Lord of Darkness

By: Elizabeth Hoyt

Narrated by: Emma Taylor

Length: 12 hrs

Publisher's summary

Three men who made a sacred pact years before: to defend and protect the innocent of St. Giles - no matter the cost to themselves...

Since the death of his first wife, Godric St. John has devoted his nights to protecting the innocent of London disguised as the notorious Ghost of St. Giles. When Lord Griffin Reading discovers Godric's secret double life he presents him with an offer he can't refuse, and Godric finds himself married to a young - and pregnant - stranger.

Two years ago Lady Margaret "Megs" Reading lost both her lover and her unborn child - but not before being forced into a marriage of convenience with Godric St. John, an older, dour gentleman she barely knew. No longer content to spend her days at her husband's country estate, Megs leaves for London to get the two things she wants most: to find and bring to justice the man who murdered Roger, her lover, and to have a child of her own. But in order to conceive a baby, she's going to have to seduce the husband she hasn't seen since their marriage breakfast. (Maiden Lane, Book 5)

©2013 Elizabeth Hoyt (P)2013 Hachette Audio

Disappointing narrator

I enjoyed the story -- thought it was one of the best in the series! But this narrator made the characters sound snooty and cold. Megs was a bubbly, bouncy, lovable woman -- full of life. The narrator did not capture her personality at all; in fact, her voice for Megs made me dislike her. The men did not sound at all sexy or interesting. They just growled. I will not listen to this book again. I might buy the print copy, though, and try to imagine Ashford McNabb's voice.

Great book

Great book. I love the story but I had a hard time listening to it because of the narrator. I finally got passed the narrator voice so I could finish the story.

Terrible Narrator

What happened to Ashford McNabb? This narrator is horrible, i struggled to listen to the book. I actually stopped listening and completed two other books before coming back to this one. Good story, and this is a great series. The narrator completely ruined the audio version of this book.

Narrating disapponted

Would you consider the audio edition of Lord of Darkness to be better than the print version?

I did not read the series, that's why I listen to audio books I spend a lot of time commuting.

What did you like best about this story?

The suspense and romance!

How did the narrator detract from the book?

??????

Any additional comments?

After listening to the complete series and knowing the voices from book to book was important to me and then you went and switched narrators. This was very disappointing! The series is a great listen! I would recommend the series.

just ok but not as terrible as the reviews claim

Any additional comments?

Narrator NOT awful as everyone says, but I didn't like how her tone deepened turning down at the end of each sentence making her sound like a bored aristocrat. Winter (#4) was the best ghost of St. Giles so reading 2 other ghost stories afterwards makes them very dull in comparison and may turn you off to the entire series in general. Therefore I recommend skipping around start with book #1,#2,#3,#4 skip over to book #10, #10.5, then go back for #6, #7, #9 then read #11 and #5, and end with #8 phoebes story. My personal favorite is #11 Alf's story but you can get that FREE on youtube. #4 is 2nd best, #10 3rd best & Apollos story #7 is the funniest i think. 5 & 6 are terribly boring. #9 has the hottest NON-sex scenes. Happy reading!

Decent story ruined by horrible narrator

Read from March 17 to May 20, 2013

I originally started reading this as an ebook back in March or April. Life intervened . . . and as I'd listened to the first four as audio books (read by the incomparable Ashford McNab), it was hard for me to get into this one in print. So I set it aside for a little while, then came back to it, downloading the audiobook despite the less-than-favorable reviews of the narrator (Emma Taylor) on Audible.

Review of Audiobook:
The only saving grace of this audiobook is the strength of Elizabeth Hoyt's storytelling. Emma Taylor as a narrator is made tolerable only by increasing the playback speed to 1.5x---and even then her choppy, monotone diction and weird pauses between words/phrases (with no pauses sometimes between paragraphs/scenes, making them run together confusingly) came through quite strongly.

Review of Story:
As expected, from the epilogue at the end of Thief of Shadows, I enjoyed this book more than I'd enjoyed that one. I liked Megs from the previous books. Godrick took a little getting used to as a character, but I came to love him right along with Megs, which is exactly what I want in a romance novel. I really appreciated the fact that this was a "falling in love" story---as in, the two characters have known each other for a while before the story begins. It's so rare to see that in romance novels these days. It's also rare to see a romance novel in which both the hero and heroine are sexually experienced without either of them being flagrant or promiscuous about it. Though Megs's experience was outside of marriage, it was with a man she loved and intended to marry. Godrick, whose past before he married his first wife we do not know, remained faithful to her memory all these years. So when the two of them come together to fulfill Megs's wish to have a child, the awkward moments are built out of their personalities/pasts rather than the standard tropes of the heroine "losing her innocence" or the hero "teaching her pleasure." Hoyt is able to use it as a time to more deeply explore and develop these two characters in keeping with their backstory and the ultimate goal of the novel: their happily-ever-after ending.

The one thing that has started to annoy me in this series is the inclusion of the POV of one (or both) of the characters of the next book in the series . . . especially when that character has no connection to the main events of the current story. Artemis Greaves had nothing to do with Megs and Godrick's relationship, so her POV scenes were jarring and brought a halt to the momentum of the Megs-Godrick/Ghost plot. Also, it was quite obvious from Artemis's first POV scene exactly whom her hero would be in the next story. Hoyt already uses the epilogue in each book to set up the next one. I saw no reason for Artemis to have several viewpoint scenes throughout the body of the novel as well.

Narration wasn't that bad

Alright, so it wasn't Ashford MacNab but Emma Taylor was a decent replacement. I suppose the different opinions are what makes the world go round but truly, Emma Taylor wasn't that bad. At least she doesn't overact like Anne Flosnik. And we can't expect that every character from past books are going to sound exactly the same in future books. And by the way, Hellequins are the predecessors of Harlequins and they are two different things so it wasn't a mispronunciation.

The story was a good story although I found the beginning a bit incongruent with the subsequent story. For a man who professed to so love his dead wife that he would forsake all others and remain celibate, he certainly changed his mind in a hurry. I thought that part of the story could have played out more naturally. Otherwise, it was a pleasure to see Godric come to life, to see Megs appreciate him and to enjoy the journey of healing they both traveled together.

BRING BACK ASHFORD MCNAB - PLEASE!!!

Would you try another book from Elizabeth Hoyt and/or Emma Taylor?

No - I'll never buy another book narrated by Emma Taylor. She's terrible.

What did you like best about this story?

I didn't enjoy the story very much at all because the narration was so bad. I've still got 4 hrs to go and I'm looking into the buying the book on my Nook to finish it. I'm just not sure I can suffer through 4 more hours.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Emma Taylor?

Ashford McNab, Rosalyn Landor, Helen Stern, Rebecca DeLeeuw, Anne Flosnik

Was Lord of Darkness worth the listening time?

Not really. I seriously doubt that I ever listen to this book again. That's unfortunate because I've listened to the other books in this series several times each. I've thought about returning this book, but I guess I'll keep it.

Any additional comments?

I'm not sure that I like the fact that more and more people are aware of who the Ghost of St. Giles really are. There are just too many people who know now. That makes it unrealistic for me. How can that many people keep this kind of secret?

Ignore the reader and enjoy the book.

Any additional comments?

Another fun romance from Elizabeth Hoyt. The reader makes every man in the book sound like an idiot so you have to get used to that at the beginning and then just enjoy the story. LOVE this series! Get the other reader back for the next book.

Get a new reader!!!!

The story was good but my brain hurts after listening to it because the reader kept switching between a southern drawl and a horrible English accent