Jane Stewart's Reviews > When You Give a Duke a Diamond

I was repeatedly annoyed with the story. I was also annoyed with hearing the audiobook narrator’s breaths.

The premise of Juliette being a courtesan, the why, and her actions were ridiculous. Her actions did not fit her motivations – a violation of writing rules. I describe it in Spoiler below.

There were some plot events that could have been interesting, but they were not developed. Instead most of the story is internal angst and pondering. She tells him something false and then is angsty and hurt because he believes it. He is angsty and hurt because he believes it.

There is child abuse and a disturbing scene killing a puppy. I don’t mind bad parents being the bad guys, but this was too troubling for me.

(view spoiler)[
Juliette is married to abusive man Oliver. She pretends to have affairs with other men so Oliver will divorce her. He does. That’s the only part that made sense to me. The rest does not. Now Juliette’s dream is to fall in love, get married, and have children. But her actions don’t fit her motivations. She tells the world that she is a courtesan so that she can be free to attend parties and have fun. Then she falls in love with Wil. She wants to marry him, but she won’t be honest with him. She knows he is troubled about her being a courtesan, so why does she continue lying and telling him she is a courtesan? Then when he does not propose marriage, she is furious, angry, and angsty and runs away so he can’t find her.

Frequently during the book he is cold and distant and calls her a whore or courtesan. And then she has all this hurt because of it, but she never corrects him.

A man attacks Juliette. The gardener hears her screams and comes to save her. The attacker runs away. Now there is a big mystery about who the attacker was. Juliette could not describe him because he was behind her. So why didn’t they ask the gardener to describe the attacker? Soon after that, Juliette goes somewhere alone and is attacked again. I’m willing to accept occasional stupidity, but not on top of all this other stuff.
(hide spoiler)]

AUDIOBOOK NARRATOR - Lucy Rivers:
I didn’t notice them at first, but later in the book I could hear the narrator’s BREATHS. They were annoying and distracting. She needs to use a different microphone, or do something in the editing process to remove the breaths. Other than that she was good.

DATA:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Unabridged audiobook length: 10 hrs and 46 mins. Swearing language: mild. Sexual language: none to mild. Number of sex scenes: 5. Setting: Regency period England. Book copyright: 2012. Genre: regency romance.