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The Perfect Rake

Merridew Series, Book 1

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The Perfect Rake

By: Anne Gracie
Narrated by: Heather Wilds
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A phony engagement turns into real passion in this delightful Regency romance from award-winning author Anne Gracie.

Fate has lavished beauty on the Merridew sisters - that is, all save the eldest. But plain Prudence bears no grudge; she loves her four beautiful sisters infinitely. So when their abusive grandfather is laid up with an injury, she seizes the opportunity to concoct an ingenious plan that will allow all five of them to escape the clutches of their legal guardian. All it will take is a little matrimonial deception....

A renowned rake, Gideon, Lord Carradice, has a way of making ladies swoon. But when Prudence arrives at his doorstep and mistakes him for his cousin, the Duke, it is Gideon who's infatuated. The delightful spitfire claims she and the Duke are engaged - although a taller tale was never told. In spite of the lies, Gideon is so taken with charming Prudence that he's eager to join her game, especially if it will award him a stolen kiss or two. Now, Prudence's plot is about to go terribly, albeit deliciously, awry....

Contains mature themes.

©2005 Anne Gracie (P)2020 Tantor Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Regency Regency Romance Romance Funny Witty
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A well written regency romance with scandal, intrigue and drama in good measure.
Great Uncle Oswald delivered many laugh out loud moments and Prudence was equal parts coquettish and innocent as well as forthright and bold.
Really enjoyable story which was mostly well delivered by Heather Wilds, but she has an annoying tendency to run from on paragraph or character to the next without pause, which results in some confusion while the brain registers that she is now delivering the story from another characters point of view.
That aside, I really enjoyed and would definitely recommend this book.

Worth the time

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Not a bad yarn, fairly formulaic but actually genuinely funny in places - mainly at the expense of the dreaded Otterbotter - which lifted it. So, despite the heroine being a bit too saintly and the 'Rake' naturally really having a heart of gold and the sometimes eye-rollingly contrived scenarios, I was still engaged enough to want to listen to the end but, my heavens, it took a long time to get there. I enjoy listening to long stories - but this had a lot of repetitive soul-searching for padding. It really needed some ruthless editing.

The greatest problem, however, was the narrator. She had a very peculiar delivery, an odd cadence and a complete lack of (or oddly placed) emphasis that mostly made her sound bored and, as another reviewer noted, sometimes made it difficult to tell when we had switched pov or if time had passed. When actually voicing the characters, she had a bit more life, but the narrative passages were just downright weird. As for the love scenes ... they were tediously long to begin with but having them read by someone who sounded like they would rather be hanging out their washing made them positively excrutiating.

In summary, not a terrible story to while away the hours (the many, many, hours) but I could not possibly consider gritting my teeth again to listen to anything else with this narrator.

About 5 hours too long.

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This story is ruined by a narrator that although she has a pleasant and refined voice, reads every sentence with the same inflection. There is no emphasis on the important words leaving you constantly aware she is mindlessly reading without involvement.

Terrible narration

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It surprised me many times and I laughed out loud as well as cried. I want to warn people that there is domestic abuse and reference to sexual assault. I did still very much enjoy this story. 5/5

Wonderful

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This a delightful romance with twists and turns and some excitement and sadness as well - and of course happiness. It has some ugly issues to work through but nicely done - well written and narrator is fine - i will listen to again some day
This is the fist edition in the Merridew sisters tales, and although you can listen to each book on its own it is great to follow in order and the characters develop through the books. A very good series to listen to all. i just love Anne Gracie and her books.

Loved this story - very interesting

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