Dangerous Joy

By: Jo Beverley

Narrated by: Emily Gray

Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Set in lush 17th-century Ireland, this passionate tale is part of Jo Beverley's wildly popular Company of Rogues series. Beverley is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of over 20 historical romances and the winner of five RITA Awards. In this sizzling tale, young Miles Cavanagh becomes the improbable guardian to Felicity Monahan, a wealthy, headstrong heiress who seems set on marrying an unscrupulous cad who clearly only wants to wed Felicity for one reason - and that reason is not love.

©1995 Jo Beverley Pub.Inc. (P)2005 Recorded Books,LLC

Love it

Great story. Steamy romance. I would definitely read more books from Jo Beverly! One of my favs!

Too long

Too much drama queen. An independent woman I appreciate, but this one was a pure brat.

Best one yet

Loved it! The best in the series so far, can't wait to hear the next!

What a joy!

The story was interesting and a pleasure to read. It makes you want to dread about the rogues.

You are going to marry whom?

Miles Cavanaugh, a special member of the Company of Rogues, is an Irish affiliate. He was sent to England to be educated at Harrow's where he was selected to be a member of the notorious and close knit group of fellows. At the ripe age of 25, Miles was made guardian of Felicity, a beautiful 20 year old . They are widely attracted to each other, yet Felicity is determined to marry a nasty piece of work. Once she reaches her age of majority, she can marry whom she pleases and access her enormous inheritance. What does this piece of work have over Felicity? Good question! I recommend the story to get the answers.

The book is well written and pulls in the reader. There are some areas that are drawn out and run a bit slow. However, I found this to be a factor in all the books in the series. Yet, it is not enough to bring reluctance to read/ listen to the stories. In fact, the stories are enjoyable and it is great how all the "rogues" weave in and out of each others tales.

I have to speak to narration. I love listening to all accents from UK area (even if it wasn't UK in this period) ... I love Scottish brogues. British aristocracy, a strong Irish accent (can also be known as brogue?), cockney, etc. Unfortunately , there really wasn't any apparent accent at all, It is somewhat disconcerting that the series has several different narrators including different genders. All that said, it is still worth reading / listening. I am already on the next book.

Loved the story but the reader drove me nuts

I loved the plot line for this Rogue but I just couldn't get over the narrators voice whenever she was Felicity. I was hoping that as the story continued I would be able to get lost in the words but I would still occasionally find myself irked.

Irish accent was all over the place

Basically the storyline: will young woman with large inheritance marry a cruel cad, deeply in debt, who recently became a widower or will the young heiress be saved by her guardian who is in love with her. Complicating the story is that the young heiress at age 15 had an affair with the cad while he was married becoming pregnant and giving the baby to the cad and his wife. The cad threatens the well being of the child in order to blackmail the heiress into marriage. The guardian is confounded by the heiress’s determination to marry the cad and refuses to let her proceed with the marriage, unknowingly putting her child at risk.
Unfortunately, the potentially interesting story, was undermined by the unrealistic refusal of the heiress to tell the guardian the truth about her past and current relationship with the cad. This ubiquitous, over used contrivance leaves the listener bored, frustrated, and feeling cheated.
The length of the book could have been cut by a third, if not by half, taking out all the unnecessary filler in the middle that did nothing to add to the story and instead focused on the couple’s desire that, of course, the guardian and heiress try to fight. In addition during this time the guardian decides not to use any form of pregnancy avoidance in order to get the heiress with child. This reprehensible act is justified as an acceptable means to force the heiress to marry him instead of the cad should she become pregnant with his child. The story to here provides examples of how powerless this intelligent young woman of independent means remains while at the mercy of two men who each want her for their own desires, needs, and as a fix to their problems. At the end her fate is changed again by a group of men rather than by her own means as she is stymied by rules of society and the control of her guardian and his friends. This is explanation is a bit simplified but in general is what happened.
The story is too long, lacks tension, believable character conflicts, and a complex storyline that draws the listener in.
The narration was difficult to listen to. The young female voices tempos were too fast, high pitched, and annoying. The male voices were better with a slower cadence and resonant sound. The Irish accents became almost unbearable due to a stereotypical “Irish” sound and pronunciation.
I generally enjoy listening to an Irish accent finding it lyrical and easy to follow, unfortunately this rendering of the accent felt more than a bit contrived and like the narrator was trying too hard.
I have mixed feelings about recommending this book. On one hand it is a predictable romance and would suffice for readers looking for that in their reading choices. On the other hand it is too long with much repetition and ubiquitous fillers that unnecessarily strings out the story and would not be a pleasant read for those liking tightly written plots and complex characters. However, I guess what it comes down to is that based on the poor narration alone I cannot recommend this book.

Characters lacked usual depth for a Beverly novel

In this book, the characters I have loved in the Company of Rogues were written with very superficial dialogue and the entire love story was boring, sappy, and never developed beyond a sexual interest. I never understood why Miles loved Felicity as she behaved a spoiled brat the entire novel (though I could not make it through the last 2 hours) and Miles only thoughts were of her body, because there was nothing developed about the rest of her except she is very stubborn and causes trouble like a child. I did not care what happened with them, and even the Rogues I loved spoke in silly and syrupy dialogue. It is the lack of this silliness as the core of a romance novel that sets Jo Beverly apart. It is my opinion that she usually puts character development and a real love story, with a plot that is unique, as the primary drive for her work. The men of the Company of Rogues are delightful, funny, very intelligent and their friendships are satisfying, but not in this one. The whole plot was drivel for me. But I recommend Jo Beverly and if this was your first read, try An Arranged Marriage. The Story of Eleanor and Nicholas is one that still makes me smile.

Sorry, don’t care.

I’m half way through this book and I’m thinking about what I want to listen to next. Taking that as a sign that I don’t much care about these characters. I’m a little curious about how they will dispose of the villain, so will skip to the end and then be on to something else.

bad narrator

the narrator killed this book for me. It was like someone running nails on a chalk board.....She was just trying to hard and her "voices" were flat out fake sounding or almost comical. It made it hard to focus on the story.....also cats as murders, please that is just too far out there...