A Sanctuary for Soulden

The Lords of Bucknall Club, Book 4

By: J. A. Rock, Lisa Henry

Narrated by: Oscar Delaney

Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

He wasn't meant for a quiet life.

Philip Winthrop, Viscount Soulden, is a fop. An idle popinjay with nothing more on his mind than how to best knot his cravat. He definitely doesn’t spy against the French. Or arrange hasty weddings. Or occasionally commandeer the navy. And he certainly doesn’t seek out mortal danger in order to combat his pervasive ennui. It’s all just a big misunderstanding when he’s shot by a French intelligence officer during a merry riverside chase. And what a wonderful bit of quick thinking to pretend to be a corpse in order to get himself taken to the local surgeon's autopsy cellar. The French will never find him there. If the French are even looking for him. Which they’re not. Now he just needs to locate a way out before this surgeon fellow attempts to dissect him.

He'd rather deal with the dead than the living.

Surgeon Edmund Fernside does his best to heal the living, but in truth, he'd much rather look into the gaping chest cavity of a corpse than into the startling blue eyes of a...corpse that just climbed off his autopsy table. Well then. Lord Soulden is clearly a man with some complicated secrets. But with the French in hot pursuit and a rather brutal gunshot wound, Soulden’s not going anywhere anytime soon, and Fernside discovers that he enjoys the pleasure of his company. In more ways than one.

Now, trusting each other could mean the difference between life and death.

As Soulden learns to be still for the first time in his life, Fernside wonders if perhaps it’s time to spread his wings a little. They can only hide from the outside world—and from their pasts—for so long before the secrets they’ve uncovered about each other strain the growing attraction between them. Each man must decide whether a life of comfortable lies is preferable to one full of difficult truths. And whether the sanctuary they’ve created together is something worth fighting for.

A Sanctuary for Soulden is the fourth audiobook in the Lords of Bucknall Club series, where the Regency meets m/m romance. The Lords of Bucknall Club books can be listened to as standalones but are best enjoyed in order.

©2022 J.A. Rock & Lisa Henry (P)2022 Tales Told LLC

Loved Soulden and Fernside!

I loved Soulden and Fernside together and the story had so many interesting aspects to it. There's the medical aspect and how doctors went about trying to study anatomy at this time (around 1816-ish, I think), a small amount of what was going on with the French and the English after the French king was restored to his throne after Napoleon was defeated, and then the emotional parts of the story, like Soulden dealing with the loss of the most important people in his life and then finding a new lease on life after meeting Fernside, a gentleman doctor who works in the slums of London trying to do his part to improve medical knowledge regardless of the risks involved. I loved the side character of Fernside's loyal but superstitious assistant too, and it was wonderful to see the characters from the previous books of the series as they all had a part in helping save and protect Soulden and Fernside from the agents trying to kill Soulden.

Oscar Delaney does an amazing job with the narration. He is so talented with so many different types of accents and brings so much life to all the characters that he's always an auto buy for me under his other pseudonym, so I'm glad I found this one too! I highly recommend it!

slow start

I was disappointed by how slow the beginning of the story was. Too fast at the same time. The story just didn't develop. I think the characters could have been more. The plot was basic. Great performance though.