The Dragon's Bride

Con Somerford, the new Earl of Wyvern, returns to his cliff-top fortress in Dover to find Susan Kerslake waiting for him with a pistol. She is now his housekeeper, drawn back to the manor by family debt and a rumor of hidden gold, and she is as surprised to see him as he is to see her. Their shared past, a youthful entanglement destroyed by pride and inexperience, must be renegotiated now that they are harder, older, and caught in the same complicated situation.

Simon Prebble narrates Jo Beverley's Regency romances with the dry, well-bred assurance that the period and genre demand. His performance handles the tension between the characters' wariness of each other and their obvious attraction without making either feel false, letting the witty exchanges carry their weight without commentary. The smuggling subplot adds sufficient plot mechanics to keep the romance from feeling static, and Prebble gives both dimensions equal attention.