Seduction & Scandal

By: Charlotte Featherstone

Narrated by: Helen Stern

Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

With the scandalous nature of her birth to live down, Isabella Fairmont dreams of a proper marriage—even if a passionless one. She saves her deepest desires for the novel she dares to pen, wherein a handsome lord with dark powers seduces her. But then her courtship with an appropriate suitor is threatened by the sudden attentions of the reclusive Earl of Black… whose pale blue eyes and brooding sensuality are exactly as she described in her book.

Isabella tries to resist the mysterious Earl. Yet as he pursues her, with inexplicable knowledge of her past and kisses that consume her, Isabella fears she will succumb.

If only the earl could tell Isabella the truth. With very real, and treacherous, thieves endangering her life, Black will need to protect Isabella from the very people she trusts the most.

©2011 Charlotte Featherstone (P)2011 Harlequin Enterprises

Hot Air

It could have been good. It was annoying though, simply because it focused on a book she was writing and not this book. Plus, there is a great deal of people talking about sex, but no one actually having it. Yawn. Also, if she said the word passion again I would have liked to the other 400 times she said it.

Greatly enjoyed!

First read from author and she left me quite impressed! I'm looking forward to more from her starting with the next in this series.

Performance was as well wonderful!

This is reminiscent of one of my favorite authors in my youth, Victoria Holt, but the adult content Ms. Holt did not include in her books. It has a pseudo Gothic Victorian vibe which I adore. This had everything except humor, which is just about the only thing that could have possibly made this read even better.

Ms. Featherstone did an exceptional job of weaving an engaging tale with mystery, likable characters, plot and rare to find incredibly executed deliciously sensual eroticism that burns to a boil throughout the book. She managed what most authors cannot in this day and age because mostly come across raunchy and crass. I highly recommend this book, narrator and author!

Jane Eyre-esque gothic romance à la Harlequin

No spoilers within.

If you like Jane Eyre type gothic romance novels where the main characters actually go between the sheets, in a very descriptive, direct non-suggestive kind of way, then this is the book for you!

Which words come to mind when reflecting back on this book? Gothic romance, scandal, sex, mystery.

If you aren't familiar with the gothic-type romance novel, you may think it's cheesy. But if you've read Jane Eyre, you won't... not too much anyways.

I could not get to the second book fast enough!!!

OMG... I cannot wait to read more from Charlotte Featherstone!!! The way she is able to put to words the feelings she is expressing in her writing is remarkable!! I cannot even think of another author to compare her to, Christine Feehan would be the closest but I have to say Charlotte Featherstone is one author I will read for as long as she writes!!

Simply Remarkable!

I think this was a very surprising take on the Knights Templar and those who guard their treasures. Also we have a female romance writer for a heroine. I did get a lil confuse at first because Death was so similiar to Black, but alas as was revealed he was Death or Death was Black....there I go again. LOL. The story was very entertaining and a definite period romance. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The narrator did an excellent job, she didn't butcher the male voices at all.

Story: ok, Narration: not so much

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I listened to Pride and Passion by the same author before listening to this story and thought it was good. When I purchased this this one I didn't realize it was a different narrator. What a huge difference it made. Even though I really want to know how this ends, I may just need to pick up a copy on my kindle because I can't trudge through this anymore.

Very slow beginning

Both the plot and narration were extremely dramatic and mystical in the beginning, nearly causing me to put it away. The pieces started to come together by the ending.

Excellent book, strange narrator

The book is WONDERFUL. I got these out of order (this is the first in the series as far as I can tell). The story is captivating and so full of characters and plot and intrigue. It is really a good book. The Narrator does wonderful male voices, which is rare because women often end up sounding like count chocula when they try to do the male voice. The issue I have is with the heroine's voice, she sounds like she is from the streets with a cockney accent. It's not at ALL how I imagine she would sound. All the other voices are wonderful, but the accent she uses for Isabella is distracting to put it mildly.

The narrator was terrible..

I just can't finish this boring book. There's soooo much filler and I just kept skimming AND worse than that is the awful narration. Everyone sounded alike. During sex it sounded like 2 women, and that's ok if I'm reading a lesbian romance, but I'm not. Even though the reader was an ok reader she did nothing to change the tone of her voice when changing whoever spoke. The men sounded just like women, even when the book described the hero's voice as deep and husky. I finally skipped from page 112 to 375 just to see how it ended. And it didn't really end if you wanted to know what happened to the "magical" items. It was real close to being a cliffhanger. I will not be reading anything else from this author since her books are too wordy.

Boring

What would have made Seduction & Scandal better?

A different reader. The story line was slow and boring

Has Seduction & Scandal turned you off from other books in this genre?

no I love historic books

What didn’t you like about Helen Stern’s performance?

no variation for characters

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

no