Twice a Rake

Lord Rotheby's Influence, Book 1

De: Catherine Gayle

Narrado por: Pearl Hewitt

Some scandals are meant to be...

When Aurora Hyatt loses her journal in Hyde Park, her ruin is a foregone conclusion. After all, if anyone discovers her writings, they'll find scandalous fantasies involving the newest rake in town alongside entirely-too-candid thoughts about her typical dreary suitors. Aurora will either be forced into a loveless marriage with the first nodcock to make an offer, or she'll be assigned a permanent position on the shelf. Oh, dear good Lord. What catastrophe will God smite down upon her next?

If Niles Thornton, Baron Quinton, desires to maintain any semblance of his current lifestyle, he must fulfill the requirements his grandfather, Lord Rotheby, has set for him. First and foremost: he must marry and begin filling his nursery within the year.

When he is nearly barreled over by a racing curricle and a journal flies out to land at his feet, his troubles are over. Inside the journals pages, Quin discovers a scandal waiting to happen. Surely a young lady who would write such brazen things in a journal (and then dare to lose it) must recognize the necessity of a hasty marriage, even if the gentleman making the offer is rather less than honorable.

In a drunken haze, Quin kisses Aurora on a crowded ballroom floor, necessitating their immediate marriage. Quin's troubles are only beginning, however, as Aurora's writings are soon the focus of both gossip rags and drawing room conversation. When word arrives of an even greater scandal following in his wife's wake, will he prove himself a drunken abuser like his father, or will he become the loving husband of Aurora's fantasies?

©2011 Catherine Gayle (P)2013 Catherine Gayle

Quite entertaining

I wasn't quite sure what to expect after seeing some less-than-flattering reviews. But, after a confusing start (I lost the characters listening to the audiobook; I had to refer back to the kindle edition to sort it out) this turned out to be an enjoyable story. Flawed characters and secrets are ubiquitous is this genre and I think they were done well by Catherine Gayle here. Yes, Quin is a rake but he has his redeeming qualities, although I wanted to shake him at times.

The narration was good. This book kept my interest and makes me look for the next book in the series.

Horrible narrator..Great story..

Any additional comments?

I loved the story. Loved Quin and Aurora. Lots of excellent secondary characters, with the exception of Lord Griffen, of course. Oh, and it had some really good sex, too.I was a little creeped out by Aurora trying to constantly trying to fix-up Jonas and Nia. I mean, he was 30 and she was 17. That's why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.

However, the narrator absolutely killed the book (I finally had to give up listening and just read the rest.) ALL the older men had awful nasal-y sounds and ALL the younger were either just a nasal-y as the old ones or they simply sounded like the narrators voice. The hero sounded just like the heroine. UGH.. Lord Norcutt was the worst I've ever heard..Well, maybe it's a toss-up between Norcutt and Lord Rothbury.
If a narrator can't even try to do a man's voice she shouldn't be a narrator!!
I would never listen to Pearl Hewitt again. Sorry..

It was okay, somewhat annoying characters.

It was a bit annoying that the heroine, Aurora was sometimes strong and willful and sometimes constantly crying. And the hero, Quin most of the time a jerk to her which was causing her to cry. I think the story would have been better if he wasn't such a jerk most of the time and she stood up to him more.

Oh and the fact that for most of the book (90%) they didn't even speak to each other or get to know each other. The only time they spoke was when they were in in bed and not enough to even get to know each other.

Otherwise it was an okay story.

The narration I thought was pretty good. I would have liked the men's voices to be a bit deeper. It was not the best or the worst narration I have listened to.

Naughty good fun

Twice a Rake was twice the fun! Engaging story, well written and easy to loose yourself in. The vocal talent here is what makes these stories so successful. Pearl Hewitt is one of the best narrators I've ever heard! I wouldn't want to hear anyone else read these books for me! She's captivating!

Better than expected

The story was only so so. At first the narration was annoying but quickly grew on me. The story dragged at points but I found that I wanted to know what happened. I can't say that I would read the others in the series .

Narration fail

Would you try another book from Catherine Gayle and/or Pearl Hewitt?

While the narrator has a lovely English accent, she uses different voices for the characters that are so obnoxious, I find it hard to like the characters. The story was good enough that I'll order the next in the serious, but the main characters didn't have me snagged. Their plights and the conflict didn't grab me.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Pick a main conflict theme - there are too many and it detracts from character development

What three words best describe Pearl Hewitt’s voice?

English, nasaly, irritating

Could you see Twice a Rake being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No.

OMG What a brilliant book....

and i'm only 2.5 hours to it..its funny and erotic at the same time...weird combination for a book but there it is......i'm already married but i want my husband to propose to me like that...exactly what he did...lmao....THIS IS A MUST LISTEN BOOK...lol..honest...

A really fun story

This story had a nice plot. There was a back story a small amount of intrugue, and personal growth with in both of the main characters. I listened to this book on a road trip and it got me through nicely. If you are searching a good story with some mildly erotic parts then this is for you.

An interesting story

Any additional comments?

I found this an enjoyable listen I have listen to one other by this narrator and really enjoyed her so the less than flattering reviews had no impact on me. I try not to let others opinions affect where or not I pick up a book. For me this wasn’t a bad story yes Aurora was a spoiled brat and needed to grow up. In the characters defense what else would you expect from a father who only has her to love and take care of? At times I thought the story was a little too much but for the most part believable.

Aurora is not one to think before doing which gets her in hot water from time to time. At times she feels she knows what is best when it comes to her friends and who their mates might be. She isn’t very good at reading people or their feelings. At times she is childlike and at others overly headstrong. Her feelings get hurt easy and she is misunderstood at times. She doesn’t really care about what people think about her but do care that her actions will cause pain to those she loves. Sometimes she is pulled into things without even meaning to. My feeling for her are mixed she is very complicated.

Quinton is another one that thinks only of his self and what he wants or needs. He needs a wife he doesn’t want but will take one to make his grandfather happy. He doesn’t want a boring one but one full of life and passion. He feels he found that in Aurora as he makes plans for her down fall into his arms. Things do not go as he planned with him more or less making a fool out of both of them causing a scandal. This will in no way be the first or the last one these two cause. I still have mixed feeling about him as well.

I have listened to one other book by this narrator I thought Ms. Hewitt did a good job I enjoy listening to her voice. She has a very lovely accent which is very clear and easy to listen to. There are no background noises, the tones are very even, you have no trouble knowing the emotions of each character. She puts a lot of feeling into each character. Her female voices were lovely but her male voices were too close to each other and needed a little more roughness to them. I thought Ms. Hewitt did a lovely job I enjoyed the listen and the story very much.

Even though I am on the fence with these characters and their actions I thought all in all it was a good read. It isn’t the best story I have ever read but it is by far not the worse. There are things I really liked and others I didn’t care too much for. It is hard to trust when the one you want to has done things to make you not. I understood why Quinton went off the deep in from the writing to being like his father. This was very believable and I have to say how he acted about being his father and taking actions to protect his wife was honorable. I thought the ball was a lovely idea to win her husband over and a way to show the world they couldn’t take them down, in doing so trying to find out who was causing all the trouble. There were characters I likes and a few I didn’t. All in all not a bad read at all.

Gave me a headache

In an audiobook, the narrator is just as important as the story itself. If the narrator has some bad talking habits or just a bad sounding voice, the audiobook is hard to like. The narrator spoke well, but she unfortunately has a high pitched girly voice. Even though she did very well giving each character their own sound so it was half way easy to identify the character speaking, she gave most, if not all, a very annoying accent that started to give me a headache.