Romancing the Duke

Castles Ever After

By: Tessa Dare

Narrated by: Carmen Rose

As the daughter of a famed author, Isolde Ophelia Goodnight grew up on tales of brave knights and fair maidens. She never doubted romance would be in her future, too. The storybooks offered endless possibilities.

And as she grew older, Izzy crossed them off. One by one by one.

Ugly duckling turned swan?　

Abducted by handsome highwayman?　

Rescued from drudgery by charming prince?

No, no, and . . . Heh.

Now Izzy’s given up yearning for romance. She’ll settle for a roof over her head. What fairy tales are left over for an impoverished twenty-six year-old woman who’s never even been kissed?

This one.

Can't stop the blushes!

It took me a bit to get into the reader's style. She reads the heroine very wispy and it made the story take itself far more seriously than I think it does. It is a fun romance with some nice tongue in cheek moments, some gothic horror stirred in, and a comic con crowd for the regency era. The chemistry between the characters is delicious and blush inducing. I enjoyed the book and found it to be a great time passer.

A perfectly charming, funny and excellent story

Perhaps one of the best romantic stories I have ever read. Wounded people to be sure, woven around a story of a writer of children’s books and an old dilapidated castle.

The banter is exceptionally witty and humorous. The characters delightful and funny. This is one not to be missed.

You've Heard This One Already

Typical plot for an "historical" romance; scarred aristocrat (literally and figuratively) and plucky heroine save each other and have highly descriptive (and crudely written) sex along the way. Although this is rather cute and kept me entertained, it is neither original or even all that memorable.

The best part of Tessa Dare's writing is her dialogue, which is fast paced and fresh. Where she falters is in the historical setting. Just because there are petticoats and candles doesn't make it truly historical. This same plot could easily be retold in 2021 with only a few minor changes...make the Duke a tech billionaire and the heroine a blog writer, and it would not be significantly different.

In addition, although the narration was fine, there seemed to be production issues, where every hour or so, the audio became extremely fuzzy sounding. None of my other recent listens have had this problem. Also, Audible, please bring back paragraphs to the review format.

very funny and original story, very well told

hilarious dialogue, great characters, anothr great book by tessa dare told by a great narrator.

love it

love it . a good listen funny and heartwarming. i never listen to a historical story enjoyable.