Shadowheart by Laura Kinsale

Narrated by Nicholas Boulton

Ok, be honest. If I said, this is the Baltimore Business Phone book narrated by Nicholas Boulton, at least half of you would continue reading. The man has some serious narrating chops – his straight narrative voice alone is enough to carry me to the heights of ecstasy and beyond. Add in his remarkable and varied character voices, accents, his perfect pacing, his winsome women, his incredibly credible children’s voices and you have The Perfect Storm of All Things Audiobook. It is a universally acknowledged truth that he is only in want of a good book to read.

Enter Shadowheart. (Ok, right, any of Kinsale’s books.) Shadowheart inspires me to think of two words. Brilliant and brutal. Kinsale has taken young Allegreto from For My Lady’s Heart, and allowed him to tell his story. But she starts with seventeen-year-old Elayne in England, a girl who is trying to live up to her godmother Melanthe’s wishes by being learned and clever. As a young woman, though, she wants only to gain the heart of Raymond, a knight. By the time she’s managed to catch his eye and interest him, her fate has already been sealed – in reality, although she doesn’t yet know it, she’s destined to lead the principality of Monteverde in Italy. Melanthe tries to give Elayne enough warning and training before sending her off to be the bride of one of the three warring factions in Monteverde. What Elayne doesn’t really grasp until she is too deeply embedded in the turmoil is that she is the only remaining direct descendant of the last ruling family.

Enter Allegreto – dark, brooding, cruel; he’s been excommunicated from the church, and forbidden to enter the city. He tried to murder his father when he was a child; he blinded the head of the Riata family as a young man. He takes Elayne hostage, performs a marriage of sorts and, yes, I think we can all agree the marriage bed was not taken to willingly the first time. But then, we are talking about a medieval setting, without contemporary mores and sensibilities. His goal in life is revenge on the Riata faction, and he uses Elayne as his pawn in the game. However, she’s a quick study, and she soon masters not only him but the politicos in Monteverde, and the tables are turned as she steps up to claim her rightful place as ruler.

This story has it all – a voyage by ship and over land, multiple cultures, dungeons, brutality, gore, fighting, passion in love and war, unbearable cruelty to women and children, and some rough, wicked love play. And Notable Pets. I throw that in as a boon because in truth there is very, very little upbeat or light in almost 18 hours. Kinsale and Boulton both push you to the very edge of all that’s comfortable, but I was still drawn in and, perhaps via Stockholm syndrome, became embroiled in their lives and fates as thoroughly as the protagonists themselves.

Melinda

Narration: A+ (to quote from an Audible review: “he’s awesome”)

Book Content: A

Steam Factor: For your burning ears only – mainly because of s&m factor

Violence: Graphic

Genre: Historical Romance; Medieval

Publisher: Hedgehog, Inc

Shadowheart was provided to AudioGals for review by Hedgehog, Inc. (but I would gladly have spent a credit at Audible)