The Wicked Duke Audiobook By Madeline Hunter cover art

The Wicked Duke

The Wicked Trilogy, Book 3

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The Wicked Duke

By: Madeline Hunter
Narrated by: Lulu Russell
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Third in the roguishly intriguing series by the New York Times best-selling author of Tall, Dark, and Wicked and His Wicked Reputation.

She appeals to his wicked inclinations, but he never expects she might snare his heart….

Suspected of his brother's murder, Lancelot Hemingford, Duke of Aylesbury, was forced to give up his hell-raising habits in London for the anonymity of quiet country living. So, when an opportunity arises to clear his name in exchange for proposing to the niece of a neighbor, he sees no choice but to accept. Plus, seducing the reluctant maiden will be a most intriguing challenge.

As Marianne Radley is dependent on her uncle, she must accept the Duke's marriage proposal at her family's request, despite her belief he is irredeemably wicked. But along with marrying him, she intends to sniff out the duke's unsavory secrets and expose them to the world: a plan that would be flawless were it not for one minor detail - even she, with all her determination, is not immune to the charms of a rakish duke.

©2016 Madeline Hunter (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Historical Historical Fiction Regency Heartfelt
Excellent Storyline • Interesting Characters • Beautiful Voice • Strong Heroine • Clever Mystery • Satisfying Trilogy
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She made Lance sound like a pain sodden soul. I couldn’t hear his voice half the time because he spoke so deeply. I really enjoyed Mary Jane Wells from the first book in this series. Having made that comment, the rest of the characters were decent. But the main character needs to be heard and understood. Not sound like a person suffering from hemorrhoid

Have to comment on the narrator.

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The writer has interesting historical tidbits. The mystery of who killed the Duke’s brother was fairly seamless. The point is I thought this book, had I read it as a book instead of listening to it might have enjoyed it more.

The narrator had a beautiful voice, she can be a great reader, but when she was the Duke, her accent, her gruff voice turned him into a crotchety old man. All those love scenes were with a crotchety old man. I tried on occasion to imagine the words in my readers mind, where I would have turned him into a gorgeously voiced man in his thirties, but trying to override it was just too difficult. I’m not sure why so many female narrators add quavers and nasally upper crust accents to the heroes voice, other than possibly they disrespect the genre? They want to make the love scene’s or maybe the heroes ludicrous? It shouldn’t take that much to slightly lower the voice. Just a little. Not too much.

There are narrators who can read well the opposite sex. The ones who do it best don’t do high falsettos from men or from women the overly slow and gruff voices, to the point that the hero sounds doddering. A male hero voice might have a confident clip from a female narrator, a male narrator a slightly smoother or a faint softening. The point is not to turn voices into caricatures, causing listeners to cringe.

Mixed feelings

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I likes the story. The slow burn of love. The narration had some to be desired. There were times I didn’t know who was talking. The voice in of Lance was so low, it was hard to hear

Nice sweet story of love and revenge

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I only persisted listening because I wanted to know how the series ended. It was very difficult at way too many times to tell who was speaking.

Good story HORRENDOUS narration

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I liked the story but couldn’t stand the performance. I probably wouldn’t have listened if I hadn’t already listened to the first two books. It was hard for me to like Lance because of her interpretation. I was hoping after hearing her performance on the last story that she would have changed his voice since he was the lead. He sounded like the overdone villain. At least she’s consistent, unfortunately.
I don’t usually write reviews but I don’t think I can listen to another book by this reader.

Good story. Horrible reading.

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DNF due to narrator Lulu Russell. After painful experience listening to the beginning of #2, I didn't even bother trying w/ this last book in trilogy. I've gotten into doing re-reads in audio format so it's disappointing when it fails to do justice to a favorite author or title.

DNF due to narrator

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There’s a lot to like about this book starting with the characters.
The heroine, Marianne, is strong, self-reliant, intelligent, and empathetic.
Lance, the hero is a seductive “bad boy” who never wanted to be Duke, but somehow always ends up doing the right thing
The minor characters especially the heroine’s cousin Nora are nuanced and interesting. Some of them end up having their own HEAs.
I liked the fact that there is no obvious villain in this story (unless you count the reprehensible former Duke.)
I usually find mysteries in HR’s contrived and distracting, but the puzzle of who killed previous Duke is woven seamlessly into the plot of this book The resolution is clever and unexpected.
It was enjoyable to have Lance’s two brothers, each of whom is featured in one of the previous two books, play significant roles in this story.
Madeleine Hunter did an excellent job tying this book into the two previous novels in the trilogy. She also did a wonderful job of wrapping up all the loose ends and minor stories to give the whole trilogy a satisfying ending.

Quickly drawn into the story

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The story is good, but the reader's voice for the duke's character was so draggy and affected, that I almost returned it. The rest of her reading was good.

It's okay...

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In my review of "Tall, Dark, and Wicked" I complained about the narrator but said I would give this book a try in hopes that the narrator would improve. She did not! In fact it got worse. I can't even stand to get through it and will return the book.

I really like Madeline Hunter's books. The stories are excellent and, usually, a little different from the run-of-the-mill historical romance. But I will never purchase another book that Lulu Russell narrates.

Here again, the characters, both men and women, tend to sound the same. However, in this book two stand out from the others as being different - but definitely not in a good way. Lance is not only arrogant and bored, but has no character that appeals at all. There are no layers to him, nothing that indicates he is at all concerned about his danger, and, worse, that he has any interest at all in Marianne. He just sounds like a spoiled little nebbish with no personality or redeeming value whatsoever.

Although she is not the heroine in this book, Eva does appear continually, but she sounds like she takes nothing seriously. Her voice is a continual laughing smirk. Again, other than Lance, all the men are indistinguishable, and, without phrases such as "Ives said" or "asked Gareth," which aren't used (and in print isn't necessary due to proper punctuation) conversations often don't entirely make sense.

Message to producers: Please! Please! Be careful about your narrators! Stop destroying series by letting a narrator learn at the expense of the listener!

Well, I tried, but ...

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The female narrator perfomed thr male voices in a very unnatural low pitch. it was somewhat distracting but still a good story.

great story narration of malenvoices distracting

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