Duke

Wonderful book I Really enjoyed it the story line was amazing and I will be looking for book 2

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Not quite The Grand Sophie!

For the first 2 chapters this book has the tone and style of Georgette Heyer’s The Grand Sophie! Practically all of the main characters are there, but it quickly goes its own way and is not quite as endearing!

The story tends to drag a little in the middle, and the murder/mystery turns out to be unnecessarily lame & unthinking.

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Great Story

I love the story and the narrator was nice to listen to. However be warned that there aren’t the distinguishable voices for the characters that other narrators do.

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A Well Told, Well Read Tale

Disclaimer: this audiobook was received for free in exchange for an honest review

Benedict Rutland, the Earl of Rothay, is disciplined, determined, and has successfully rebuilt his family fortune - with no help from his rather more generous mother (Lucilla) . Life is shipshape, and his betrothed a perfectly sensible match, Miss Theodora Pinchbeck

Then Miss Phoebe Skeffington-Fox arrives, beautiful, mouthy, and showing excellent taste in her expensive acquisitions. As the beloved stepdaughter of a recently deceased uncle, she has been taken in by Benedict's mother and brings discomfort and chaos in her wake by daring to have a personality.

But worse even than that, suddenly, nothing can be quite what it was as death's claws begin to grip the family, and Benedict and Phoebe find themselves at the pointy end of accusing fingers.

I'll be honest here, I'm rarely a fan of cishet romance tales, especially set in this period, as they tend towards both the tropey and the sexist, but I do enjoy a good murder mystery, and Leech imbues Phoebe with more personality and strength than the cardboard cutout I expected, which was refreshing.

Benedict is kind of an arse, as you would expect. The frivolity of his mother, Phoebe and the young twins plays nicely off of his attitude to the world around him, as does the tightlaced attitude of his of his fiance, as the plot develops.

While there's nothing new here, Leech's voice is polished and weaves the interconnected parts of the story well. More than that, I was entertained throughout, with more than a few chuckles. It was clear that Leech enjoyed painting the characters and their interactions, carefully picking out both the frustrations and the pleasantries to show the reader.

Moreover the story knows just what it is. Both the romance and the mystery build slowly alongside each other as the tale makes it way towards a climax (pun definitely intended), without feeling rushed or forced. Leech's skill at this is evident at all stages.

As to the narration, Marzilli is excellent. As a student of accent, and a long-time voiceover artist, he is able to give each character a distinct voice and rhythm of speech, without falling into the usual traps of exaggerated intonation. Instead he subtly distinguishes between character classes, locales and types, whilst never leaving the reader behind as he switches. There a few hesitations in the flow of his speech that could have benefitted from another pass, but nothing to ruin the enjoyment of listening.

In all, an enjoyable experience, would definitely recommend.

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Great story, grating narration!

A murder mystery/love story that was engaging enough to make me grit my teeth and suffer through the dreadful narration! And when I say dreadful I mean truly awful! Sounded like Harold from Steptoe &Son doing a Noel Coward impression. T’s were replaced by D’s, so you got “bedder” not “better” etc. He also managed to read the hero’s lines in a higher pitch than the heroine’s! Very nearly succeeded in ruining a cracking romp of a tale by Emma V Leech, one of my consistently favourite authors.

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Good story

Good story spoilt by the narration not sure at times what he was saying also very little enthusiasm in the telling of the story

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Starts as Grand Sophie copy

I only managed 2 chapters of this as it is disgustingly close to The Grand Sophie by Georgette Heyer- one of my all-time favourite novels. Perhaps it does something else with the idea later, but I could not stand to listen to such a blattent rip-off. I have listened to other stories by this author, they have usually had a little something that rankled, but on the whole, they have been ok, but this was just too far.

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Started well but didn't hold my attention much

Unfortunately, after a promising start it became a case of 'instalove'. The author tried to make the story interesting but instead of being kooky Phoebe became irritating and she was supposed to be the one to like.

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