Narrated by Pearl Hewitt
The Rejected Suitor was originally published in 2004, and I regret to say that I don’t think it has aged well. The story revolves around the on-off romance between Lady Emily Clearbrook and Jared Ashton, Lord Stonebridge, who had fallen in love three years earlier, but were unable to marry because her father refused to grant them permission. Following that, Jared had quickly married another woman and taken up a post in India, breaking Emily’s heart in the process.
In the year since his return from India as a widower, Jared has been working undercover for the British government, his sooper-sekrit identity known only to a select few – including Emily’s eldest brother, who has worked alongside him. And unbeknownst to both her brother and Jared, Emily has a sooper-sekrit identity of her own, assumed when she began to work for Whitehall, too, to dull the pain caused by Jared’s abrupt defection and departure.
This isn’t a spy story, however – and more’s the pity, because then it might have been more interesting.
The book opens as Lady Emily’s four brothers inform her that they will shortly be choosing her a husband, much to her dismay. She is headstrong, beautiful and rich, and they want to make sure she doesn’t end up in the clutches of some unscrupulous fortune hunter. Her eldest brother, Roderick, Duke of Elbourne, is dictatorial (to put it mildly) and acts as though he has a stick up his arse for most of the book. And the others aren’t much better. Almost the entire first chapter – about twenty-five minutes long – consists of the five of them having the following conversation:
“You must marry the man we choose.”
“No!”
“Yes!”
“Daddy said I could choose my own husband.”
“Our father has been dead for three years, we’re your guardians now, and you do what we say.”
“No. And you’re all idiots.”
“How dare you, you inferior female!”
As he and his brothers are about to remove to London, the duke decrees that Emily should go to stay at the country home of Agatha Appleby, a friend of the family. But they need someone there to keep an eye on her. How about Agatha’s nephew, the newly minted Earl of Stonebridge (Jared)? He’s staying with his aunt, and is the ideal person to keep an eye on Emily! (*rolls eyes*)
Now, I know romance plots are by their very nature predictable. We can spot who’s going to end up with whom and there’s bound to be a HEA. But seriously, this is like being repeatedly hit over the head with a tea-tray.
Emily hates Jared (but not really). He doesn’t want anything to do with her (but not really). The two are soon rekindling their old romance. And then they aren’t because Emily has misinterpreted something Jared has said or done, or the way he’s put on his hat – and decides she must harden her heart to him.
The characters are two-dimensional at best and Emily is one of the most inconsistent heroines I’ve ever come across. She can’t make up her mind about Jared (at one point, if she’d bemoaned once more the fact that “Jared never really loved her”, I’d have ripped out my earphones and stomped on them! )
Emily’s brothers –with the possible exception of the youngest one – all come across as insufferably arrogant, with the duke being the worst of the lot. Even though the author sets up a secondary romance featuring Roderick and Jared’s ward, it doesn’t help make him any more sympathetic.
Jared is okay as a hero, although he doesn’t rise above the two dimensional, either. He never got over Emily, even though he became fond of the woman he had to marry; and he certainly doesn’t deserve the continual distrust with which she treats him.
The best character in the book is without a doubt Jared’s Aunt Agatha, who is a rather splendid, no-nonsense older lady with a touch of Margaret Rutherford about her.
I found myself grimacing several times over word choices or usage that was incorrect, such as when we’re told that Emily’s brothers must “sanction her husband”. Really? What are they going to do, give him a detention after school? I take it the author meant that they must sanction her CHOICE of husband. And I really didn’t need to be continually told about Emily’s violet eyes.
The best part about this audiobook was the narration. Pearl Hewitt is a new-to-me narrator, and although I had a few issues with her characterisations, she acquitted herself well. Her reading is well paced, I liked her acting choices and all the characters are clearly differentiated. Even at the beginning of the book, when all four of the brothers appear at once, she manages to voice each one distinctly, even if they aren’t the most attractive sounding males in fiction. Jared sounds suitably hero-like for the most part, although I did find the tone used to be a little too harsh at times. Ms Hewitt’s stand-out characterisation was Aunt Agatha, the waspish tone she adopted perfectly suited to that formidable lady.
I will certainly look out for more audiobooks featuring this narrator, but I’m afraid I won’t be listening to this one again.
Caz
Narration: B-
Book Content: D
Steam Factor: You can play it out loud
Violence: Minimal
Genre: Historical Romance
Publisher: Teresa McCarthy
The Rejected Suitor was provided to AudioGals for review by the author.
Caz, i adore your reviews! The bit about wanting to stomp on your earbuds made me laugh out loud. I’ve felt that way sometimes over the course of my listening experieces.
Hee! And thank you :) I’m sure we’ve all felt like that sometimes – it’s the closest I can come to throwing the book at the wall!