The Wicked Duke

The Wicked Trilogy, Book 3

De: Madeline Hunter

Narrado por: Lulu Russell

Third in the roguishly intriguing series by the New York Times best-selling author of Tall, Dark, and Wicked and His Wicked Reputation.

She appeals to his wicked inclinations, but he never expects she might snare his heart….

Suspected of his brother's murder, Lancelot Hemingford, Duke of Aylesbury, was forced to give up his hell-raising habits in London for the anonymity of quiet country living. So, when an opportunity arises to clear his name in exchange for proposing to the niece of a neighbor, he sees no choice but to accept. Plus, seducing the reluctant maiden will be a most intriguing challenge.

As Marianne Radley is dependent on her uncle, she must accept the Duke's marriage proposal at her family's request, despite her belief he is irredeemably wicked. But along with marrying him, she intends to sniff out the duke's unsavory secrets and expose them to the world: a plan that would be flawless were it not for one minor detail - even she, with all her determination, is not immune to the charms of a rakish duke.

©2016 Madeline Hunter (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Unbearable Narration

It would have been a good romance it not for the bizarre and grating narration. I will never listen to any audiobook ruined by Lulu Russell’s narration.

Have to comment on the narrator.

She made Lance sound like a pain sodden soul. I couldn’t hear his voice half the time because he spoke so deeply. I really enjoyed Mary Jane Wells from the first book in this series. Having made that comment, the rest of the characters were decent. But the main character needs to be heard and understood. Not sound like a person suffering from hemorrhoid

Mixed feelings

The writer has interesting historical tidbits. The mystery of who killed the Duke’s brother was fairly seamless. The point is I thought this book, had I read it as a book instead of listening to it might have enjoyed it more.

The narrator had a beautiful voice, she can be a great reader, but when she was the Duke, her accent, her gruff voice turned him into a crotchety old man. All those love scenes were with a crotchety old man. I tried on occasion to imagine the words in my readers mind, where I would have turned him into a gorgeously voiced man in his thirties, but trying to override it was just too difficult. I’m not sure why so many female narrators add quavers and nasally upper crust accents to the heroes voice, other than possibly they disrespect the genre? They want to make the love scene’s or maybe the heroes ludicrous? It shouldn’t take that much to slightly lower the voice. Just a little. Not too much.

There are narrators who can read well the opposite sex. The ones who do it best don’t do high falsettos from men or from women the overly slow and gruff voices, to the point that the hero sounds doddering. A male hero voice might have a confident clip from a female narrator, a male narrator a slightly smoother or a faint softening. The point is not to turn voices into caricatures, causing listeners to cringe.

Nice sweet story of love and revenge

I likes the story. The slow burn of love. The narration had some to be desired. There were times I didn’t know who was talking. The voice in of Lance was so low, it was hard to hear

Good story HORRENDOUS narration

I only persisted listening because I wanted to know how the series ended. It was very difficult at way too many times to tell who was speaking.

Narrator!

Missed Mary Jane Wells in the series. Finished the series, however did NOT enjoy the change in narrator. Lulu Russell can’t do male voices unfortunately.

Good story. Horrible reading.

I liked the story but couldn’t stand the performance. I probably wouldn’t have listened if I hadn’t already listened to the first two books. It was hard for me to like Lance because of her interpretation. I was hoping after hearing her performance on the last story that she would have changed his voice since he was the lead. He sounded like the overdone villain. At least she’s consistent, unfortunately.
I don’t usually write reviews but I don’t think I can listen to another book by this reader.

DNF due to narrator

DNF due to narrator Lulu Russell. After painful experience listening to the beginning of #2, I didn't even bother trying w/ this last book in trilogy. I've gotten into doing re-reads in audio format so it's disappointing when it fails to do justice to a favorite author or title.

Quickly drawn into the story

There’s a lot to like about this book starting with the characters.
The heroine, Marianne, is strong, self-reliant, intelligent, and empathetic.
Lance, the hero is a seductive “bad boy” who never wanted to be Duke, but somehow always ends up doing the right thing
The minor characters especially the heroine’s cousin Nora are nuanced and interesting. Some of them end up having their own HEAs.
I liked the fact that there is no obvious villain in this story (unless you count the reprehensible former Duke.)
I usually find mysteries in HR’s contrived and distracting, but the puzzle of who killed previous Duke is woven seamlessly into the plot of this book The resolution is clever and unexpected.
It was enjoyable to have Lance’s two brothers, each of whom is featured in one of the previous two books, play significant roles in this story.
Madeleine Hunter did an excellent job tying this book into the two previous novels in the trilogy. She also did a wonderful job of wrapping up all the loose ends and minor stories to give the whole trilogy a satisfying ending.

great story. terrible performance .

This story of Lance was the perfect ending to the wicked trilogy. his character is quite a character throughout the book. You have to read every chapter all the way to the end to not miss anything . The performance is regrettably awful and takes away from the book.