A review by winemakerssister
My Darling Duke by Stacy Reid

4.0

An enjoyable re-telling of Beauty and the Beast where the 'beast' is not only disfigured from scars, but also believes himself to be impotent. It's a subject you don't normally see in romances and I applaud the author for tackling it. The MCs were completely likeable - I do like a Regency with a smart wallflower heroine.

Now let's get to the narrator, Mary Sarah. She was just awful. There is a big difference between narrating and acting, and her performance was more in the acting realm than the narrating one. Her delivery was in a breathy whisper, while sometimes swallowing words. I had such a hard time understanding her! I had to slow it down (but not too slow because the word swallowing got less tolerable at slower speeds) and turn up the volume. Often when I am bothered by a narrator, I get used to him/her by the end but that was not the case here. She was terrible up until the last word.