The Belle of Belgrave Square is a good historical romance, but it isn’t a stand out in a highly competitive field. Julia Wychwood suffers under her parent’s hypochondria, and her best chance of escaping is Captain Jasper Blunt. Despite his atrocious reputation, she elopes at the first opportunity to have a healthy life. While things aren’t all smooth sailing once they’re at his country estate, she’s no longer a victim of the medical treatments of the time.
Book Information
Publisher: Penguin Audio
First Published: Oct 11 2022
Format: audiobook
Narrator: Ell Potter
Source: Library
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Belles of London #2
I listened to The Belle of Belgrave Square via Libby Audiobook. The audio quality of the masculine narrator wasn’t great, and at first, I thought it may have been computer-generated. I didn’t enjoy his narration throughout the book. It was not the voice acting but rather that the file had been compressed poorly or digitized badly. It is distracting the whole way through. Specifically, I am not criticizing the narrator but rather the audio production.
While it was an easy and enjoyable story, I was frustrated multiple times. Something crazy happens, and the main characters talk about inane things instead. Repeatedly! The characters focused on whether a document/arrangement was legal rather than whether a crime was committed in a different area. I found it very strange.
Julia’s parents are not good people. Her final interactions with them are way too tidy, and the fuss they kicked up when she eloped was paltry. After their behaviour in the first portion of the book, they practically disappear from the back half. I expected more from them. Only one of Julia’s group of friends from book one shows up in Belle of Belgrave Square, and there’s no way I’d make a huge life-changing decision like marriage without running it by my crew! She trusted her gut and leaped. I’m also annoyed that marriage seemed to solve a lot of her problems. Like a snap of the fingers, all the sudden, things she’d had issues with forever weren’t barriers anymore.
Jasper, well, I found him to be obnoxious, but that could also be because of the audio quality of his narrator. There was great foreshadowing about his dark secrets throughout the plot, and his contradictions eventually give it away.
A lot is going on in this story, with many plots and subplots twined together. The Belle of Belgrave Square has two novel concepts that are pretty cool. I didn’t connect with either main character, they were both just fine. While the story was far from bad, it could have come together better to hit outstanding. I’d read it, rather than listen unless the audio gets re-done in the future.