Lily and the Duke

Sex and the Season, Book 1

By: Helen Hardt

Narrated by: Honey Everest

Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Wiltshire, England, 1845

Lady Lily Jameson is thrilled to attend a house party given by Daniel Farnsworth, the Duke of Lybrook, but not because he's the most eligible bachelor in the peerage. Her only interest is his famous art collection, which reputedly includes a painting by her favorite artist, Jan Vermeer.

Daniel, duke only by virtue of the untimely deaths of his father and older brother, wants nothing to do with his new duties. He'd rather continue his rakish ways. When he finds the lovely Lily sneaking around the property in search of his art collection, sparks fly.

Despite her father's wishes, Lily has no intention of marrying. She wants to travel the world to gain real life inspiration for her painting and writing. And what could be better worldly experience than a passionate affair with the notorious Duke of Lybrook?

But circumstances may change the game and the players...and danger lurks, as well.

©2015 Helen Hardt (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Don’t usually review but I had to...

I should have listened to the reviews. The dialogue was silly and the voices annoying. I hate to be mean but those voices really were so grating! All the secondary characters had a hackney accent and they were supposed to be noble men and women. And the main characters father...I had to forward through his parts it sounded so obnoxious. And the dukes speech at the end? Pointless. I was really ready for it to be over.

overall ok...

Overall OK. Story seem to drag on a little with every detail and then it seem to rush at the end. More sexual scenes than actual story i thought.

very x rated

Overall the story was well played. However, its defining factor is highly detailed and frequent sexual actions and discussions. I was apparently in the mood for such. However, as fun as it was to listen to, it gave the story a very narrow range.

🌻It wasn’t all bad🌻

🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻V from Kansas 🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

I was searching the Escape Package listings for something a bit different from my usual fare, and ran across this book. I hadn’t listened to a historical romance, in a long time, so I read the summary and several reviews. The first 10 reviews complained about the narration but, I figured, what the heck, if it’s horrible, I could just return the book.

I hate to be overly critical about narration, (Good narration is not easy) but I have had to admit that this narration performance was lacking. I was able to
Finish the book but, this narrator should stick to performing only female voices. Adding a good male narrator could have really had a positive impact; on the audio performance, anyway.

The plot was also lacking. It was predictable, contained some technology that didn’t fit the time period, had quite a bit of “cheesy “ and contained whole lot of bland elements, throughout the story line.

I’ve definitely heard worse books but, this is no literary work of art, either. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure that this book didn’t impact my life, at all. My only real positive comment, about this book, is thatI was able to get through it. Sorry, Ms Hardt, this book was a bust.

it's a little figure between the characters.

I had a time distinguishing the characters. it might be with a Male reader as well as the female reader. The story was ok. I wish the ending was a little clearer.

Awesome

I definitely recommend this book and enjoyed listening to this book and the narrator was wonderful

Good story ....but too much sex for this time era

I read the other reviews on this listen.... but after I listened to the sample I decided to go ahead. I glad I did it was a decent HR. The only thing is that it had a LOT of sex for the 1800's.(well it is called Sex and the season) The story took place at a 2 week house party and the young ladies didn't have any chaperones. As far as the narration I have listened to plenty of HR so it was fine to me. I have listened to wayyyy worse. The Herione got on my nerves sometimes but other than that it was good.

Romantic

Loved this story. I LAUGHED AND cried . Was a book that keep your attention the whole time.

Not impressed

Firstly, the narrator was VERY difficult to listen to. She screeches for all younger female voices and makes the older ones sound decrepit. Male performances were just horrid too. She made the heroine sound like a petulant, whiney, screeching child and the hero, a simple minded man. Really bad and won't be listening to her if I can help it in the future.

The story was simply ok! Nothing we've not seen written over and over again. The writing was very amateurish and the constant use of contemporary expressions and speech drove me insane! I read historical romances to take me to that time period and to have almost all the book read like a contemporary novel just kills the entire experience for me. I'm not sure I'll ever look for more from this author because of this and teen-like behaviors she's written to grown adults.

Helen Hardt is a great author BUT

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The narrator was horrible. You can not do an audio using one person for all characters. I won't purchase any more of her audio books if she has only one narrator.