A Relentless Rake

By: Anna Harrington

Narrated by: Justine Eyre

Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Notorious rake Alexander Sinclair, Earl of St. James, takes pride in displaying his sins. When he's tasked by the Home Office with finding the men who attempted to assassinate the prime minister, his hunt leads him to Olivia Everett, a most proper schoolmistress who wants nothing to do with a profligate nobleman like him.

Unknown to her, Olivia's brother Henry has been working with the revolutionary group planning to overthrow the government. Shocked and hoping to save her brother, Olivia agrees to help the persuasive earl. But the closer they get to uncovering the villains, the more Alec and Olivia will need to trust each other.

©2022 Anna Harrington (P)2022 Dreamscape Media

Clues in Mathematics

Alexander Sinclair, Earl of St. James, and his half-brother Nathaniel Reed are part of the Lords of the Armory a group that works with the Home Office attempting to discover the leader of Scepter, a group of revolutionaries who want to overthrow the monarchy. After an explosion at the Admiralty Club, a clue is discovered that leads them to Henry Everett, school master and mathematician. Miss Olivia Everett is Henry’s sister and Headmistress of the Everett School. While Nate tracks Henry, Alec watches Olivia. Will the Everetts offer the clue that finally leads them to Scepter? Frequent encounters and some not-too-subtle matchmaking by his sister create a connection and attraction between Alec and Olivia. There are many obstacles in a relationship between them, class difference and pain and secrets from the past. Some honest heart-to-heart between Alec and the women in his life, including Olivia, bring them closer to their happily ever after. Henry provided some information, enough for them to stop one assassination attempt, and offered a lead to another who might be key to finding Scepter. Just as in the other stories in this series, action, danger, spies, traitors, an assortment of villains make this story a page-turner. Justine Eyre brings the story to life in the audiobook. Great characters and a happy ending. I look forward to the next exciting adventure or the Lords of the Armory.

A Disappointment in Story-Telling

I could have appreciated the characters. She is fiercely determined to succeed and takes on big challenges. She is under the misguided belief that she has a devoted partner in her brother.

The hero is an Earl taking the reins of great responsibility after coming back from war with an estate in tatters. Before inheriting the title, he reveled in wicked rakishness and claimed every bit of his disreputable behavior without apology. In becoming Earl, he could shed the disreputable behavior that he adopted out of a reaction to the way his father treated him and he did.

Sounds good, right? The disappointment, to me, is in the unfolding of the perilous story around being victimized by Specter, the ruthless secret group planning to overthrow the king. It is riddled with preposterous situations. For example, in following a lead, the hero Earl, while under assignment from the Home Office, needs to search for more evidence. The heroine, Olivia, sleeps in a small room that's probably a maid's chamber. He searches her room at night while she's in there sleeping. As one would predict, she wakes up.

Another example is the complete amateur approach to going up against a secret group of people who kill frequently and fearlessly to eliminate any evidence that would expose them. And when the predictable happens during a big capture-the-bad-guy moment, they're unprepared with an alternative plan for saving their necks.

And the whole run-into-a-burning-building-to-rescue-innocent-schoolgirls chapter is shameful. The fire and smoke that is described would have killed everyone five times over before the rescue and drama were complete.

Justine Eyre has become one of the readers I've come to rely on for pleasing voice acting. All-in-all, if you like Justine Eyre, you might find that her narration was the strongest part of the story.