Bewitching – Jill Barnett Free Audiobook

Written by Jill Barnett
Read by Anne Johnstonbrown
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Regency Magic #1
Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins
Release date: 02-20-13
Publisher: Bell Bridge Books

In 1813 Alec Castlemaine, a callous English duke who compares courtship to horse trading, faces rejection from his meticulously selected betrothed, who decides she cannot live without love.

That same night, Joyous Fiona MacQuarrie, a Scottish witch with faith in fairy-tale endings, messes up a travel incantation and “zaps” herself into the duke’s lap.

Joyous Fiona MacQuarrie bewitched the Duke of Belmore the moment she appeared from nowhere and knocked him over…literally. When Alec’s pride makes him choose to marry her, Joy turns the life of the most serious and snobbish duke in England upside down because she is a Scottish witch whose powers of white magic are not always easy for her to control. When she sneezes, whatever she thinks appears. The duke forbids her to perform any hocus-pocus.

Too soon Alec finds his well ordered and controlled life a mess, because he married a witch? One who turns him to fire when he kisses her, who charms everyone around her, and threatens to destroy both their lives as scandal looms over her. Joy falls hopelessly in love and not even the strongest magic can seem to turn her into a proper duchess, and how else will he ever love her?

Passion holds them spellbound in an irresistibly funny and tender tale of two opposite but lonely hearts.

There is some self-righteous challenge to traditional representation of race and class. Joy hires a Caribbean cook named Hungan John despite protest from the rest of the household, although he ends up being little more than a happy, singing black man. Joy also helps Alec see that servants are people too. Barnett’s ( Just a Kiss Away ) quirky wit is demonstrated when Joy say things like “Can’t you shrink it a wee bit?” after they consummate their marriage, giving a twist to an otherwise standard plot.