The Dangerous Duke of Dinnisfree

A Whisper of Scandal Volume 5

By: Julie Johnstone

Narrated by: Tim Campbell

Justin Holleman, the Duke of Dinnisfree, is used to being wanted: in bed, for missions, and even dead. He's protected his country more times than he can remember, gaining enemies along the way, but he failed to defend himself from the past that hardened his heart. Instead, he became an expert at shutting people out.

Yet now, in order to save the king, Justin needs to let go of his old ways and let someone closer to him than ever before. He approaches the mission with his classic cold calculation, but his fiery new ally upends his ordered world and entices him at every turn. Suddenly he's in danger of compromising his assignment and losing his heart, two things he swore never to do.

Desperate to protect her parents from poverty, among other things, Miss Arabella Carthright unwittingly becomes a pawn in a dangerous political battle when she agrees to aid an enigmatic stranger. Having learned long ago to count only on herself, she's surprised when time and again the duke actually aids her. But when his true assignment becomes clear, Arabella realizes the man she's come to care for poses the greatest threat to those she loves.

As Justin and Arabella face their feelings and their web of deception falls away, they must decide how high a price they are willing to pay for love and loyalty.

©2015 Julie Johnstone (P)2015 Julie Johnstone

Wonderful read..

I wasn’t looking for anything all that good with this book but I really, really enjoyed it. I like stories where the hero is cold and unfeeling because of the way he was raised by a cold and ruthless father, THEN meets the heroine and slowly becomes confused over his feelings for her. And, all the while, having spies and traitorous members of the ton running amuck.

I liked Arabella and Justin a lot. One reviewer said it was too "depressing" for her, but even though I found it sad because of Arabella’s family problems I didn’t find it “depressing” because I knew our fearless hero would come to her rescue, and boy, did he. Justin was awesome. Jude, on the other hand, was more than a little weird , which was understandable considering how and where he was raised. The author even made the king, Prinny, disgusting. BUT Davenport and Audrey were great secondary characters. And the secret about Arabella was amazing.

I can honestly say I did not skip one page in this book, that’s how much I enjoyed it. A romance with something more than 300 or 400 pages of angst and misunderstandings going on. It’s getting nearly impossible for me to read a silly nothing-but romance anymore.

There really wasn’t any sexual tension in this story but the wanting and the desire was simply wonderful. There was no talk of an erection or turgid nipples but what was written was so much better. I enjoyed this book immensely.

There was only a little bit of swearing but not enough to be bothersome to all those who don’t like bad words.

As to the narrator: He did a great job. He could do better with the female voices and do a little better with emotions but he has such a wonderful voice you can overlook everything else. And the males have such sexy voices, too.

Loved it!!

This is a wonderful blend of a touching story, that was well written and a great narration to make your heart skip.

Enjoyable....

Well written, not quite typical.... politics instead of scandal. (more or less). The entire last chapter/epilogue was a complete waste. It was simply a way to drag one issue back into view and dramatize it's conclusion quickly. As a result the 'walk away' feeling that comes at the end of a book was muddled and confused instead of solid and satisfying.

NARRATOR: Tim Campbell is my ALL TIME FAVORITE MALE narrator!! I love listening to him so much that it raises my opinion of what I'm listening to.

HEAT FACTOR: Not hot.... but very warm.

Mixed feelings about this one

The narrator did a great job, as he always does. The story was enjoyable, I just didn't ever get the emotional connection I expected to have for Justin's story. I really loved Justin in the previous books, and still love his character in this one, but there was just something missing and I can't quite put my finger on it, but I didn't find myself emotionally invested in the HEA for these two. That said, I'm not sorry to have used a credit on it, I just don't think this one will go into my repeat file. :)

Enjoyable; not outstanding

I started this, put it down, and finally finished it. Out of character for me, I read this book out of sequence. I usually read a series in order. That may have been partly responsible for my so-so feeling about this.

It was okay, don't get me wrong. The narration was decent. For a male voice, Tim Campbell is quite good. His female voices are better than most.

The story seemed to be missing something. Now I'll go read the previous books and see if I can find out what.