In Your Wildest Scottish Dreams by Karen Ranney

Narrated by Ralph Lister

In Your Wildest Scottish Dreams is the first in a new series from this popular author, and is set in Scotland in the 1860s. As well as having an intriguing historical background, it features a second-chance romance, which is a favourite trope of mine; and the audiobook version is narrated by Ralph Lister, someone I’ve listened to before and wanted to hear again.

Glynis MacIain has been in love with her brother’s best friend, Lennox Cameron, ever since she was a girl. Aged nineteen, she declares herself – but before he can respond, Lennox allows himself to be called away and Glynis is heartbroken, seeing his actions as rejection. She then hears rumours that he is about to announce his betrothal and runs away to London in despair where she marries an up-and-coming diplomat who is very soon posted abroad.

Seven years later, she returns home a widow, and a markedly different person from the vivacious, outspoken young woman who left so precipitately. She’s now very self-contained and poised, pasting her particular “Washington smile” onto her face at social gatherings to conceal whatever is going through her mind. Her husband trained her not to show emotion and forced her to bury her naturally outgoing nature so that Glynis has almost lost her true self. Her feelings for Lennox haven’t changed, but experience has made her more cautious and determined not to allow her emotions to overwhelm her and open herself up to such hurt again.

Lennox hasn’t married in the intervening years, although Glynis learns of a short-lived betrothal some years ago. He was surprised and hurt when she ran off so suddenly for no reason that he could discover; yet while he is wary of the emotions seeing her again evoke in him, he is more than willing to explore the possibility that there could be something more than friendship between them.

One of the things I liked most about this story was the historical background, which is one I haven’t come across before in an historical romance. The setting is Scotland during the years of the American Civil War, and I knew nothing about the wider impact of that conflict. Great Britain was officially neutral, but the government seems to have turned a blind eye to the fact that Scottish shipbuilders were building ships capable of breaking through the Union blockades and thus helping to sustain the Confederate cause. It appears that Glasgow was a hot-bed of espionage and intrigue and there was a vast amount of money to be made – but the flipside was that the lack of cotton coming from America meant that the mills which relied on it were struggling to remain in business, and the only thing keeping some of them from going under was the supplies coming in on the illegal blockade runners.

Glynis’ brother is one such mill owner, and their family business is in danger of failing because they are unable to obtain the cotton they need to keep going. Duncan MacIain is Lennox’s best friend, but although Lennox has made a huge amount of money from his shipbuilding business and would like nothing more than to help his friend out, Duncan’s pride won’t allow him to accept a loan or handout.

On top of her worries about her brother and his business, her own financial situation (her husband left her nothing) and the resurgence of her feelings for Lennox, Glynis is also keeping secrets concerning her time spent as a diplomat’s wife in Washington. One of the reasons she tries so hard to hold herself aloof from Lennox is because she’s not proud of her former life and some of the things she had to do, which appear to have come back to bite her in the leg in the form of Matthew Baumann, a man with whom she had dealings she would rather forget.

Add to all this a murder, a mysterious shipyard “accident”, blackmail, espionage… there’s a lot going on in the story, but I never felt as though any of it detracted from the central romance between Glynis and Lennox. There are a set of well-developed secondary characters, from charming plantation owner Gavin Anderson and his English wife, Lucy, who complains about everything in Scotland, to Glynis’ childhood friend Charlotte, who now fancies herself a leader of Glasgow society.

Lennox is a wonderful hero – honourable, steadfast and caring, and he and Glynis are very well suited. Although Glynis is hesitant at first, she gradually opens up to Lennox about the truth of her marriage and life in Washington, and I enjoyed listening to her regain her self-confidence and former liveliness through their interactions. The romance proceeds at a good pace, and the couple has great chemistry – although I’ll admit to sniggering a bit at the part in which she likens his wedding tackle to an eager puppy!

I’ve listened to Ralph Lister before (Charming the Shrew) and while I had a few reservations about his narration, I enjoyed it reasonably well overall. He speaks in a slightly husky baritone which is attractive and pleasant to listen to and he reads the narrative expressively and at a good pace. One of the issues I’d had with the earlier performance I’d heard was with the way in which he voiced the heroine; she seemed to be shouting all the time and it sounded as though Mr Lister was having problems sustaining the higher pitch he’d opted to use. I’m very pleased to report that that is not an issue here at all; his performance of Glynis is very good, her tone is measured and there’s nary a screech within earshot!

I’m afraid I can’t report so favourably on the other matter I took issue with, which was to do with accents. The story is set in Scotland so naturally the majority of the characters speak with Scottish accents (apart from Glynis, who lost hers, a couple of Americans and a woman who sounds like she could have come direct from the cast of EastEnders!). Unfortunately, Mr Lister’s Scottish accents still leave something to be desired, although I do recognise that I’m particularly picky on this issue and it may not be so problematic for other listeners. His accent sounds suitably authentic, but my issues are to do with pronunciation and consistency. There are times when the accent comes and goes, and there are some phonetic groupings which are poorly pronounced throughout.

I would really like to hear Mr Lister narrate an historical romance that isn’t set in Scotland, as the rest of his performance in this is very good indeed – which is what’s so frustrating. If it weren’t for the problem I’ve outlined above, I’d be grading his narration at a B+ at least, but that one thing is such a big part of the book and narration that it’s impossible to ignore.

Caz

Narration: B-

Book Content: B

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: Minimal

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Harper Audio