A Scandalous Past

Scandalous Series, Book 4 (Volume 4)

By: Ava Stone

Narrated by: Stevie Zimmerman

Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

A Regency Historical Novel - Book Four of the Scandalous Series

After years of abuse at the hands of her mother, Cordelia Avery knows the only way out is marriage to the perfect man. A man who will allow her all the freedom she has ever craved. And she has the perfect man picked out. The scandalous Marquess of Haversham might not be perfect to anyone else, but taking the man's black reputation under consideration, Cordie believes she'll enjoy all the freedom she's always wished for in his disreputable arms.

If only she could get her heart to go along with the plan and to stop leaping whenever Lord Adonis///the Earl of Clayworth is nearby. But the very proper earl is most assuredly the wrong sort for her purposes. Brendan Reese, the Earl of Clayworth, has no intention of ever marrying again. He's still trying to clean up the mess his first wife left him, even years after her death. To all the world, Clayworth is the epitome of the perfect English gentleman, and he so wishes that image was the truth. But the truth, as it often can be, is ugly.

After all, a perfect English gentleman would never have a traitor for a mother. And unless Clayworth can find the evidence his late wife hid, he could face the gallows himself. But a chance encounter with the reckless Cordelia Avery gives him the best lead he's had in years to finally putting his family's past to rest. Unfortunately, focusing on anything other than Miss Avery seems a nearly impossible task.

©2011 Second Wind Publishing (P)2013 Ava Stone

Lovely Story

The narrator kept me enchanted throughout the story. Stevie's performance is superb. I'd like to venture on another of her work.

Kept my interest, mostly..

Pretty good story, even if it was a little long and got a little boring in the middle, I still enjoyed it, overall. Both Cordie and Brendan were likable. So were Lady Staveley and Astwick. I wasn’t so sure about Haversham, Marcus Grey, but I ended up liking him a great deal.

It was about lost letters and blackmail, which is much better than a plain old romance.

Graphic sex but no swearing.

As to the narration: I love Stevie Zimmerman. She does such a great job on her narrations.

Surprisingly delightful!

Any additional comments?

This is the first book I've heard from this author or series but this was such a great experience I'm definitely gonna have to go back now and find them all.

This is NOT a review of the book

I normally don't like to write negative reviews, but production and direction are part of the whole, so this is actually a review of that side of this experience.
This was my first Ava Stone novel, but she has been recommended, and the synopses of her novels seem to be interesting. The reviews of this particular novel on Goodreads were almost all 4 stars, and I'd really like to read it, but it will be in some form of print, and my eyes are not looking forward to that.
The pauses between chapters in this production made me crazy. They are at least 15 seconds long, at least saying "one and two and three and". I know those "number and" counts are a little slow. I know that this isn't Audible's fault, but couldn't it have been corrected by the original digital publisher?
My other issue is with pronunciation. Please! There are online dictionaries that give correct pronunciation, in both American and English. Either way, phaeton has 3 syllables, though I can tolerate it with the middle one glossed over. I absolutely cannot accept it pronounced "phiton" with a long "i".
That's when my I reached my tolerance level and gave up.
I know I cannot return it because I didn't 't listen to it immediately after I bought it, so I've had it too long. I've also downloaded it twice. The initial time when I tried to listen to it, then just a few minutes ago to count how long between a couple of chapters. But I can put it on my list of never try again.
My issues may not effect your enjoyment, because it really does, from the synopsis, seem like it would be a good story.
Thanks for letting me vent. :)

Too sexual for me

The sexual details and explicit language detracts from the story and cheapens the book. Less is more.