Masquerade

Scandalous Ballroom Encounters, Book 1

By: Victoria Vale

Narrated by: Beatrice Pendergast

Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

A sensual, erotic story with the rich texture of Regency romance with the spice of erotica.

Margaret Seymour is bored by the stifling constraints of society dictating her behavior as a debutante in search of a husband. Her prospects are promising by the standards of London society, yet, not one of them causes her heart to flutter, or her head to fill with scintillating, forbidden fantasies. Those feelings are reserved for Camden Rycroft, Duke of Avonleah - a man who isn't even aware of her existence.

While attending a scandalous Vauxhall Gardens masquerade, Margaret finds herself in the duke's arms. His promise of a night of pleasure is tempting, but is it worth it when Avonleah is a known rake notorious for his short attention span and avoidance of marriage?

Camden Rycroft is intrigued by the masked vixen he encounters in the Gardens. After one night with her leaves him hungry for more, his desire for her turns into a fiery obsession. Despite the scandal that could ensue from their affair, he finds himself unable to extract himself from a situation destined to end in pain. When faced with losing Margaret to a potential husband, will he rise to the occasion, or risk living without her?

©2015 Victoria Vale (P)2016 Victoria Vale

Wrong Narrator!!

I have never heard a female narrator do the male character better than the female character. Voice is too shrill when performing the female character.

Terrible narration!

The narrator was all wrong for this story. I tried to get into the story but was constantly frustrated by the over-the-top dramatization. Too bad she narrated books 1-3. I think I’ll skip to 4.

good for a long, intimate afternoon

Story is generic so easy to follow if dealing with distractions. Sex is explicit & hot. Characters are predictable but charming. Narrator was successful in audibly delineating one character from another but was also slightly grating in her delivery; performance would've benefited from a good director.

Love smut books!

This book is not for the faint of heart! Other reviewers didn’t care for the narrator but I found her engaging. I enjoyed this book so thoroughly I wish it hadn’t ended. Cannot wait to listen to the rest of the series. Victoria Vale is a new author to me first listening to The Villian Duology & the sequels, they were all amazing. I am ridiculously happy to have found this author!

Fun Sexy Story but...

Loved the story, it's sexy and kinda funny. The narrator though...her voice was too mature and the way she spoke the characters made the listen sound like a parody of an Audible narrator. I rolled my eyes quite a few times.

Short steamy story.

Enjoyed the story, but the narration was a bit much. It was difficult to get past some of the simpering. I hope the next story in the series has a different narrator.

Loved the story the narrator was ok

I really like the Story and it had very nicely worded heated scenes and a little bit of a love story. What I didn’t like was the narrator making the men specifically the main man sound angry all the time. It was just very unnatural sounding and didn’t match the tone of how he was feeling and some situations.

So freaking HOT!!

Let me begin by saying that I had never dipped my toes into the historical/regency pools before this audio. Umm, wow! What’s a great way to dip my toes into the genre!

I was expecting something very tame and demure, but this audiobook was hot! There was so much steam I couldn’t see straight. And I loved it. The chemistry and passion between Camden and Maggie was electric and sizzled from the beginning to the very last minute.

The story was great. The audiobook almost couldn’t move fast enough for me because I needed to know what would happen next. I freaking loved Camden! He was a total a-hole and I loved to hate him and in the end I just plain loved him. I also think he has the best proposal in the history of ever!

Narration is where this story got knocked down a star. Beatrice Pendergast is a fine narrator, she’s actually quite good, but her voice didn’t match the story. She simply sounds much to old to fit the characters and kept drawing me out from the story. Still, the story was so well done and so hot that it pulled me through. Despite its mismatched narration this is one hot story and I’d definitely recommend this audio. 4 Stars.

Ballroom erotica.

l listened to audio version of this book. Narration was good except for some male voices. Didn't distract from the good story, though.
Loved all the heat. Sex scenes, of which there is many, were done very well. If you like alot of steam, this book is good.

Good Story - horrendous narration

Yikes! This performance had me baffled (and cringing). It’s such a huge difference to the impressive Victoria Vale/ Darcy Stark combo, I’m a bit bewildered by the difference in quality. I suppose we learn as we go...