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The Reluctant Duke  By  cover art

The Reluctant Duke

By: G.L. Snodgrass
Narrated by: Johanna Oosterwyk
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Publisher's summary

The last thing wounded veteran Major Thomas Marshal wanted was a title. It wasn't supposed to happen. But duty has a way of pulling a man into things he doesn't want and away from the things he needs.

The only thing Miss Guinevere Harding needs is a safe place to hide. A job as the downstairs maid at Brookshire is the perfect refuge from a frightening past. Or, at least it was until the arrival of the new duke.

Heat and passion pull Thomas and Gwen together, even as society and duty fight to keep them apart. She won't become his mistress and can't become his wife.

Thomas is determined otherwise, even if it costs him everything.

©2015 G.L. Snodgrass (P)2015 G.L. Snodgrass

What listeners say about The Reluctant Duke

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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    80
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    30
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    11
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Performance
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Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
    37
  • 3 Stars
    29
  • 2 Stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Dreadful

This has to be one of the worst novels I've had the misfortune encountering. Bad enough to compel me to write my second book review ever, and my first negative one.

Idiotic, stilted, and hokey plot, supremely shallow character development, and lukewarm narrating make this a torture device worthy of Gitmo. To be fair, the narrator may have been just as bored desperate to be done with it as I, so I will not hold it against her too much. Unlike the narrator, and to my relief, I was not obligated to endure the tedium.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Really?

Any additional comments?

How the heck did this narrator get any more than 1 star from everyone who listened to this book? Every single voice sounds the same, and there's nothing worse than a duke that sounds just like a girl. I listened to 3% and I'm done listening. I can see this happening in a narration from 3 or more years ago but not today. I would NEVER listen to Ms. Snodgrass again if this is the best she can do. I'll finish this book by reading it. I left 3 stars to be fair to the author but you can see my real review on Amazon in a day or so.

I would like to say that the description tells us what the book is about or we can zip over to Amazon and look at reviews. This is AUDIBLE! What we need to review is the narrator. Does he or she suck? Why? Is he or she too nasal-y, too sweet for the kind of book he or she is reading, to gruff, too bland, too robotic, lacks emotion. Is he or she doing nothing but reading the book? Not changing his or her voice for the male and female voices? Is the narrator sounding the same whether she or he is reading a whisper spoken?

Most of us on AUDIBLE don't really care what the book is about. We want to know about the narrator!

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Very poor narrator

First of all, the story wasn't horrid. Unfortunately, the narration was.

The story was passable. Some of the dialogue was choppy. And the terrible narration didn't help. The reader was inconsistent with her accents (where did the Americans come from?) and not very good at "acting" out the parts. And in the long run, that's what the good narrators do.

I finished this but it was far from one of my favorites.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

great entertainment

loved this book. Lots of love and compassion. heart warming. look forward to next book in this series.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars

#1of4. Whole Regency Romancy ~ G. Heyer

#1of4. Whole Regency Romancy ~ G. Heyer
#1 of 4 part series, but a complete story. Audiobook narration is very good, with lots of pitch, rate and vocal variation, thus avoiding the dread sing-songy pattern of some narrators. Appropriately British. Functions as a stand alone, could read in any order, but 1->4 is best.

Story:
Major Thomas Marshal, still injured from war, ends up a peer with a beautiful young housekeeper, Miss Guinevere Harding, who speaks to well and exhibits too much education to have been a house maid/servant for long.

Note to author:
This a bit more snarky humor you can enjoy the popularity of J. Quinn or T. Dare or add more bigger issue sentimal angst and join M. Balogh. A bit more historic political detail and visual description would enrich your books for me.Love your book. Please keep writing.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
Listener received this title free

opem amd honest is best

I appreciated that the duke went above and beyond in humanitarian efforts but I was disappointed he didn't speak up sooner and put his aunt im her place. I did like that Celeste became a supporter after she got to know.Gwen.
Gwen had a severe problem with running her mouth and misunderstandings , and this infuriated me. She was so quick to judge Tom. Tom should have been more forthcoming sooner and maybe he wouldn't have had half the problems with rowdy Gwen. Great ending. I voluntarily listened to a free copy of this and am giving an honest review. The narrator did a good job.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
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Loved it!

I absolutely loved every minute of this audio book! I couldn’t put it down! The story, back story, and characters were amazing. The narrator was a perfect fit for this book!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Listener received this title free

Beautiful love story

This waz a great story with lovable characters and was excellently narrated. It was a clean romance with an HEA.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
Listener received this title free

Definitely an 18+ Steamy Romance

I need to start with the parental rating- it's definitely an 18+ if in video due to the detailed intimate content it would be at least R if not X rated. I don't have a problem with the steamy romances but this one's story was a bit dry and slow, and then ramped up in such a way that wasn't very realistic. The narrator was okay but didn't help with the dry story and was pretty monotone during the more narrative parts of the book.

—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Like listening to a foreign film dubbed with English

While the story may have been decent, the performance reminded me of that awkward expression that you get when actors dub foreign films into English. You know how the expressions seem a little bit off? I also found the accents very confusing. All of this was just too much to keep me listening beyond about halfway.

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