Romancing the Duke

Castles Ever After

By: Tessa Dare

Narrated by: Carmen Rose

RITA Award Winner, Historical Romance, Short, 2015

As the daughter of a famed author, Isolde Ophelia Goodnight grew up on tales of brave knights and fair maidens. She never doubted romance would be in her future, too. The storybooks offered endless possibilities.

And as she grew older, Izzy crossed them off. One by one by one.

• Ugly duckling turned swan?
• Abducted by handsome highwayman?
• Rescued from drudgery by charming prince?

No, no, and…Heh.

Now Izzy's given up yearning for romance. She'll settle for a roof over her head. What fairy tales are left over for an impoverished 26-year-old woman who's never even been kissed?

This one.

©2014 Eve Ortega (P)2014 HarperCollinsPublishers

Can't stop the blushes!

It took me a bit to get into the reader's style. She reads the heroine very wispy and it made the story take itself far more seriously than I think it does. It is a fun romance with some nice tongue in cheek moments, some gothic horror stirred in, and a comic con crowd for the regency era. The chemistry between the characters is delicious and blush inducing. I enjoyed the book and found it to be a great time passer.

A perfectly charming, funny and excellent story

Perhaps one of the best romantic stories I have ever read. Wounded people to be sure, woven around a story of a writer of children’s books and an old dilapidated castle.

The banter is exceptionally witty and humorous. The characters delightful and funny. This is one not to be missed.

You've Heard This One Already

Typical plot for an "historical" romance; scarred aristocrat (literally and figuratively) and plucky heroine save each other and have highly descriptive (and crudely written) sex along the way. Although this is rather cute and kept me entertained, it is neither original or even all that memorable.

The best part of Tessa Dare's writing is her dialogue, which is fast paced and fresh. Where she falters is in the historical setting. Just because there are petticoats and candles doesn't make it truly historical. This same plot could easily be retold in 2021 with only a few minor changes...make the Duke a tech billionaire and the heroine a blog writer, and it would not be significantly different.

In addition, although the narration was fine, there seemed to be production issues, where every hour or so, the audio became extremely fuzzy sounding. None of my other recent listens have had this problem. Also, Audible, please bring back paragraphs to the review format.

very funny and original story, very well told

hilarious dialogue, great characters, anothr great book by tessa dare told by a great narrator.

love it

love it . a good listen funny and heartwarming. i never listen to a historical story enjoyable.

started off great and ended with too much whimsy

I loved the beginning and the hero. he was rough and damaged but still strong and masculine. towards the end all her whimsical characteristics softened him but too the point I lost interest the last eighth of the book.

A real delight that I didn't want to end

Except for some occasional confusion with the narrative voices That was the Duke? It sounded like a female. No, now that sounds longes the Duke).. the story is humorous without being silly, and has my favorite ending: HEA. The relationship between the two main characters is drole, and the story is inventive. It was abor as far from cookie cutter as a pot roast would be.

Wonderful book!

Loved this book! So emotional, with an endearing heroine and exactly the brooding hero that I like. The narrator was good as well.

Very slow and boring

Wanted to like this, but it’s too slow. Predictable, sex scenes steamy...but way too many.

Seems like a good story

I think even though the narrator is much better than some of the other ones out there, i didn’t feel drawn into the characters because they were read robotically and unrealistically. I can tell the story is great and has depth. Wish the voices were just a bit more distinct and layered. Just didn’t sound like real people which kept throwing me out of the story. I might just read it instead of finish it