A review by sierraseawitch
Ne'er Duke Well by Alexandra Vasti

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The aspect of this novel I liked best was that there were actual stakes and consequences to scandal. A lot of historical fiction romances feel as though the stakes for the characters are relatively low. Here, the  question of whether a court of law would deny a guardianship application was real and serious. I greatly appreciated that the characters actions and mistakes would have devastating real-world consequences for those characters. However, things resolved relatively easily at the end of the day. I wish the HEA was more hard-won. 

I do not recommend the audiobook. While the narrator had a great voice, she didn't perform the book to the extent that I was constantly pulled out of the listening experience. Once I even checked to see if the narrator was a pseudonym for an AI voice program. Characters would be specifically described as "gasping" something, and this author would say those lines in a completely normal, unaffected voice. The tone often missed what was happening in the story. I wonder if I would have liked this book more if I had read it as a physical or ebook, rather than an audiobook.
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