House of Cads

Ladies of Scandal Series, Book 2

By: Elizabeth Kingston

Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton

Laura Kinsale presents... Vivez la vie pleinement...Live life to the fullest.

That's always been Marie-Anne de Vauteuil's motto. As a Frenchwoman of highly questionable upbringing, she was shunned by genteel society. But then, an invitation to London on a mission of mercy from the very family who cast her aside lands Marie-Anne back in society - and into the arms of a man who can be nothing but trouble.

When life gives you lemons...Make petit fours.

Wealthy American businessman Mason is a) accidentally engaged, b) desperate to get out of it, and c) neither wealthy nor a businessman. Marriage is the last thing on his mind. Money, however, is always of utmost importance. But when he meets the irresistible Marie-Anne, she makes him rethink his life as a fraud, and hoping for something he never believed possible: A proper life with a not-so-proper wife.

©2018 Elizabeth Kingston (P)2018 Hedgehog Inc Productions

Wonderful story

I love the way the people are brought together even when thought they were already there. They had so many secrets and plots to get ahead,it was crazy in a happy go lucky way. Never resist the opportunity to listen to this book. Definitely going to be one of my rereads

A Delightful Story!

I really enjoyed House of Cads, I’d been waiting to see what happened to Marie-Anne since I first encountered her in A Fallen Lady. She stood out in that story not only from how she was written by Kingston but how Nicholas Boulton narrated her parts, she added a lot of spice to A Fallen Lady. . It’s no difference here. The book is at its best when it’s just Marie-Anne and Mason together. There the story is at its highest point. The dialogue sizzles and these two flawed broken characters learn to let their guard down and you get to see especially Marie-Anne’s vulnerability. At times the story gets lost with the Shipley girls and a couple other secondary characters, during those times I just wanted more Marie-Anne and Mason and go much deeper into their pasts. Nicholas Boulton was his usual best. Every audiobook should be narrated by him!!
I’d love another Marie-Anne saga to see what happens next.

this story was hilarious and I loved the narrator

Since the death of her beloved fiance years ago, before they could actually marry, Frenchwoman Marie-Anne de Vauteuil has been left in a strange limbo. She's not quite a respectable widow but instead a scandalous fallen woman. She has retreated to a small village where no one knows of her colorful past and drowned her sorrows in cake and bread, until a random letter from the almost in-laws who have shunned her up until this point sees her invited back into London society for a season.

Mason is pretending to be a wealthy American businessman but is really only in England to gather fodder for the gossip column he illustrates for his cousin. His primary goal is to make as much money as possible before his ruse is discovered and he is forced to leave town. When he meets Marie-Anne, however, Mason is immediately taken with her and desperate to end the faux engagement he has fallen into. For the sake of her friends and almost sisters-in-law, the Shipleys, Marie-Anne agrees to help Mason escape a trip to the alter.

Mason finds that Marie-Anne challenges him to rethink everything about his life and encourages him to explore his true talent as an artist. Soon he begins to think he could have a real life and marriage with her, but Marie-Anne is not so sure; she loves Mason, but she can't abide lying to her friends about how he makes his money and she's not sure he'll change the only life he's ever known, even for her.

This book was hysterically funny. The secondary characters were charming as well, but I especially enjoyed Marie-Anne. Along with the hilarity, there was also a good deal of spot on observation about love and relationships. This was a first for me from this author and a delightful surprise. I'll definitely be checking out more of her work as well as that of narrator Nicholas Boulton. He was fabulous.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thought it was a Lucinda Brant book

This storyline seemed like one written by Lucinda Brant and her French outspoken heroine, except we have NB as the narrator instead of Alex Wyndham ( another extraordinary narrator). Storyline seems like a book in her series Nobel Satyr, so it sounded a bit redundant to me.

A bit more passion also than I am used to for Elizabeth Kingston, however, a cute storyline. Nicholas Boulton is my favorite narrator and he truly adds so much to the storyline ❤️

Great story line excellent narration!!!

Loved the main characters in this book as well as all the supporting characters. The narrator made Masons voice uniquely his and oh, so sexy!