Lord of Darkness

By: Elizabeth Hoyt

Narrated by: Emma Taylor

Length: 12 hrs

Publisher's summary

Three men who made a sacred pact years before: to defend and protect the innocent of St. Giles - no matter the cost to themselves...

Since the death of his first wife, Godric St. John has devoted his nights to protecting the innocent of London disguised as the notorious Ghost of St. Giles. When Lord Griffin Reading discovers Godric's secret double life he presents him with an offer he can't refuse, and Godric finds himself married to a young - and pregnant - stranger.

Two years ago Lady Margaret "Megs" Reading lost both her lover and her unborn child - but not before being forced into a marriage of convenience with Godric St. John, an older, dour gentleman she barely knew. No longer content to spend her days at her husband's country estate, Megs leaves for London to get the two things she wants most: to find and bring to justice the man who murdered Roger, her lover, and to have a child of her own. But in order to conceive a baby, she's going to have to seduce the husband she hasn't seen since their marriage breakfast. (Maiden Lane, Book 5)

©2013 Elizabeth Hoyt (P)2013 Hachette Audio

A good (not great) romance but BAD narrator

I had been enjoying the Maiden Lane series but this one was brought low by Ms. Taylor's narration. At first I thought I was just not used to her character interpretations and I needed to be patient but... no. It's just really bad.

She did an OK job on the women but she just sucked the life out of the men! Ms. Taylor shoved her male voices so far up her nose that it's a wonder she could breathe! They were read with such odd, extreme haughtiness that they were sucked dry of every bit of their charm and wit. Every line was delivered with exactly the same drawling, nasal arrogance no matter what they were doing, whether rescuing orphans or threatening the Ghost or trading amusing banter with a woman or ordering tea or making passionate love they all sounded mostly bored and half asleep. .

Ms. Hoyt is a fine writer with a wonderful imagination and this story, while not her best, was still quite engaging and entertaining. I cared about the characters, but changing the narrator in the middle of the series - especially changing it to THIS narrator - was a terrible mistake. Maiden Lane's inhabitants and visitors and the people of St. Giles were not IN this version of this book.

I'm ready for Duke of Midnight and I"m a little worried about Claudia Harris, but the sample provided seems a great improvement over Ms. Taylor so we'll see....

Narrator just not the same.

Not that I thought the narrator wasn't good, I just prefer the original narrator. So glad she comes back!

Liked parts about the snatchers

i think this tried to be sexy, however i found Megs super annoying. I wanted her to shut up because she made no sense. Godric was into saving people because he could not save Clara- very sad.
I felt no real romatic attraction because Megs constantly had Roger in her head. Hated her. Wanted to, hear what he was thinking.

WHAT A SHAME... A GOOD BOOK RUINED BY NARRATION

Firstly, let's have some culpability here - so whoever's to blame at Hachette Audio/Audible for choosing Emma Taylor to narrate this book should be transferred to a Janitorial job because they obviously don't know their job.

I have loved all the previous books in the series and had this one on a pre-order, I couldn't wait - but unfortunately, and purely because of the narration, I found this one to be hard going - I even listened to a few chapters, stopped, listen to another book, then came back to this and I've never done this with any of Ms Hoyt's books before.

So, for this reason, it's very hard to judge whether it's been a really good book because the voices of the characters (as we, the listeners know) can make or break a listen and, as I seemed to dislike most of the characters purely by the way they were portrayed by ET, it's so difficult to get passed this. However I must and did, there's tragedy, loss, danger but then comes awakenings, laughter, desire, joy and, of course, passion. As with all the Maiden Lane series there's a good plot with thrills along the way.

Worth a credit? Yes because I'm invested in the series but please please please go back to Ashford MacNab and, as for ET - well she can go home.

Annoying narration ruins an otherwise great story

I was so looking forward to this installment, and when I saw that the narrator was no longer Ashford McNab I was worried. But I had some faith having listened to other series that had changed narrators and really enjoyed them, thought the different narrations added to the books depth. That was not the case here. The narrator sounds like a snotty older woman pretending to be a teenager with a giant brick stuck in an inconvenient place.

Her voices are terrible, if I had not listened to the other books in this series I would have ended up hating several of the characters,Temperance from the first book sounded like she was constantly smelling cat litter. Hero sounded like she was a timid bird and Lazarus, Lord Caire sounded ridiculous. I don't think there was a single male voice that sounded convincing or enjoyable.

At times I felt like she was in a rush to get through the book and at other times she would slow down to a crawl. Conversations were bunched, paragraphs became run on sentences. She had issues with pronunciation, and you could tell she didn't have a clue about the story.

I am tempted to return the audio book. I will most definitely not pick up the next audio book in this series if she is narrating it, not unless she gets some reading skills.

If there really was a need for a narrator change could it at least have been a good one? There are so many to choose from.

I think this will be the second time I have not wanted to finish a good story because of the narration.

The story is good, the characters are some of my favorites and Elizabeth Hoyt is entertaining and has fast become one of my go to romance authors. I will be buying the book in a different format and hoping that the publisher gets a different narrator for the next book in this series.

I am not happy that I am giving this book so few stars and that it has nothing to do with the story and everything to do with the narration. The whole point of an audio book is to be swept away in a story telling, not be driven to tears of boredom, frustration and annoyance.

Some tips for the narrator, try to sound less bored by the material, try not to sound like you are better than the material you are given, speak like you care about the people you are reading too. Speak with passion, and even pacing, pause between sentences and if you cannot do voices don't do voices, just speak with slight inflections to help the listener get the idea that a different person is talking.

Anyway, I think I have expressed my dislike for the narration enough. Buy the book in kindle or hardbound form, forgo this format at least unless they get a new narrator for it.

Another brilliant installment

**If you haven't read the previous books, then this has spoilers for those books**

Another excellent addition to the Maiden Lane series. This still remains one of my favorite series of all time. I can't wait for "Duke of Midnight."

We first met Godric St. John's in "Wicked Intentions," the first novel in this brilliant series, as the scholarly friend of Lord Caire. At the time, Godric was suffering through his beloved wife Clara's illness, standing by helpless to do anything about it. Her inevitable death pushes him into further isolation from those around him and he is eventually content to live out the rest of his days serving as the Ghost of St. Giles.

We are introduced to Margaret Reading in "Notorious Pleasure" as the spunky younger sister of Griffin Reading. In the last book, "Thief of Shadows," her clandestine affair ended with an unplanned pregnancy and the death of her lover, putting Lady Margaret in a difficult predicament.
To spare her the social repercussions of being an unwed mother, the ever resourceful Griffin blackmails Godric into wedding her. Because he has no choice on the matter and because he felt that the marriage would remain a contractual one, Godric acquiesces.

Fast forward two years and Margaret, who was sent to live in their country estate and who has since miscarried her first child, travels to London to see her husband so that she could convince him to consummate their marriage in hopes that she will become pregnant again.

I loved the way this story unfolded. Margaret and Godric are so emotionally scarred by the loss of their beloveds that they feel a huge sense of betrayal at the prospect of sleeping with each other. Although their characteristics contrast each other, their emotional despairs bring them in alignment and allows each individual's strength to aid in the other person eventually reconciling their loss. Margaret's fierce determination once her mind has been set and Godric's gentleness and compassion leads to the eventual happy ending that both characters deserve. This story is beautiful, heartfelt, and passionate.

I loved seeing the other characters, although I have yet to see Charming Mickey since the third book and I'm beginning to lose hope, but Hoyt makes up for it with recurring cast members that have yet to shine in their tale. I can't wait for the next story. Artemis has always intrigued me with the subtle way she defies her nauseatingly superficial yet entertainingly funny cousin, Penelope. Also, it's about time the brooding Maximus find a match and although it would be hilarious to pair him with Penelope and see that relationship unravel before it had a chance to begin, I like the idea of the quiet yet strong Artemis and Maximus more.

Narrator: Emma Taylor
Performance: 3/5
I have to say that I may be biased because the whole reason I found the Maiden Lane series was by looking through the other books narrated by the talented Ashford McNab. Needless to say I was sadly disappointed to find another narrator reading the Maiden Lane series and it did dampen my experience a bit.

Although Taylor does a fine job with accents, her pace was off and inconsistent. I generally listen to audiobooks at 1.5x speed and she was either too slow at normal speed or almost too fast and choppy at 1.5x speed. Also she kept pronouncing Godric's last name incorrectly; splitting the name into two words "Saint John" as opposed to "SIN-jun." Overall, I don't think other people would notice or mind.

Terrible narration

Everyone had the same snarky raspy drawling voice. It was painful to listen to and I love this story

Challenging narration

Love the series- premise and characters - but this narrator can’t hold a candle to Ashford McNab. The voice, phrasing and inflections really detracted from the book.

Lord of Darkness Maiden Lane Book 5

Elizabeth Hoyt has done the amazing job as she alway knowns how to do a classic like no other. She bring Danity with each character that creates. Only the very nature of what the story and time can show. When she does historical fiction to the pint of accuracy that goes with time. Thew way she was able to discuss the characters of the Hallequin are fascinating and enthusiastic enjoyable. Agin without letting them know about the other. When they re out and where they are at a particular point in time. But somehow they did their job to the public and see to their community needs.

Good Story the narration could have been better

Where does Lord of Darkness rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I love Elizabeth Hoyt and will keep buying her books. Not sure she has anything to say about who does the narration.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

Not much the way the narrator pronounced some of the words was irritating and would avoid any books read by this narrator unless it was an author I loved.