Once Upon a Tower

De: Eloisa James

Narrado por: Susan Duerden

Once upon a time…

A duke fell in love

Gowan Stoughton of Craigievar, Duke of Kinross, values order and self-control above all else. So when he meets a lady as serene as she is beautiful, he promptly asks for her hand in marriage.

With a lady

Edie—whose passionate temperament is the opposite of serene—had such a high fever at her own debut ball that she didn’t notice anyone, not even the notoriously elusive Duke of Kinross. When her father accepts his offer… she panics.

And when their marriage night isn’t all it could be, she pretends.

In a tower.

But Edie’s inability to hide her feelings makes pretending impossible, and when their marriage implodes, she retreats to a tower—locking Gowan out.

Now Gowan faces his greatest challenge. Neither commands nor reason work with his spirited young bride. How can he convince her to give him the keys to the tower…

When she already has the keys to his heart?

Delightful

Fun, romantic and constant. Never a dull moment.
I'm constantly amazed at how Eloisa James can write a story so vivid that I can't put it down.

GOOD DEFINITELY BUT JUST NOT GREAT

Glances across the Ballroom lead to a Marriage Bargain and within weeks a Wedding but although the virginal H/H are sexually drawn to each other - they soon find out that it takes more than attraction to make a marriage work. Romantic and tender beginning as the two happily tie the knot but disaster soon falls when the honeymoon starts.

Hours and hours of "it hurts" and faked orgasms which resulted in lies, betrayal and broken hearts but with a cooling off period in the Highlands tempers calm and a second chance at love is finally theirs. Gowan is tempted to sleep with a barmaid but in the end doesn't because he realises he loves and only wants to please his wife.

Nice enjoyable story, loveable Scottish hero who tries so hard to please his frigid frightened English wife but she wasn't a likeable character and so I couldn't relate to her and felt she just didn't deserve him and as a result it wasn't one of EJ's best romances.

Worth a credit? I'm going to say YES as all of her historical romances are good but some are better than others - and it made my ironing a lot easier.

good if u hang in there

I thought that the beginning of the story focused too much on sex and not enough on the characters. I stuck it out and was happy that I finally got to see the characters development although it was near the end of the story.

Just couldn't like the heroine.

Edith Gilchrist is a serious musician, so everyone including the dashing and mostly perfect hero, Gowan, is supposed to change their schedules and do everything so she can practice for hours on end. Okay, that's an exaggeration. Along the way, she fires people, sometimes at random. She had redeeming qualities, and of course, personal struggles with her father and the loss of her mother; but I just couldn't make myself like her. Not a well reasoned review, I know, this one was just visceral.

Save your credits or money for one of Ms. James other works.

Susan Duerden is the quintessential romance novel narrator as always.

A fun, feel-good comfort read

I love books like this when I need a break from heavier more emotionally taxes stories. I actually listened to this one while packing up my house and cleaning everything while preparing to move and it made the whole experience much more bearable. As always I love Susan Duerden's narration. I enjoyed the fact that this book began with the couple marrying then realizing that the reality of marriage is drastically different then they both had anticipated. Both characters are very different and are initially unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to have a harmonious marriage but ultimately work through there differences and find a common ground with one another. This would have been a five star listen if it were not for the fact that I really didn't love either one of the main characters. Their personalities were fitting for the story but I just couldn't relate to the heroine and the hero was a little stiff and boring for my taste. They were also very young 19 and 22 I think so they hadn't developed a great deal of depth of character yet. I loved Leila and thought the romance between her and Edi's father was more interesting but overall it's a fun fairytale themed listen.

Loved this book

What wonderful dialogue. Has great humor and romance, two of my favorite things for total enjoyment.

Virginal Love

This is the story of two young virgins (he is 22 and she is 19) who marry and start their wedded life. Neither of them know anything about love or sex. They find the love part easy as they were very attracted to each other. He fell in love at first sight and she soon after. He loved the sex part, she hated it (mostly because he was clueless and she became fearful - because he was clueless). At this point, anyone reading this can draw their own conclusions. This is basically the plot of the story. They are also total opposites. He is smart, pragmatic, and all business. She is an ethereal musician who lives in her own world. There is also a secondary story about her father and stepmother who are terrible role models. Although the story was rather weak on plot, the dialogue was very good. Eloisa James has a knack for communicating the emotions of her characters and this book was no different. Was it one of her best? No, but I enjoyed it and the two young newlyweds were very cute together.

Decent

I just didn't feel any connection or chemistry b/w the main characters. There was a lot of eye rolling on my part.

The Best of them All

Although I love all Mrs James books this is my all time favorite. The Duke is my favorite hero with all his flaws,

Eloisa James Takes a Dive With This One!

This has to be the worst book Eloisa James has ever written. Susan Duerden gave her usual stellar performance, but even she could not rescue the two superficial main characters
who were stuck in a plot line that revolved around a wife faking orgasms and a husband's ego being hurt when he finds out. One of the things that bothered me the most about this story was that while the husband was off on his angry tirade, he has sex with a bar maid--ostensibly to learn more about what pleases a woman sexually. Nothing else was ever said about this infidelity in the book. I thought it was a huge deal because both the husband and wife had discussed the importance of fidelity before their marriage and he had told his wife that he hated liars above all else (referring to her faked orgasm). This book was a big disappointment and am going to ask for a refund. Don't waste your credit or $.