In the Garden of Temptation

By: Cynthia Wicklund

Narrated by: Helen Lloyd

Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's Summary

Honor - Adam Stanford, Earl of Ashworth, has always done the right thing.

Desire - Lady Catherine Bourgeault, lonely and rejected, longs to experience passion, to love just once in her life.

Treachery - The Baron Bourgeault: to what extremes will an obsessive, unstable man go to achieve his own dark ends?

Seduction - In the face of a love that will not be denied, Adam and Catherine risk everything to be together.

Betrayal - What price must Catherine and Adam pay for a forbidden love in a time when honor meant everything?

©2010 Cynthia Wicklund (P)2012 Cynthia Wicklund

Captivating Romance

In the Garden of Temptation was the second book of Wicklund's that I read. (The first was Lord of Always -- a wonderful romance with a paranormal element.) I'm thrilled that In the Garden of Temptation, a riveting romance, is now available as an audio book.

Helen Lloyd's proper, starchy English accent lends itself to this story full of neat twists and turns.

Adam Stanford, Earl of Ashworth, is a man who is honorable and above reproach. He's always done the right thing. Then he meets the beautiful -- and married -- Lady Catherine Bourgeault, the beautiful, young wife of one of the most disreputable men in England.

Stunned by a passion and a love that no amount of conscience can deny, Catherine and Adam risk everything for a few moments of stolen bliss. Unknown to them, every event from their introduction to the consummation of their love has been orchestrated by Catherine's evil, demented husband for his own dark purpose.

When Baron Bourgeault finally springs his trap, Catherine is forced to break Adam's heart in order to save him. The baron whisks her away to his crumbling castle in the country. As he sinks deeper and deeper into his psychosis, Catherine knows that her life, and all she holds dear, may be forfeit unless the power of redeeming love can save her.

Wicklund has a way with women characters and the knack for presenting them as likable and honorable even when they may not be engaged in honorable actions. I understand these women, and I like them. Her talent with characters extends to men. In this book, she takes an honorable man and makes him behave dishonorably, but we don't care! We still like him. We understand how he is in the grip of a love he never expected to feel. We see his battle with his conscience.

Wicklund's book is captivating and Lloyd's narration brings the book to life.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Excellent character development

In this book, even the villain triggers pity....
It was a good read where I rooted for everyone, secondary characters, Villain, hero and heroine.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

Painfully Romantic

This book is fabulous. Such twists and turns and each character is slowly unveiled and just when you think you know everything you don't. Not super mysterious but very romantic and believable for that time period.

Catherine's drive to do as she is bid despite her own desires to act otherwise is typical of the time period but they don't make her overly dramatic. The author created the perfect point of fiction with reality in all of the character's behavior.

She could have had fights going throughout the end of the book but instead chose the more realistic approach to the issue at hand - Catherine and Lord Ashworth and made it a triumph in the end by default.

Wonderful!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

CLASSIC LOVE STORY

This was a fantastic story, the twists and turns were just incredible. I made sure to do things in which I could occupy myself to keep listening. What more can you ask for when love, betrayal, scandal and misunderstandings that are done properly make a great book. Can't complain about the narration, was great!

One of the best books I have listened to this year.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A Good Start

Would you listen to In the Garden of Temptation again? Why?

This was a good start to the series. Would probably listen to the book again since the narrator is Ok

Who was your favorite character and why?

I liked both main characters in this story. I even developed a fondness for the villain

Good Story, Horrible narration!!!

Any additional comments?

I really like the "Garden" books by Cynthia Wicklund and have them on my kindle when I want to read instead of listen to a story. With that being said the narration of this book is just awful. The mispronunciation of words by the narrator is distracting to the whole experience. One example is the work antipathy. It is pronounced an-ti-path-ee by the narrator. Don't they have someone who checks these things like and editor or producer???? Totally ruins the story for me.

Where do I start?

What would have made In the Garden of Temptation better?

I am sorry that I bought this book based on the 3 raving reviews! I liked the premise of the story and where the author could have taken the characters and their lives.I didn't feel there were any development of the characters nor any real grit to why they did the things they did.Maybe I am needy or I like more of a story and character interactions, details, background info....something, anything...There were so many times while listening to this book I actually spoke out loud and said "You've Got to be Kidding Me!!!" whether it was from the lame phrases spoken from Adam to Catherine, Adam to his mother or Adam to his best friend or Catherine's brother (who hadn't seen his sister in 7 years) to Adam about how Catherine has suffered enough when he didn't have a clue about what had been happening to her!! I felt this whole book was a waste of my time I even choose to listen to my car radio on my drive to town instead of the book!!

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

There were no interesting aspects in this story, every part of it was just so glossed over in details, I felt is was rushed! Meaning you are just drug along through the story and at times I had to even replay parts because it just skips through days, months and years events without making it clear.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Helen Lloyd?

I don't like to speak ill of any narrator but I just wish Helen would have just tried to use a little bit of change in her voice so you could tell whether it was a man or a woman speaking....
Oh and I had to go and read the Catherine's Bourgeault last name in the Info. because when read, it sounded simply like "BoGo" I would assume there has to be a slight "r" sound.

1 of 3 people found this review helpful