Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare

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Title: Romancing the Duke
Author: Tessa Dare
Series: Castles Ever After #1
Published by: HarperAudio
Release Date: January 28, 2014
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Carmen Rose
Length: 9 hours
Genres: Historical Romance, Fairy Tale Retelling
Source: Libby
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2021 COYER Spring, Lenoreo's 2021 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2021 Historical Romance Book Bingo
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iTunes ✩ Libro.FM
My rating:

Blurb:

As the daughter of a famed author, Isolde Ophelia Goodnight grew up on tales of brave knights and fair maidens. She never doubted romance would be in her future, too. The storybooks offered endless possibilities.

And as she grew older, Izzy crossed them off. One by one by one.

Ugly duckling turned swan?
Abducted by handsome highwayman?
Rescued from drudgery by charming prince?

No, no, and... Heh.

Now Izzy's given up yearning for romance. She’ll settle for a roof over her head. What fairy tales are left over for an impoverished twenty-six year-old woman who’s never even been kissed?

This one.

My Review:

4.5 stars — This was delightful, and what I’ve come to expect from Ms. Dare — quirky sassy characters in unconventional romances.

This was my first time listening to Ms. Rose as a narrator, and she was not bad.  I found it wasn’t always as easy to tell apart her voices, they weren’t always consistent or distinct enough (though I loved her Duncan voice).  But she had great pacing and emotion.  On a weird side note, there was something about the way she pronounced sensual that was like nails on a chalkboard to me.  Is that weird?  That’s weird right?

Izzy would surprise me again and again with her spunk, and her straightforwardness.  She was so easy to connect with and love because while she was so strong in some ways, she had weaknesses and vulnerabilities too.  There was so much going on with her, and it felt like we kept peeling back layers.  I loved how she wouldn’t allow Ransom to put her off.

Ransom took a bit more time to get attached to, but I think that works with him being “the beast”.  I felt for how he’d grown up, and how that had affected him as an adult.  The tale of his injury was not at all what I was expecting, and I appreciated that we got to see more and more layers to him as well.  He most definitely was not perfect, but I think he just needed someone to *see* him and not back down.

They were pretty fun together.  I loved the way they sassed one another, and tested the boundaries, and came back stronger when the other stood their ground.  It was very much a back and forth give and take relationship in some ways.

The retelling aspect surprised me in some ways.  There were a lot of subtle nods to little parts of Beauty and the Beast, but they weren’t super overt…and I appreciated that.

Duncan was an absolute delight.  I didn’t expect to enjoy Abigail as much as I did, there was more to her and I appreciated that.  LOVED the knights and handmaidens.

I knew I was going to enjoy this one, but it’s always a delight when you get even more than you were expecting, you know?