Twice Tempted by a Rogue by Tessa Dare

Narrated by Rosalyn Landor

Twice Tempted by a Rogue is the second book in Tessa Dare’s Stud Club series – the moniker not referring to the sexual attributes of the heroes (sadly!) but to the fact that they belong to an exclusive club which allows its members breeding rights to Osiris, England’s most valuable stallion. In the first book in the series (One Dance With a Duke) we learn that the club’s founder, Leo Chatwick, has been murdered, and the quest to bring the killer to brook is a theme running throughout the three books in the series.

A secondary character in book one, Rhys St. Maur has recently inherited the title of Lord Ashworth. Following a devastating fire fourteen years previously, he left his Devonshire home to join the army, and he hasn’t been back since. In all his years away, he’s faced death – gone looking for it, even – more times than he can count and has cheated it every time.

Travelling through the countryside around Buckleigh-in-the-Moor, Rhys realises the damage done to the local people by his father’s neglect and his own long absence. With no patron to provide employment or support local businesses, the cottages are in desperate need of repair, there are no new buildings and the village has obviously not prospered. The inn has become the focal point for trade and socialisation, making its owner, Meredith Maddox, the lynchpin of the local community.

Meredith has been in love with Rhys for as long as she can remember. She used to follow him around unnoticed when she was a girl and was devastated when he left and never came back. Her father was badly injured in the fire and could no longer work, so when the much older owner of The Three Hounds asked her to marry him, she agreed so as to keep a roof over their heads and food in their bellies. Now widowed, Merry has taken the odd lover over the years, but has never forgotten Rhys; and, believing he will most likely be leaving the next day, hopes to tempt him to her bed.

She’s somewhat surprised when he doesn’t take her up on her not-too subtle invitation, and even more surprised when, completely out of the blue, he asks her to marry him. Quickly realising that what Rhys really wants is to make up for all those years of neglect, she refuses – but he’s persistent, insisting that this must be why fate has spared him and that they’re destined to be together.

The bulk of the story then follows Rhys and Merry as he tries to overcome her resistance to marrying him. She’s made it clear she wants to sleep with him, but he makes it just as clear that he isn’t prepared to do that until she has, at the very least, accepted his proposal. But Merry’s reluctance is born as much from self-preservation – she thinks that Rhys will leave again soon and doesn’t want her heart broken again – as it is from the fact that she likes her life, likes running the inn and being the person everyone looks to for help and advice, and doesn’t want to be rescued from what Rhys sees as drudgery.

Rhys and Merry are strong-willed, engaging characters who are both keeping long-buried secrets which, when finally revealed towards the end, really are tragic. Rhys is a terrific hero, big, battle-scarred and haunted, whose repeated abuse at the hands of his father led him to bury his finer emotions and give rein to the sorts of anger and despair which caused him to seek death over and over. Finding Merry again gives him a purpose, and with her help, he gradually begins to realise that his life is not worthless and that he has something to live for. They’re a well-matched couple and have great chemistry; the author makes the most of the principle of delayed gratification to ratchet up the sexual tension between them, and the payoff is certainly worth the wait!

Anyone listening to this audio expecting there to be a big advance in the search for Leo’s killer may be disappointed, as it’s very much on the back-burner in this book until the last few chapters. I didn’t really mind that, as I was much more interested in the romance anyway, but I did have one other issue with the pacing of the story, which is that the big reveal – telling us what had caused Rhys to turn his back on his home all those years ago – takes place very late in the book, meaning that the final section, which sees him having to come to terms with more than his own involvement in that particular tragedy, feels a bit rushed.

But that really is a minor point, as it’s an enjoyable book and Rosalyn Landor’s excellent narration is so thoroughly engaging as to carry the listener easily through any minor flaws in the storytelling. Her narrative is expressive and well-paced, and as always, she portrays all the characters in ways which are appropriate to both age and situation, her naturally rich, deep tones lending themselves particularly well to Rhys, who is a large man with a voice to match. She’s very good at getting under the skin of the characters in the books she narrates, and in the latter stages of the story conveys Rhys’ inner emotional turmoil very well indeed. Her interpretation of Merry is equally strong, expertly conveying to the listener the character’s strength of will while at the same time reminding us of her inner vulnerabilities. Rhys’ friend and fellow Stud Club member, Julian Bellamy (and hero of the next book, which I believe has already been recorded) makes several appearances in this one, and is given an aristocratic drawl which serves to highlight the differences between him and Rhys, in terms of personality as well as vocally. All the villagers and locals are given varying degrees of regional accents, which are never overdone or unintelligible, and the narrator’s interpretation of the young lad who helps Merry at the inn, Darryl, is notable for the way in which she lightens her tone and raises the pitch of her voice a little, yet doesn’t make him sound at all feminine. Ms Landor is always very good at the “character” roles; young men, old men, grande-dames, snooty servants – you name it, she can do it!

Twice Tempted by a Rogue is an entertaining story that packs a decent emotional punch, and Ms Landor’s subtly nuanced performance is a delight from start to finish.

Caz

Narration: A

Book Content: B

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: Minimal

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Tessa Dare