Cecilia (A Regency Romance)

Families of Dorset, Book 3

By: Martha Keyes

Narrated by: Stevie Zimmerman

Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

She dreams of marrying a nobleman. Too bad he's only pretending to be one.

Cecilia Cosgrove’s beauty opens doors and hearts everywhere she goes. With a marquess courting her, the status and wealth her family is counting on her to obtain is finally within her reach - until she meets Jacques Levesque, the French nobleman who immediately pegs her as affected and superficial. While piqued and offended, Cecilia secretly begins to wonder whether he might not have a point. 

Poor French émigré Jacques Levesque has been disguised as a French nobleman for almost as long as he can remember, trying his hardest to keep his head down in a society obsessed with rank and high birth. But when Cecilia Cosgrove comes into his life, he finds it hard to maintain his facade - or to want to. 

While Cecilia struggles between the desire to please others and the wish to pursue her own course, Jacques's interest in her provokes a powerful enemy intent on taking him down. With love, acceptance, and the future on the line for them both, Cecilia and Jacques must decide whether a life lived behind a mask is any life at all.

©2019 Martha Keyes (P)2020 Martha Keyes

So-so

I love Martha Keyes books and I really wanted to like this one, but I just couldn't. The love story felt forced. Maybe it was because I didn't care for the main heroine in this book. I didn't care for her in the previous book either.
I had issue with the narrator. I didn't care for her reading. But what bothered me the most was how much the recording echoed. It sounded like it was recorded on a phone in a very big and empty room. It was very distracting.
I hope the next story in the series is more exciting than this one was.

Fair

I wasn't engaged with this third one as much as I was with the first two. Still, it's a fine story if a little dull in some parts. It was good to see Cecilia's character grow. And fun to see previous couples pop in, as well as historical figures mentioned like Lady Caroline. Stevie Zimmerman did an excellent job as usual.

Unmasked!

At the beginning of the book the main characters are wearing pretentious masks but by the end both are revealed and humbled.

Cecelia wears a society mask - spoiled, manipulative, prideful, and expected to marry the best title and wealthy gentleman that she can snare with her beauty, charms and connections.

Jacques wears an impostor mask - entreated as a young child by his father to discard their servitude and take on the wealth, title, lifestyle and family connections of their deceased master.

I think that Cecelia and Jacques connected quickly because they were both hiding - hiding things from themselves, hiding things from society, and hiding things from their families and friends.

What a complicated plot and choice - I wonder what I would have chosen in either of their situations... Conform to family and society's expectations, take whatever opportunities are available even if it's a form of deception, or be true to yourself and honest with yourself and others?

Love this series

I loved how in the book we saw so much growth from Cecilia. I loved how the love of a good man helped her to drop her facade. I thought the narrator did a great job and that this was a great recording of this book.

Delightfully Surprised

Adorable story. I confess going into this book I wasn't confident I would like it since I had not enjoyed Cecilia as a spoiled and superficial character in the previous book. However, I was delightfully surprised by how much I liked her in this novel. Her growth and change was believable and encouraging. Lady Caroline whom I wasn't sure about as a character ended up being quite a necessity character to her growth and change as well. It made me reflect on the many different influences I have in my life and the changes they inspire in me as well. I thought the audiobook was very well done with great accents and male voices. (always a concern for me when listening to a female narrate). This novel was clean in content.

A journey of discovering her true self.

I loved listening to this book. The reader was easy to listen to and did a great job with the different characters. The story was super fun. I enjoyed how Cecilia came to know herself.

Excellent

I really enjoyed this story and the adventurous romance that played throughout the entire storyline. I loved that Cecilia changed and realized her true self. Great narrator.

Clean romance

I LOVED this book! It was so well done. I wasn’t sure how the author would be able to wrap the book up with a happily ever after but she did it and it was AMAZING. The narrator had a great accent and changed her voices for the different characters- she was a pleasure to listen to. I can’t wait for more books in this series!

Intriguing Characters and Excellent Narration

What an ambitious storyline this one was. After reading Isabel, it was hard for me to imagine her being the heroine of any story; she was so full of her own beauty and prowess and the impact that she thereby had on others. My one hope for her prior to this story was that her sister Isabel (from the previous story) seemed to have hope for her...and it was obvious that her parents (particularly her father) were much to blame for the way in which Cecelia conducted herself.

Jacques (in spite of his secrets) was the perfect gentleman and hero. He was certainly the perfect match for Cecelia. Some of the antics of Cecelia and her "unusual friend Caro" were quite outrageous but also added a lot of fun and intrigue to the storyline...and gave Jacques an opportunity to show his courage and heart, as well as perhaps leading to his downfall.

I definitely highly recommend this one. Having Thoroughly enjoyed the narration on Ms. Keyes previous audiobooks in this series, I was initially disappointed to hear that it would be a different narrator for this one. However, I can honestly now say that Stevie Zimmerman was the perfect choice for Cecilia as she was able to perfectly portray both French and British accents.

Clean, Sweet Regency

Cecilia is the third in a series but can be read/listened to as a stand alone. Cecilia initially comes across as a shallow, spoiled debutante. She cares most about how she is perceived and how high she can climb the social ladder. When Cecilia meets Jacques, she first experiences what it's like to be seen for more than a pretty face. Her character arc has the potential for a big shift and Jacques is that hero that I love to see be a part of it. He is steady and stands up for what he believes in.

I enjoyed the narrator's voice and intonation. I think she did well transitioning between character voices; they were distinct and pleasant sounding all around.