Prince of Hearts

Elders and Welders Chronicles, Book 1

By: Margaret Foxe

Narrated by: Elizabeth Darsham

London: 1896. Airships rule the skies, and automatons run the tracks at Ascot. Since the Great Exhibition of 1851, Her Majesty's Empire has been powered by the Steam Revolution and welding science. It is a time of glorious innovation and dangerous civil unrest.

But Miss Aline Finch, prim, plain career girl, has more important things on her mind than the state of the Empire. After her employer, the handsome but insufferable criminologist, Professor Romanov, hares off for parts unknown in a slightly-illegal dirigible, stranding her in France, she has finally had enough. In a fit of pique, she decides to marry her long-time and very proper suitor, quitting Romanov for good.

The last thing the Professor expects to come home to is his secretary's mutiny. Finch's timing couldn't be any more inconvenient, for a serial murderer from Romanov's past has set his sights on her. Romanov must keep her close if he has any chance of protecting her life - and the dangerous secrets the murderer threatens to expose. For the Professor is much, much more than he seems, and the secrets that he keeps are centuries old - and hidden deep in his heart.

When the Professor discovers Finch is to wed, however, he is forced to confront the truth of the matter: he doesn't just want his secretary back to protect her. He wants her in his bed. Forever.

Aline fights Romanov's seduction, but she's no match for her own unruly desires, or the truth of her own heart. But when the Professor's true identity is exposed, destroying the very foundations of Aline's conception of reality, will the Professor lose her forever? Or will the murderer succeed in his evil plot to destroy them both before they can find their happy ending?

Warning: This sensual romance will put the steam in steampunk.

©2013 Margaret Cooke (P)2018 Margaret Cooke

Great series!

I love Margaret Foxe ( who is also Maggie Fenton — read those too! Funny and sexy.)

I never write reviews but I am in this case BECAUSE this great series needs to be read more. I’d put this series up against Bec McMasters’, AW Exley’s and Meljean Brook’s London-based steampunk supernatural romances. The only downside to the audiobook is that the reader can’t pronounce simple words, the recording sounds like it was spliced together to correct her worst flubs and she sounds like she recorded the narration in her bathroom, it’s all echo-y. BUT it’s still a great read so I don’t want to punish the author.

Reveiw for the whole series

I read the first two books of this series and was interested in listening to the audio book versions. I thought the third book was the weakest of the three. I did not like the American accents and the story was kind of all over the place. I liked the stories in general but the narration and production was not great. There wasn't enough distinction between character voices. I've listened to many audio books where women voiced male voices with great success but in this series almost everyone sounded the same. Also there was an inconsistency in word pronunciation. She pronounced some words like Sebastopol differently throughout the story. My main issue though is with the production. The narrator sounded like she was working in a hallway or tunnel. Sometimes she would speak a line and then speak the next line where she sounded further away from the microphone. I don't know if that was supposed to be inner thoughts or something. The production was not smooth and rich sounding like all the other audio books I've listened to. It sounded like they were recording in mono or used a bad sound system. If anyone is interested in this series I would say read the books instead.