A Duke Worth Falling For by Sarah MacLean

Narrated by Penelope Ann Rose

Originally published as part of the Naughty Brits anthology, A Duke Worth Falling For is now out separately on audio and via ebook. It’s novella length at just over four hours of listening and so isn’t a big time investment. The story is necessarily fairly contained but nonetheless complete.

Lilah Rose was on her way to being the world’s best portrait photographer, a kind of up-and-coming Annie Leibovitz. But then she “turned down the wrong man” and he blacklisted her. She lost her career and for the past 18 months, has been travelling around the world finding her place in it again. She has been working on a project photographing various sustainable farms and their owners in various countries. She hopes the project will relaunch her career. She has a 10 day break before the launch in London and, based on a recommendation from a friend who knows the duke’s sister, is renting a small cottage on the estate of the Duke of Weston for some R&R until then.

When she meets “Max” on the estate after he rescues her from a marauding ewe, she believes him to be a land steward. And he is. What he doesn’t tell her is that he is also Rupert Maximillian Ardern, 14th Duke of Weston. Max has been burned by people wanting pieces of him for what he is and not who he is – or perhaps for wanting him for the “duke” part and not the “Max” part. So when he meets Lilah he is delighted when she treats him like a normal person and he can be sure she isn’t after anything more from him than his company.

After an initial poor start – Max isn’t a fan of photographers due to his own experience with celebrity – he makes a neat apology and he and Lilah share a friendly game of darts at the local pub (where she kicks his ass). The attraction between them is mutual and powerful and before long they are in a full-fledged fling for the remaining 9 days of Lilah’s stay. Neither thinks there can be anything else.

Max, for his part, understands that Lilah wants to go back to her life as a celebrity/portrait photographer which will mean a spotlight he eschews. Lilah thinks Max is the land steward and tied to the Salterton estate.

But over the next few days, they fall deeper and deeper and each begins to think of a possible future.

Of course the big conflict between them is the glaring omission of Max’s true identity and so the path to a HEA is not smooth. There is a “me too” moment too and a confrontation with the Harvey Weinstein-esque character responsible for blacklisting Lilah all those months ago.

The narration was pretty good. It’s clear that Ms. Rose is American but her British accent was mostly creditable. There were a few mispronunciations. Some of them made me laugh. (Cornish pasties are foodstuffs and not things you put on your nipples to cover them when stripping.) The British accent dipped in and out on occasion but overall it was fairly believable. There were various brands of English accent displayed too – some from locals and some from the upper echelons of society. I did wonder a little at the toffy English accent given to Arty (or maybe that is Artie? – I don’t have the print version) who I had though was from India? But maybe I was wrong about her heritage.

Lilah, of course, is American, so Ms. Rose’s natural accent worked just fine here.

She had a pleasing depth to her tone for Max as well.

Max was a little clueless about a few things but loyal and loving and Lilah was fierce and brave. Together they made a formidable and rather delightful pair.

Kaetrin

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