Persuasion

By: Brenda Joyce

Narrated by: Angele Masters

Length: 13 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

Amelia Greystone was deeply in love when the Earl of St. Just abruptly ended his courtship and left Cornwall ten years earlier. So she is stunned when Simon returns, recently widowed. Now she must forget the past they shared and his betrayal and console him as any neighbor would. Simon has changed - he is dark and haunted now - but he can still make her reel with a single look. When he offers her the position of housekeeper, Amelia knows she must refuse. But for the sake of his children, she throws all caution to the wind….

A British spy, Simon Grenville is now playing both sides in a time of war, his goal to keep his sons safe. Yet when he is brought face-to-face with the woman he once loved, he realizes nothing about his feelings for Amelia has changed - if anything, they are even stronger. Still, Simon knows he must stay away from Amelia; his life is too dangerous now. But sometimes passion is too strong to be denied….

©2012 Brenda Joyce (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Better than the first but......

This is actually a follow up to book 1 Seduction which I hadn't liked very much and had I known this I wouldn't have bought it and it's not one of BJ's best.

However, it was much better than the first and could be a stand alone book - it wasn't so much of a history lesson, and much more on the unrequited love angle. Amelia has loved Simon, her once childhood sweetheart, ever since he abandoned her 10 years ago but now he needs her help with a dead wife, 2 sons and a newborn baby. But Simon has been forced to become a Double Agent and the pressure and heartache is too much for him and it's slowly making him crack apart and time is running out for her to save him.

This was an enjoyable listen and you just can't figure out how he can get out of his problems - but it was a bit too heavy on the sickly sweet and too light on passion and heat, I found myself rewinding thinking I'd missed parts like one minute their in the Library arguing the next he's getting off the bed doing up his trousers and she's pulling her dress back down ..... errr come on I need a little bit more.

Worth of credit? If you like your Regency romances on the mild and tame side then it would be a yes from you, but I like a bit more 'fire' in my romances, and I think there's many more books more deserving, so it's a no from me.

No my best but tolerable

The heroine in this book was way to whiny at times and so ignorant. The hero was not what I would call romantic. But I went along with this book. The narrator was ok. I did not particularly like ther narration of the hero.. She made him sound so slow and his conversations wer choppy. I was read the book and took me about 3 days to get through it. This was not the worst book I have listened to but far from the best... So I gave it 3 stars.

Good, solid, historical romance, AMAZING READER

To be quite honest, I listened to this book because I love Angele Masters. She is hands down my favorite reader of British novels. I first heard her on Deanna Raybourn's Veronica Speedwell series (seriously, check these out they are so good, the writing and the reading!) and since then have listened to several others. All fantastic! I love that you can usually tell characters apart by distinctive voices, but usually only a hint different, just enough to identify. Her voices don't feel "strained" if that makes sense, and she is especially talented with dialogue (see Deanna Raybourn Veronica series!).

Once again, Angele Masters did not disappoint. The book itself is a really nice historical romance (mid 1700's) and I can say I really did enjoy it. There were times when it seemed a little slow, but that doesn't really bother me, and I continued to find myself wanting to listen to it whenever I was in the car or doing housework.

Our heroine is a, beautiful, poor-yet-proud aristocrat, who finds that she once again becomes entangled with the mysterious, devilishly handsome, recently widowered Count that broke her heart when they were teenagers. She is unmarried and devotes herself to taking care of her ill mother. She is saintly and he is obviously into some shady business- but what is it? Do opposites attact after all? What will become of the two of them now that they are all grown up? Read to find out.

I would consider this a PG in the "hot and steamy" romance category--pretty wholesome overall, with a nice dose of intrigue and danger. A good listen and I will look for more books by Brenda Joyce.

I wish I can get my credit back

I recently kissed so many frogs that I exceeded my limit of returns so unfortunately I am stuck with this silly book.
I downloaded it without reading any reviews and mistakenly presumed that title Persuasion implies besotted hero persuading reluctant heroine. Unfortunately it turned out to be completely opposite; Amelia is a besotted fool, who keeps insinuating herself into hero’s life under pretence of worrying about his children and ends up being his housekeeper.....????? Her total luck of pride, her holiness and self sacrificing personality was hard to take. I wish she made him grovel instead of continually chasing after him.
I can tolerate a measure of ridiculousness and suspend disbelief in some cases when story is really engaging and minor silliness can be brushed aside (Bertrice Small or Jennifer Blake ...) but this book just left me annoyed and irritated.

Not persuaded

Would you try another book from Brenda Joyce and/or Angele Masters?

Probably not.

Would you ever listen to anything by Brenda Joyce again?

The writing would have to improve A LOT!

How could the performance have been better?

The voices seemed to be set up with the wrong characters. The Earl sounded like an old man.

Any additional comments?

The story was weak and implausible. The heroine was too much of a do-gooder to be believed and the hero seemed too weak to be believed. I wouldn't have thought of him as a spy.