When You Give a Duke a Diamond

Jewels of the Ton, Book 1

By: Shana Galen

Narrated by: Lucy Rivers

Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

William, the sixth Duke of Pelham, enjoys his punctual, securely structured life. Orderly and predictable-that's the way he likes it. But he's in the public eye, and the scandal sheets will make up anything to sell papers. When the gossips link him to Juliette, one of the most beautiful and celebrated courtesans in London, chaos doesn't begin to describe what happens next....

Juliette is nicknamed the Duchess of Dalliance, and has the cream of the nobility at her beck and call. It's seriously disruptive to have the duke who's the biggest catch on the Marriage Mart scaring her other suitors away. Then she discovers William's darkest secret and decides what he needs in his life is the kind of excitement only she can provide....

©2012 Shana Galen (P)2013 Tantor

Why is an American narrating?!?

This is a book set in England. Why tf is an American narrating? It’s distracting and awful. Couldn’t finish.

I was repeatedly annoyed with the story.

I was also annoyed with hearing the audiobook narrator’s breaths.

The premise of Juliette being a courtesan, the why, and her actions were ridiculous. Her actions did not fit her motivations – a violation of writing rules. I describe it in Spoilers below.

There were some plot events that could have been interesting, but they were not developed. Instead most of the story is internal angst and pondering. She tells him something false and then is angsty and hurt because he believes it. He is angsty and hurt because he believes it.

There is child abuse and a disturbing scene killing a puppy. I don’t mind bad parents being the bad guys, but this was too troubling for me.

CAUTION SPOILERS:
Juliette is married to abusive man Oliver. She pretends to have affairs with other men so Oliver will divorce her. He does. That’s the only part that made sense to me. The rest does not. Now Juliette’s dream is to fall in love, get married, and have children. But her actions don’t fit her motivations. She tells the world that she is a courtesan so that she can be free to attend parties and have fun. Then she falls in love with Wil. She wants to marry him, but she won’t be honest with him. She knows he is troubled about her being a courtesan, so why does she continue lying and telling him she is a courtesan? Then when he does not propose marriage, she is furious, angry, and angsty and runs away so he can’t find her.

Frequently during the book he is cold and distant and calls her a whore or courtesan. And then she has all this hurt because of it, but she never corrects him.

A man attacks Juliette. The gardener hears her screams and comes to save her. The attacker runs away. Now there is a big mystery about who the attacker was. Juliette could not describe him because he was behind her. So why didn’t they ask the gardener to describe the attacker? Soon after that, Juliette goes somewhere alone and is attacked again. I’m willing to accept occasional stupidity, but not on top of all this other stuff.
END SPOILERS.

AUDIOBOOK NARRATOR - Lucy Rivers:
I didn’t notice them at first, but later in the book I could hear the narrator’s BREATHS. They were annoying and distracting. She needs to use a different microphone, or do something in the editing process to remove the breaths. Other than that she was good.

Narrative mode: 3rd person.
Genre: regency romance.

Terrible audio and storyline.

Although the narrator voiced the characters each differently, the narration did was stilted and monotone. There were audible glitches in the recording. One such occurrence happening in the first few minutes of chapter 4. The storyline was stylized and predictable. Lucifer’s bed chamber all black with a red bed. Nothing in the description that would pull the reader into the scene. I was hopeful for this book as I have listened to other books by Shana Galen, but this disappoints.