Deceived by a Duke

An All's Fair in Love Novella

By: Erin Knightley

Narrated by: Natasha Soudek

Length: 3 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's Summary

As the niece of an earl, Elizabeth Abbington knows all about the stifling expectations and responsibilities placed upon peers of the realm. She has no desire to marry into that kind of life. Instead she dreams of traveling abroad, where she can put her talent for languages to good use. When her dear friend invites her on a trip to Spain, Libby jumps at the chance to begin her adventure.

After his younger brother loses a small fortune on the turn of a card, Philip Dain, Duke of Gillingham, decides an intervention is in order. Determined to keep Nigel from falling into the lifestyle that ultimately destroyed their father, Philip offers a deal: If his brother can live in anonymity for a month with him in Spain, Philip will pay his debts outright. By stripping them of the privileged status they've always known and the negative influence of Nigel's friends, Philip hopes, the trip will help turn his brother around.

What Philip doesn't expect is how much he will relish the freedom of shedding his title, if only for a while. When his lack of understanding of the language becomes an issue, Libby comes to his aid. As she falls into the role of their informal interpreter, Libby sees the real him, which makes the growing attraction between them all the more heady. But as love blossoms under the Spanish sun, so, too, does his uncertainty of what will happen when she discovers she's been...Deceived by a Duke.

©2014 Erin Knightley (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Torture.

This is probably a good story. I know it's by a good author, but she chose the wrong narrator. Slow drawl, trying to mimic the British upper class, and EMphsis on SYLLables like reading a POem in a singsong manner. She made the story drag with...long...pauses...in.. SENtences...where...noooo...PAUses...
should...BE. I guess she thought the sultry tone was appropriate, but her narration ruined it for me. I had to stop early in the tale, before I ran screaming, away from the torture.
I listened to as much as I could stand, and when I noticed I still had 2 hours and 55 minutes to endure, I thought, "I can't. I can't listen to almost 3 more hours of this."
So, I have made note of her name and will never select another audio book she has narrated. My advice to her: pick up the pace, cut out the melodramatic delivery, and change your name.
I will just read the rest of the story on my Kindle.

Lovely

What a sweet story. A little slow moving but I really enjoyed listening! I loved the ending!

Good story but hard to listen

Speeding it to 1.35 helped but still bad narrator, couldn't differentiate the characters voices

Short story done well

This was a lovely short story that was a nice break from a 8-10 hour read. I enjoyed it very much

Narrator Not Good

The narrator of this story was terrible! If she talked any slower I would have lost my mind. She made it hard to follow the story.

Sweet and Simple...

...and sometimes, that is exactly what I want and need. This is the type of Regency or Coventry romance that I read as a teen and beyond, and I wish I could find more of them on Audible. So many are 10+ hours long and full of sex scenes. I am not opposed to nor offended by that, but sometimes I just want the sweet love story.

Absolutely beautiful, best read for me this year!

Absolutely amazing 👏 😍 ❤️ I will soon listen 🎶 to again. The narrative was very good too. 👍 thumbs up!

So sweet

Philip didn't mean to deceive the young lady with the sparkling personality he met while trying to rein in his younger brother's bad habits. It just kind of happened. After all, it was wonderful not having young ladies thrown in his path constantly because he's a duke.

Libby didn't think she would fall in love while accompanying her friend on her friend's honeymoon (still wondering why the new hubby allowed that). How hurt she was to discover she had been fooled. Their HEA was achieved in the end, with minimal pomp and circumstance.

The narrator gave a crisp performance. Very well done.

Play at 1.5 to 2 times speed b4 reviewing narrator

I played this at twice the speed and it was lovely. Narrator is not the problem, it's the 1.0 speed being only half the speed anyone normally speaks. The story is sweet: titled people falling in love for themselves without knowing their status first.

Short and sweet

Nice romance with minimal drama, keeping it more in line with how someone might truly act. Decent narration. I usually listen to much longer books, but this was a nice change.