That Scandalous Summer by Meredith Duran

Narrated by Alison Larkin

Narrator Alison Larkin has tended to be a bit hit and miss for me.  There’s no doubt that she is a talented performer, especially when it comes to more light-hearted, humorous books; and her interpretations of female characters and “character roles” are generally very good. But her portrayals of the men in the books she narrates have been disappointing, mostly because they haven’t sounded masculine enough and also because there hasn’t been enough differentiation between the protagonists in the story. I’ve also felt that she hasn’t quite caught the right note emotionally in some of the books I’ve listened to. While I’ve had some issues with her narratives, for the most part she is successful and her readings are generally well-paced and pleasingly modulated.

Given those reservations, I will admit apprehension when I learned that Ms Larkin was to be the narrator of That Scandalous Summer, the first book by Meredith Duran to be made available in audio. I’m a big fan of Ms Duran’s writing, which is intelligent and lyrical. She writes complex characters and pays the reader/listener the compliment of allowing us to draw our own conclusions and to discover those complexities ourselves without repeatedly hitting us over the head with clues to point the way. I wasn‘t sure if Ms Larkin would be able to pull off a story of greater emotional weight than those I’ve heard her read before.

At the beginning of the book, Lord Michael de Grey and his brother, Alastair, the powerful and autocratic Duke of Marwick, have a row which ends with Michael leaving London to kick his heels in rural Cornwall, in the hope that his absence may make Marwick come to his senses.

Michael hasn’t been in Cornwall long, when one morning he literally stumbles across a woman sleeping in his rose bushes. Except, as he soon discovers, she isn’t sleeping – she’s actually passed out from an excess of drink.

The woman is Mrs Elizabeth Chudderley, a lovely and somewhat notorious widow, whom we met previously in Ms Duran’s Bound by Your Touch. Elizabeth at first comes across as an almost stereotypical “merry widow” – a fast woman with little care for her reputation who takes delight in her notoriety. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that her devil-may-care demeanour is masking a truly unhappy, lonely woman. She is thirty-two, her late husband did not treat her well, her lover left her when he discovered she was practically broke and the only way she can think of to solve her financial problems is to marry again. She is not thrilled at the prospect of turning over her life and freedom to another man, but she has many debts and her lover was bleeding her dry. She worries, given her age and situation, that her time for making such an advantageous match is running out.

She and Michael strike up a friendship of sorts – but the air between them is so sexually charged, right from their first meeting, that things cannot remain platonic for long. Elizabeth is lonely and decides she deserves a last fling before consigning herself to another loveless marriage, and Michael, who has a bit of a reputation with the ladies, is certainly not averse to a dalliance with a willing widow.

Elizabeth admits to herself that a longer arrangement is an attractive proposition – but she has already set in motion her plan to catch herself a husband. She is holding a house party and has invited two very eligible bachelors along, as well as a small group of friends, including James, Viscount Sanburne. When Michael turns up, uninvited, but on the best of terms with Sanburne and some of the other male guests, she is horrified. At first she believes he is practicing a deception upon them, and then becomes utterly furious when she works out he is actually the brother of one of the most powerful peers in the country.

There are a number of other plot threads running through the book as well, but the principal thrust of the story is the developing and at times tempestuous relationship between Michael and Elizabeth. She seems rather shallow at first because of her obsession with her looks, but given she believes that is all she has to offer a prospective husband, I suppose it’s a natural preoccupation. Underneath the brittle façade, however, Elizabeth is a caring woman who is trying hard to fulfil the responsibilities she feels to the numerous tenants and villagers who depend on her estate for their livelihoods. It takes a while to warm up to her, but once the listener is able to get past her outer shell, she becomes much more likeable.

Michael, however, is the novel’s real stand-out character. There is one point at which his intended actions seem rather underhand, but for the most part, he is a thoroughly honourable and capable man, possessed of integrity and with a great capacity for compassion and understanding. He comes to the realisation that he wants Elizabeth for much more than a mere dalliance, but doesn’t feel he has the right to offer her marriage, as he has no money of his own and certainly cannot afford to pay off her massive debts.

I enjoyed the story, although I have to admit it’s not my favourite of Ms Duran’s books. I liked the way the romance progressed, and the sexual tension between Michael and Elizabeth was deliciously potent. I do like a good dose of angst in my romances, and That Scandalous Summer certainly delivered it, but I felt the ending was rather rushed.

In terms of the narration, I think Ms Larkin did a pretty good job all round, although I once again had a few issues with her vocalisations of the male characters. On the positive side, she is now obviously lowering the pitch of her voice when portraying the men, something lacking in her previous work. On the downside, however, I didn’t feel that the characterisation of the principal male roles – Michael, Sanburne and Alastair – was always consistent. For example, there was a scene between Sanburne and Elizabeth where Sanburne sounded more like Michael than he did like Sanburne as Ms Larkin had portrayed him in earlier scenes. In the scene towards the end between Michael and Alastair, I felt as though Alastair had assumed Michael’s voice and Michael sounded different to how he had done throughout most of the book.

Her performance of the female roles was very good, although I wasn’t particularly taken with the way she chose to portray Elizabeth. I don’t think there was anything wrong with it per se, it just wasn’t quite to my taste. If anything, I thought she sounded a little TOO posh and stiff-upper-lip, even though it did fit the character.

Taken as a whole, though, I enjoyed listening to this audiobook, and will definitely be looking out for the next in the series. Ms Larkin has narrated a very large number of historical romance audios over the past year, and although I’ve listened to quite a few, they constitute a mere handful of the number she now has to her name. But from those, I can hear that both her narrative style and her characterisations have developed since I first listened to her, and I think that her performance in This Scandalous Summer is possibly her best to date.

Caz

Narration: B

Book Content: B

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: None

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Tantor Audio

That Scandalous Summer was provided to AudioGals for review by Tantor Audio.