Educating Elizabeth

Format:
Audiobook – included in Audible Plus at the time of this review

Publisher’s Synopsis:
When Miss Elizabeth Waterstone encounters the enigmatic Duke of Diable Delamere in the most shocking of circumstances, she is determined to exploit his rakish expertise to the fullest extent. The duke agrees to teach her everything she needs to know but in return expects to receive her unwitting cooperation to uncover an assassination plot against the monarchy. But Elizabeth is hard to deceive, and the duke finds himself needing more than her innocent skills in his bed. Together they must use their remarkable abilities to thwart a villain, save the Prince Regent, and accidentally and inevitably fall in love.

Point of view:
3rd person

Rellim’s Thoughts:
The blurb sounded interesting as I tend to like romance that has a little mystery/suspense in it. Things were fairly predictable, in a comfort read kind of way. I enjoyed the bones of the story but sometimes the execution felt a little off. There weren’t explanations for why some of the characters were making choices or keeping secrets that they were keeping – which made it harder to completely buy in to the plot. Transitions from one scene to another could be so abrupt I’d replay thinking there was a glitch in the audio.

The Duke “training” Elizabeth vacillated between descriptive and vague. The scenes of foreplay and oral were more evocative than most of the penetrative sex scenes.

I liked that Elizabeth was a strong, intelligent, and creative lead. Unfortunately this was sometimes undermined with actions that felt inconsistent with her character and were added to further the plot. The Duke was burned in the past and his “vow not to love again” is one of my least favorite tropes. It led to a great deal of angst that went on a bit too long. He could also be quite nasty and I didn’t feel like that was properly atoned for.

I actually appreciated many of the secondary characters more. Since they’re free to borrow via Audible Plus I may try more of the series.

Narration:
I truly enjoyed Julie Maisey’s narration. She did a great job with all the accents and emotions. A delight to listen to.