A Lady Like No Other: A Regency Romance

Regency Black Hearts, Book 3

By: Claudia Stone

Narrated by: Virginia Ferguson

Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

Beautiful, titled, and wealthy to boot, Lady Lydia Beaufort was expected to have a spectacular London Season. There was just one problem; the eccentric daughter of the Earl of Galway had no intention of becoming the ton’s darling. Especially if it involved humoring the awful herds of fortune hunters and greedy second sons, intent on making her their bride.

All Lydia wanted was to be left alone in peace, to read her beloved Lord Byron. That is, until an incorrigible rogue of a Marquess burst into her life and turned all her ideas about love upside down.

Charming, congenial, and ever so handsome, Gabriel Livingstone, Marquess of Sutherland could have his pick of any of the season’s debutantes, but the only rose he longed to pluck was the very thorny Lady Beaufort. Just when he thinks he might finally have won her heart, fate, in the form of an Italian Count, a mischievous Gypsy, and a political assassination plot, gets in his way. 

Can the mismatched pair find their way through all the obstacles life, and London, has to offer to find love?

©2017, 2018 Claudia Stone (P)2018 Claudia Stone

Disappointing

Other Claudia Stone novels and novellas have better overall dialogue and plot lines. This one felt like a cobbling of cliche narratives.

Cute like the first two but

A bit less of a story. It was beyond predictable. Regency romance has a great deal of predictability which, in some ways, is why I like it. But this one felt like I could have written it. Very thin and barely held my interest. I wouldn’t spend the credit, especially given how short it is. First two were also fluff but a bit better. Still, this writer is good for a quick super light read. No steam at all!! Some like that, but I think it adds to the thin quality.

Another sweet romance in the series...:)

That's the third in The Regency Black Hearts romance series, and I liked it as well as the first two.
It's time for Lydia's story, which makes me happy cause I really liked her character in book two (and we share more than just the first name:)). Lydia is not your typical aristicratic maid waiting to catch a rich husband; to tell the truth, what she thinks of most of the men she meets at all the ballrooms she frequents shouldn't be mentioned in a genteel society...:) There are only a few men she regards worth knowing and one of them is her friend Gabriel Livingstone, Marquess of Sutherland. But is it only friendship between them? Or does Gabriel want more? And is she ready to give him more...?

Again, it's a nicely-paced romance, with some twists in the plotline that threaten the subtle thread of growing love; also, the background characters are very-well portrayed with just a few words, without lengthy descriptions. I really liked Lydia's French maid, and Carmen, the "Gypsy" was quite colourful:) Generally, there's humour, there's warmth, there's also adventure, and of course there is the HEA - do you need more in a romance?

As with the previous books, I really liked Ms Ferguson's interpretation; she does bring the characters to life with her voice, she does make them shine and she does make the story intriguing and unputdownable. The only thing that I would change is the pace of her reading - I did speed it up a bit (but I do it with other narrators, too, co maybe it's just me...).

DISCLAIMER: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

How Does a Lady Keep the Lords Away?

By being rude of course! Lady Lydia Beaufort seeks to reunite with her father in Ireland, but must go through with a few seasons first, and must escape unscathed by matrimony. Who delights her rudeness, but her friend, Gabriel Livingstone, Marquess of Sutherland. The two have a cute way of flirting through outrageous statements that by and large they say to amuse themselves (it's lighthearted). I'm not normally a friends-to-lovers fan but this bit of cat and mouse between the main leads was very engaging.

Pretty good all the way around..

I think this was better than the first and second book in this series. This was about Lydia and Gabriel who were best friends but were also in love with one another but didn’t want to admit it. And it was about a fortune teller that Lydia kept going to because the kept telling Lydia she could communicate with the dead and Lydia was hoping to talk to her mother and two sisters who all 3 died on the same night of a fever. Finally, Lydia realized that that wasn’t going to happen, and all kinds of things went wrong, then turned out right.

As to the narration: This was free with KU and the audible was free with the Romance Package, so it didn’t cost me anything if the narrator was bad. However, Virginia Ferguson wasn’t half bad. Her men sounded almost manly so it wasn’t enough to make it unbearable. Occasionally she would forget if it were a man or woman talking but there really wasn’t a cringe-worthy moment for me. I would recommend this novella.

An Incomparable

The fragility of life when a fever or rash can take away an entire family is not so far behind us, as is pointed out toward the beginning of our story. Reared independently in the absence of mother or sisters, our heroine refuses to be the pattern card of propriety idealized by a rigid society whose idea is to self-perpetuate and maintain control of land, wealth and government. But despite some of the darker issues touched on within the plot, author Claudia Stone follows Georgette Heyer's use of gentle humor and comparative absurdity to provide an amusing and captivating tale. Narrator Virginia Ferguson beautifully captures a variety of accents and speech patterns as she distinguishes each character in the tableau.

Historical romance done really well

I have never listened to a historical romance and now I regret that I didn't listen sooner. I loved the narration and the story was done really well. The characters were intriguing and kept me listening.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Fun, short romance

It's been a while since I have read a romance novel, so when the opportunity to listen to this one came along, I took it. I listened to this on a long road trip. It's a fun little book. Fast paced and kept my interest. Fairly clean, not female pornography like man romance novels have become. The only part that bothered me was calling the main character Lady Beaumont. He title is honorary through being the daughter of the Earl, so she would be known as Lady Lydia. She would only be known as Lady Beaumont if she was married to a Lord Beaumont. Easy mistake to make, though! I received a complimentary copy of this book for an unbiased review. The review is my honest opinion.

Clean Historical romance

In this story the two main characters begin as friends before it starts to develop into something more. I liked the author's use of irish mythology and loved the characters. It even had some funny moments.
There is a little mystery and conspiracy that come together towards the end.
Loved it would highly recommend.

A pleasant, lighthearted story

This was a pleasant and lighthearted story.
The characters had a very cute 'friends' relationship before they realized they were in love with each other. It was a lot of fun especially as unexpected competition from an Italian Count complicated the matter further.
I found it refreshing that Lady Lydia grew up in Ireland and she was well versed in Irish myths and legends.
This was a good and very enjoyable story. I will be buying more books by the author.

The narration was very good although I was disappointed that more care wasn't taken with finding the correct pronunciation for the Irish words used in the story. 'Fianna' and 'mac tíre' can be easily found using Google or YouTube.
There were a few strange pronunciations of English words as well which I found distracting e.g. 'valiantly,' 'Gallic' (as in Gallic shrug) and imbecile.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy provided free of charge at my own request.

just ok

the narrator was very good but the story lacked a good plot. would choose again