Awakening Amelia

By: Victoria Whitlock

Narrated by: Lucy Richmond Jones

Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Amelia's darkest desires awaken....

Kept hidden from the world by her strict aunt, innocent Amelia Sandwell has grown up knowing nothing whatsoever of the private relations that exist between men and women.

So when, shortly after her 19th birthday, innocent Amelia discovers she is to be married to the handsome and brooding Lord Hartford, she finds herself wondering just what exactly is expected of her as his wife.

As Amelia begins her new life at Hartford Hall, she quickly learns that her schoolroom "wife studies" have in no way prepared her for her husband's dark and passionate desires. But as her experience grows, Amelia finds to her surprise that she actually enjoys her lord and master's rather unusual proclivities in the bedroom.

Due to adult descriptions and situations, this novel is suitable only for those aged 18 and older. You have been warned.

©2014, 2016 Victoria Whitlock (P)2016 Victoria Whitlock

H too child-like; Recording very poor

There were serious sound problems with this audiobook alternating between chapters. First the volume was too low, and, in the next chapter, it was too loud, and I would have to turn it down. I couldn't hear the intro at all even at the highest volume of my mp3 player. And in the chapters, when the sound was too low, I had to turn my mp3 up to the highest level to be able to hear it at all with headphones on and no external noise. The last chapter required me to turn the volume all the way up, and, as a result, when the audible statement thanking me for listening came in, it was immensely loud resulting in fright and brief uncomfortableness. It was bad.

Yes, Amelia was sheltered, but she spoke of males as though they were aliens, non-humans, wholly different from her, from females. She referred to them as "specimen" when speaking of the differences she rarely observed and noted. Even at age 19, when Amelia meet and marries Lord Hartford—apparently much older than she—without a choice, she talks like a child and even refers to herself as a "girl." It's disconcerting and off-putting. The narrator, unfortunately, does a good job of sounding like a young girl also. This includes petulance, novelty of expression towards the most mundane things, unnecessarily emphasizing the "t" at the end of words to make her point like a childish stomped foot and others.
I disliked the POV talking directly to me, the listener. Specifically, in the story, Amelia would say "dear reader." The author repeated phrasings appearing to have limited ability to say things in a different way. There was too much emphasis to her pale skin, which I guess was to accentuate her having not been allowed to be outside and having actually been in sunlight very rarely. But the point was repeated too often for such a short book. This was done in various ways: "milky white," "pale," "almost translucent," etc. Predictably, it went from being a point of contention to a point of beauty in her own eyes, for Amelia.
Yes, there are sex scenes between 19-year-old Amelia and Lord Hartford/John, 2 with spankings and 1 with bindings, I believe. But the scenes were barely smoldering much less hot IMO. They were especially brief and barely detailed. No explicitness. Sexual parts were referred to as "womanhood," "there," "member," "manhood," "beast," and the like.
Listening felt tedious and boring.