Author: Johanna LindseySeries: Malory-Anderson Families #1
Narrator: Laural Merlington
Audience: +18
Genre: Historical Romance
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
Release Date: June 5th 2008 (first published 1985)
My Rating: 4 Cups
Source: Audible
Blurb (from Goodreads):
The exquisite niece of Lord Edward and Lady Charlotte Malory, Regina Ashton, is outraged over her abduction by the arrogant, devilishly handsome Nicholas Eden - and is determined to make the rogue pay...with his heart.One of the authors I've been recommended throughout the years as a queen of old school romances was Johanna Lindsey. She's been recommended to me so many times that I was actually afraid of trying her out, because I had really high expectations.And then I finally signed up for the free month of Audible Escape and the 24in48 Readathon happened. And I just couldn't say no anymore.
A golden-haired seducer, Nicholas has been hardened by a painful secret in his past. And now that he has besmirched Reggie's good name, the hot-tempered lady has vowed to wed him.
Her fiery beauty stirs Nicholas as no woman ever has - and the rake arouses Reggie's passion to an unendurable level. Such uncontrolled desires can lead only to dangerous misunderstandings...and, perhaps, to a love that can live only once in a lifetime.
Since I decided this was the year I was finally going to dive deep into historical romances, I thought I needed to have the courage to try out some of the queens of this genre, which meant finally reading Johanna Lindsey. Boy, am I happy I finally did!
Love Only Once is the entertaining story of Regina Ashton and Nicholas Eden. I say entertaining because these two had me crack up from the very start. They had insane chemistry, even though Nicholas was trying really hard to act as if he was a rake and basically get Regina to hate him.
Regina was a pretty unconventional heroine. Raised by her uncles, she's very opinionated which is probably something a proper young lady shouldn't do. She also finds humor in the most inappropriate situations, which is probably why I loved her so much. She is a very determined lady. She knows what she wants and she says it and goes after it. When she realizes that her chances at ever finding a man to marry her are doomed because of something she didn't even do, she decides that the best punishment is to marry the man who ruined her chances. I really loved how she stood up for herself, how she found her voice at a time when women weren't supposed to have a voice. I liked her.
Nicholas isn't usually the type of hero I adore, at least not at first. He seems very aloof, incapable of loving someone, and with no care for societal rules. So when he decides to teach his ex mistress a lesson, he can't even fathom that things may not turn out his way. I loved to see how surprised he was when he realized he messed up, it was probably the funniest thing I've read in a while. I will admit that most of the time I wanted to smack him, that is until I realized why he was acting the way he was. He had a dark secret, one that could ruin his life even though it was something he had no control over. And that meant I began to feel sorry for him.
I adored Regina's family. From the angry uncle, to the former pirate one, to the older cousin... Everyone was adorable and I can't wait to read their stories.
The thing that I had to remember while reading this book was the time when it was published. Because it came out 34 years ago, many of the themes I'm used to reading in more recent books weren't there. So keep that in mind if you do pick up this book.
The narrator, Laural Merlington, did a fantastic job bringing all of these characters to life. She portrayed each and every character very well and made the transitions from one character to the other seem flawless. I truly enjoyed her narration style and I hope she's the one that narrates the rest of the series.
I truly enjoyed this book and I'm glad I finally got to read it. I am ready to read the rest of the books from this series and I'll definitely check out the rest of her backlist books.
