Silvered Marquess Next Door

An Age Gap, Marriage of Convenience, Clean Regency Romance

By: Kristina Earl

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

I never expected I would find true love with my older next-door neighbor.

As I stood by my husband's grave holding my little girl, the future seemed bleak and uncertain.

The offer of marriage from Lord Joshua Cecil, the Marquess of Pembroke, brought a glimmer of hope to my shattered world.

The Marquess and I have a similar story, but I always saw him as a fatherly figure and nothing more.

Could this arrangement with a man twice my age lead to anything beyond practicality?

I soon discover a depth of understanding and patience in him that surpasses all expectations.

With each tender glance and gentle touch, I find myself falling deeper for the Marquess, embracing a future I never dared to dream of.

However, his teenage daughter’s pent-up resentment over our marriage threatens to ruin the bond we are building.

How can I navigate the intricacies of the seemingly broken relationship I have with Joshua’s daughter?

Can his steadfast love for both of us serve as a beacon of hope and mend our wounded hearts?

For love is all that matters…if his love is true.

Ok

The story seems good but the vitual voice makes it VERY hard to listen to. I did not realize it was a virtual voice until I started listening.

Sweet

I enjoyed the story and took a chance on the virtual voice narration as an easy way to try this author. The virtual voice narration makes some glaring mistakes but I knew that going in, but nothing could change my mind about the superiority of live voice actors. I know, this is very expensive for the author and I hope she gets some $$ out of this.

The story was very sweet, not very deep and very little angst. There were some interesting usages of language I will look up later but I wonder about the wife of a marquis having ‘ladies in waiting,’ which I thought only Royalty had.

The heroine Amy is very lovely, loving and caring. She’s in a difficult situation after her husband dies because the heir is going to kick her and her family out or else ‘earn her keep, on her back.’ So she’s compelled to take the offer of her neighbor’s hand in marriage, quite the shock since she barely knows him. And he’s a fair bit older than she is. She really didn’t want to make another marriage without affection but she didn’t feel she had a choice.

The hero Joshua, is highly honorable and has admired Amy from afar for a long time. They each have daughters from their previous marriages.

Joshua’s daughter Isabella is unhappy with Amy and nothing Amy does seems to break the ice. Lots of the book is spent on Amy trying to win Isabella’s approval. The rest is spent on a very slow to fruition of the H&h’s growing regard for each other and since we primarily see this through Amy’s eyes we witness her trying to come to terms with the fact she’s falling for her husband when it was supposed to be a marriage of convenience. At least that’s the way the marquis sold it to her.

Except for balls and carriages and coming out and modistes and the ton, the story is very modern in language use, emotional and psychological aspects of persons’ struggles, thoughts and actions. Here’s a typical step mother step daughter relationship. And the dreadful previous wife’s mother dropping in unannounced and staying for two weeks complaining about everything.

I was attracted to this book because of the title, but once the marriage happened in the beginning of the book there was no reference to age difference at all. The title seemed like there was a point about that but there wasn’t.

All in all the story was enjoyable and I will keep the author’s name on my possible to read list. But this isn’t historical fiction and barely qualifies as historical romance, though romantic it is. If the things I mentioned don’t matter to you I think you will love this little sweet thing.

OK but AI ruins the narration

I am visually impaired and the trend to automated performance is ruining my joy of audible reading

Decent read

Story was interesting enough. I’d call it a “B” level type of story. I enjoyed it more than others by this author. The hero is supportive throughout and very sweet. I would’ve like to see a bit more character depth, but there’s just enough to keep you going.

The author could benefit from some more research into customs and language of the period in England as many modern and American terms were used.

The Virtual Voice narration is definitely not my favorite, but once I adjusted to it, it wasn’t too bad for this story. I do think a real narrator who at least provide some intonation for the different characters would help you enjoy the story. I’m still up in the air about seeking out this author to read instead of listen and see if it improves my perception of the storyline.