While the Duke Was Sleeping

The Rogue Files

By: Sophie Jordan

Narrated by: Carmen Rose

Sometimes the man of your dreams . . .

Shop girl Poppy Fairchurch knows it’s pointless fantasizing about the Duke of Autenberry. Still, dreams can’t hurt anyone . . . unlike the carriage Poppy spies bearing down upon the unsuspecting duke. After she pulls him to safety, the duke lapses into a coma and Poppy is mistaken for his fiancée. But one person isn’t fooled: his arrogant and much too handsome half-brother, Struan Mackenzie. Soon Poppy isn’t sure what she wants more . . . the fantasy of her duke or the reality of one smoldering Scot who challenges her at every turn.

. . . is not who you think.

An illegitimate second son, Struan may have built an empire and established himself as one of the wealthiest men in Britain, but he knows he will always be an outsider among the ton. Just like he knows the infuriating Poppy is a liar. There’s no way the haughty Duke of Autenberry would deign to wed a working class girl. It doesn’t matter how charming she is. Or tempting. Or how much Struan wants her for himself.

Flat

I struggled through. The narrator was very flat and didn't seem interested in what she was reading. Minimal effort. The author could have fleshed out a direction for the main characters a lot more.

Did stealing this from the 90s make it better?

Poppy: “I’ll admit nothing, you arrogant-“
Struan: “Honest-“
Poppy: “Insufferable-“
Struan: “Irresistible-“
Poppy: “Oh!”

From start to finish, other than giving her a sister and changing this to regency, this is the 1995 movie While You Were Sleeping. But, that helped me give lying Poppy a chance. Normally, I hate schemers and con artists, no matter their allegedly good intentions. Both the movie’s Lucy and this book’s Poppy were charmingly earnest in their unrequited obsession with men they didn’t even know and stumbled adorably into an increasingly complicated farce, first based on lies of omission and then based on desperation.
The shorter book length and phenomenal narration helped too, along with the majority light tone.

Minor downsides for me included the not-cozy, but still on-the-tame-end get togethers, shamefully wasting Struan’s delicious Scottish accent (I could feel the smolder burning from my earbuds to my … toes … yes, going to stick with toes). The author laid the pity parties on rather thick: his pity party for growing up poor and a rejected by blow, and her pity party for being the poor and plain Jane older sister.

This was a frothy enough listen that I’ve wishlisted the next book in the series.
It too is on the shorter end, so I’ll wait patiently for a sale and hope for more popcorn romance.

I did not want to stop listening. At the end of each chapter I didn’t want to pause.

Carmen Rose is one of my favorite performer of romantic English/Scottish stories. Her performance of the characters voices keeps one wanting to hear more of the story.

Cute and steamy

Yes if you’ve seen the movie you can definitely predict what’s going to happen in the book, but I thought it was well done. The ridiculousness is funny and the characters are charming. I do wish the sisters had more of a moment at the end where they addressed their issues, but the small one they have is fine. I just wanted more. Overall fun escapism reading. With lots and lots of steam.

While you were sleeping spin

I really loved the story. However it was much like the movie, While you were sleeping. Coma etc.