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Review: Unveiled – Courtney Milan
Ash Turner has waited a lifetime to seek revenge on the man who ruined his family—and now the time for justice has arrived. At Parford Manor, he intends to take his place as the rightful heir to the dukedom and settle an old score with the current duke once and for all. But instead he finds himself drawn to a tempting beauty who has the power to undo all his dreams of vengeance….Lady Margaret knows she should despise the man who’s stolen her fortune and her father’s legacy—the man she’s been ordered to spy on in the guise of a nurse. Yet the more she learns about the new duke, the less she can resist his smoldering appeal. Soon Margaret and Ash find themselves torn between old loyalties—and the tantalizing promise of passion…
- Publisher: HQN Books; Original edition (January 25, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0373775431
- ISBN-13: 978-0373775439
- FTC Disclosure: book received through Amazon Vine program
Ash Turner and Lady Margaret (Lowell) had great chemistry, even when she hated his guts. I loved the fact that she wasn’t afraid to tell him like it is, even when she was supposed to be a lowly nurse. She had backbone… up until she realized that she was in love with him. Then she was afraid to tell him who she really was because she knew she was going to lose him. I can’t blame her for being afraid of that, but when you love someone, you take a chance on them. And you definitely don’t throw them under the bus for your two brothers who treat you like dog poo. I get that Richard helped her out of the fountain when she fainted years before at the party, but one tiny act does not take away from everything else he’s done. Or what he’s doing now. I wanted to slap her several times because she was acting so silly.
I loved Ash. His real name was hilarious (as were his brothers – and I say this being a Christian… naming your kids an entire bible verse is a sure sign you’re not right in the head) and I loved how loyal he was to his brothers. Although he was completely bone-headed about wanting to take care of them and give them what they deserved, despite the fact that they both told him he didn’t have to go through with his revenge plot. Just goes to show how stubborn men can be at times, I suppose.
I wanted to jump into the book and punch several people in their rotten faces: Margaret’s father, both her brothers, both of Ash’s brothers, that dreadful lady at the party who kept dissing Lady Elaine (if I spell any of these names wrong, it’s because I listened to the audio version)… I gotta say: Courtney Milan is good at evoking some strong emotions, because I was raging at the characters the majority of the time. LOL.
Rating: 4 meows
When bad narrators kill good audiobooks
So, it’s obvious (or should be) to anyone that knows me that I’m obsessed with audiobooks. I usually have one (or five – but who’s counting?) loaded on my iPhone and far more than that on my iPad. I remembered that I had two credits at Audible.com waiting for me to use them so tonight, I picked up two more (Life After Joe by Harper Fox and The Witness by Nora Roberts). I haven’t listened to them yet, but I’m hoping that they’ll turn out better than my last three audiobooks did…
I picked up To Seduce a Sinner by Elizabeth Hoyt a while back because I’d heard rave reviews of it (either that or it was from HaBO on SmartBitches.com and I couldn’t help but grab it since so many of those books are so hilariously bad-sounding that I feel as though I have to read them for the sheer entertainment value alone… but I digress). The basic idea of the book is that this chick proposes to a viscount since he needs and heir and she needs not to be an old maid. She’s secretly been in love with him for years, but she doesn’t want to get her heart broken, so she tries to keep him at a distance. Typically this is exactly the type of HR that I’d read. Somewhat cheesy, but cute and I love the idea that the mousy girl can get the hottie guy every once in a while. But the woman who narrated the book… oh my goodness. I don’t know if I didn’t like her accent (which is rare for me since I obsess over British accents and routinely perfect mine in the mirror while I’m getting ready in the morning – shut up, you know you do it too!) or maybe it’s just because she has a higher-pitched voice than I’m used to and the tone got on my nerves. Whatever the reason, I couldn’t get past her voice and really listen to the story, so I ended up putting the audiobook down about an hour into it. If you want to hear a sample, click on the title of the book to be taken to Audible’s page – I couldn’t figure out a way to save and embed the sample.
I was asked to review Unraveled by Gena Showalter a while back, but I’d never read Intertwined, the first book in the series. So I got theaudiobook to listen to while I was cleaning the house and on my way to and from school. Since I’m so busy, I might as well kill two birds with one stone, right? Yeah… The narrator was female, which didn’t bother me (this time) as much as the cadence of her voice. She emphasized the wrong words and syllables (which now makes me think of Mike Myers in A View From the Top – “You put the wrong emPHAsis on the wrong sylLABle!”) I was able to plow through about two hours, maybe three of this one, but when I realized that I had no idea what was going on after I ignored more than I listened to, I figured it was time to put the book down. Eventually I will go back to reading the books because I love Gena’s work and I think the idea was a really good one, but the narrator kind of scarred me.
I’m currently reading (listening to) Unveiled by Courtney Milan. The premise of the book is really good, and I’ve been pulled into the story, but I keep getting knocked out again by the narrator’s voice. It’s not the same person who did To Seduce a Sinner, but she sure sounds similar. Is it because she sounds so upper crust British that this is how the producers think people should have sounded back in 1800s England? Cause I think I’d rather listen to a man (like Hugh Laurie!!) read if that’s the case. This narrator is shrill and sometimes I have to turn the volume down on my iPhone – which is bad, since I have minor bilateral hearing loss and occasionally it’s difficult for me to hear things well. I’ll keep listening for as long as I can, but I have the print book as a backup in case I end up unable to finish the audio version.
My two most favorite narrators are Phil Gigante (who narrated the male parts of the Fever series and all of the Highlander series by Karen Marie Moning) and Jim Frangione (who narrates the Black Dagger Brotherhood books by JR Ward). They have these deep, sexy, expressive, amazing voices that when listened to will make you want to do anything for them, as long as they keep talking to you (especially Phil when he does his Dreamy-Eyed-Guy voice — I would walk over burning coals if he asked me to using that voice).
So, is there a lesson to be learned when buying audiobooks? Yes. Always listen to the sample. And if you find a good narrator, it’s okay to stick with them — provided you’re interested in the books they’re reading, of course. 
AAD2013
