After Romara is beaten and thrown out of the house by her sister’s abusive lover, the last thing she expects is to wake up married to Lord Ravenscar, who wed her while extremely drunk. But when he steps in to help her solve Caryl’s problems, she starts to wonder if they will be able to make a real marriage work.
I read a lot of historical romance, so of course I am familiar with the insanely prolific Barbara Cartland, though I haven’t read any of her work. So when I saw this new audiobook recording of one of her more popular books, it seemed a good way to dip my toe in. And it was definitely a good introduction to her canon.
Once you get past the convoluted premise, you get pretty invested in the story. Romara is a pretty spirited yet proper heroine, and though Trent has until now been somewhat roguish and irresponsible, he finds himself wanting to step up and help her sort out her many problems. Despite it being a short book, the characters are well-sketched and there’s plenty of drama and romance to keep you invested.
It’s definitely an interesting choice for Romara to be the heroine of this book and not Caryl – I’m sure most other authors would have done it the other way round, but it works well this way and we do have a secondary romance with Caryl, so I wasn’t too bothered. While I did wish we saw a bit more of Romara and Trent spending time together on page, those are just the limitations of the length of the book.
I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Susie Riddell. I think she did a good job with all the accents and capturing emotions running high in the many dramatic points of the story. I didn’t really love the AI voice of Barbara Cartland reading (AI-written? It’s not made clear) opening and closing notes of the audiobook, though I understand her estate approved the use of it.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
