Minor Indiscretions
By: Barbara Metzger / Narrated By: Stevie Zimmerman
Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
Metzger at her sensational silliest—loved it!
I dunno about y’all Listeners of Regency Romances, but I got soooo sad when I hit the last of Georgette Heyer’s audiobooks available. And even then, if I’m honest, It was a 70-30 affair as far as Hits went as there were some narrators who were screechy (Female) or sounded just plain old (Male). After listening to each of the books that made me swoon with delight, after having NOTHing to tickle my Regency Funny Bone, oh how supremely thrilled I was to take a chance on Barbara Metzger who has several of her works available through Audible’s Escape Romance package (And you’d better believe I’m a subscriber to that service!).
I’ve listened to several, have reviewed one, and here I went and checked out Minor Indiscretions cuz Sheltering in Place had me a trifle out of sorts (Please don’t get me wrong! We’re blessed enough to be healthy over here!). What I wanted for this week’s Listening was some eerie, some fluff, an animal or two, and a witty Regency to firmly tamp it all into place for me.
Oh hilARIous!!! The way Metzger structured each character’s actions, the way she worked that into the story itself’s structure, the (Sometimes but not always) barbed banter, had me tickled just about near to death.
Barely out of the schoolroom, Melody Ashton has left her boarding school with dreams of being the IT debutante of this London Season, only to come home to find that actually she and her mother (And young lady Felice, a sort of, well, “cousin” isn’t the right word, but the stunning beauty has been living with her mother, and she’s about as snide as she is comely) are really quite destitute. The… orphans… that live in the Dower House no longer have monetary support sent in from ladies of the ton who magnanimously have been sponsoring them from cradle to eventual jobs/marriage. Rumor has it that Melody’s mother, Lady Ashton, has been pilfering and misusing funds. And worse than that, the oh so WONderful gentleman that Melody met after a fight at an inn, descends upon the trio of women and the… orphans… because his sister, a sponsor of one of the… orphans… has received a letter threatening blackmail. What was a kinda sorta, but not totally really, attraction turns into mayhem.
Which is what is so delightful. Don’t read the Publisher’s Summary where it says that Lord Coe, our Hero, is falling hard for Melody: Nope, he ain’t thinking of marrying this chit of a girl, rather he has considered how nifty it’d be if she was his mistress. Melody, on the other hand, is head over heels cuz the danged Coe, once he comes to truly realize that nobody at the Dower House has had anything to do with blackmail, starts charming everybody’s socks off, women AND… orphans… alike.
I just loved how it all developed, characters and storyline. Melody takes the world upon her loving shoulders; her mother’s over-sensibilities tosses the smelling salts over in favor of brandy; the… orphans… teach Lord Coe a thing or two about being guileless and sensitive; and most hilariously, Melody challenges the unmitigated HECK outta Coe’s valet as the fastidious Lord, with his pristine fashions, canNOT seem to get out of an encounter with the girl without some sort of trauma being done to his boots, breeches, coat, even his danged freaking nose. Add to that, Melody rescues a starving and soon-to-be drowned mutt whom she names Angel, and this was a slam-dunk of a fun ride.
As usual, the audio production sounds a bit tinny, but ya gotta give Stevie Zimmerman her due: She does narration likes nobody’s business, especially sounding out different characters, especially yanking through all the humor with just a bit o’ madcap slapstick in her tones. Whether she’s a ragamuffin of a boy out for the thrill of drowning his dog, a spunky and determined heroine pointing out each of the Hero’s oh soooo many flaws, an overwrought mother who’s hit the laudanum just a weeee bit too hard, or if she’s the Hero, bemused, bemused, bemused—Zimmerman does it all!
Okay, so after this audiobook, my mood is much much better, so I can’t claim ennui or the blues for hitting yet another B. Metzger so soon.
Nah, I’ll just check out another available in the Romance Package… just cuz I can, and cuz I’ve come to love the author’s work, like CRAZY!
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