Review: A Treacherous Performance

A Treacherous Performance by Lynn Messina
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

🎧 AUDIOBOOK REVIEW 🎧

Having enjoyed all the previous audiobooks in this series, I was excited to receive a free copy from this author. This review is freely written and contains only my own opinions.

As expected, this audiobook was full of the usual hilarious moments, and had a fun mystery to solve.

There was a small section I didn’t enjoy as much as usual - there were too many manipulative and malicious characters conniving and scheming for my taste. And then when Bea is interrogating two characters (not mentioning names to avoid spoilers), she thinks “the man/woman who arranged the ruination of an innocent woman” (or similar) far too many times in the space of one half hour. However, once I got past those parts, it returned to the fun crime solving romance I know and love, and I very much enjoyed Bea and Kesgrave teasing each other all the time, and the general silliness!

The narration is pretty similar to the last two audiobooks. For the most part, the narrator does a great job of an upper class British voice of the Era (or how I imagine it would be, as I wasn’t actually alive then), but there are still a number of jarring words that don’t seem to fit. Many of them seem to be with the pronunciation of a sounds - for example, “worshipful tone” became “warshipful tone”, which did amuse me. However, all other aspects of the narration are, as always, spot on. The expression in the various voices is great, and really conveys how the characters are feeling. The narrator has a good speed, and keeps the plot moving along nicely. It is easy to feel involved with the characters.

I really enjoyed the progression in Bea and Kesgrave’s romance over the course of the story. They continue to move closer together, and I think that Bea is finally beginning to really believe that he loves her. I also loved the development in Flora’s character, and how she is starting to involve herself in Bea’s scandalous activities.

If you’re looking for an audiobook that combines cozy crime with regency romance, hilarious scenes, and general frivolity, then look no further.

I was given a free copy of this audiobook, my opinions are my own.

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