Virtue's Lady

Written by Jessica Cale

Narrated by Felicity Hart

Lady Jane Ramsey is young, beautiful, and ruined.

After being rescued from her kidnapping by a handsome highwayman, she returns home only to find her marriage prospects drastically reduced. Her father expects her to marry the repulsive Lord Lewes, but Jane has other plans. All she can think about is her highwayman, and she is determined to find him again.

Mark Virtue is trying to go straight. After years of robbing coaches and surviving on his wits, he knows it’s time to hang up his pistol and become the carpenter he was trained to be. He busies himself with finding work for his neighbors and improving his corner of Southwark as he tries to forget the girl who haunts his dreams. As a carpenter struggling to stay in work in the aftermath of The Fire, he knows Jane is unfathomably far beyond his reach, and there’s no use wishing for the impossible.

When Jane turns up in Southwark, Mark is furious. She has no way of understanding just how much danger she has put them in by running away. In spite of his growing feelings for her, he knows that Southwark is no place for a lady. Jane must set aside her lessons to learn a new set of rules if she is to make a life for herself in the crime-ridden slum. She will fight for her freedom and her life if that’s what it takes to prove to Mark—and to herself—that there’s more to her than meets the eye.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bryant Street Publishing
• Release date: Feb 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781094436470

Jessica Cale

Jessica Cale is a romance author, editor, and historian based in North Carolina. Originally from Minnesota, she lived in Wales for several years where she earned a BA in History and an MFA in Creative Writing while climbing castles and photographing mines for history magazines. She kidnapped (“married”) her very own British prince (close enough) and is enjoying her happily ever after with him in a place where no one understands his accent. She is the editor of Dirty, Sexy History and you can visit her at www.dirtysexyhistory.com.

Reviews for Virtue's Lady

[Natale Michaud · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While the narration for male characters is better on this book, Sally didn't have her French accent.
I actually enjoyed this book better than the 1st one, though the 1st one was needed before listening to this one.

[Sam Ashish · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Intetesting book with highs and lows great storyline, I feel it could have been done in 30 chapters at the most, lots of info that seemed to go pn too long but after fast forwarding through some chapters I finally got to the end.

[Victoria Moore · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was amazing! I fell in love with characters. Mark was so mature. I loved how Jane chose a difficult love in order to be free. All the historical description is so captivating. I feel like I started appreciating having a shower and bread. I listened to 3 books in this series and this one is my favourite so far.

[Hannah · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I’d give a 5 out of 5, but it wasn’t very clean and quite scandalous. I am thankful that it’s just a reading and not a movie.

[Sean Fleming · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Good writing, but the narrator was horrendous. Like fingernails on a chalkboard. And the female lead sounded like Eliza Doolittle - a whiny voice with a severe cockney accent when just a hint would have done. The male lead was even worse. Severe cockney AND this bizarre jowly hoarseness to the voice that made him sound exactly the same as the 50 year old fat pervert in the 2nd chapter. I had the distinct impression that the narrator had decided to show off her accents and ended up exaggerating them ridiculously, and MUCH to the detriment of what is really a great book. Completely unlistenable recording.

[sharon dean · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another brilliant book from this author. The detail is amazing like really being there. I knew about the prisons and mental health places but never realised they were that bad. Incredible details

[April Davis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good story. Terrible narration- most irritating voice & the book is over 11 hours long. It could be vastly improved just by not using the simpering, pandering yet pedantic voice for 3/4 of the characters. TF?

[Squigglyline · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The voice acting is super slow but on 2x speed it’s normal. Though I don’t like the story I made it half way through before I realised that the male lead is insufferable no matter how many charitable things he does or how much he cares for the people around him. They’ve set him up to be a wonderful man but then he treats her so poorly! He doesn’t think about how his actions or words effect her or why she seeker him out…Maybe it gets better after chapter 17 but so much and so little happened.

[Andrea Newby · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A lot of logical fallacies happening here.. Mark is not handsome at the beginning and then all the sudden super handsome.
When she rescues the kids, he breaks thru the wall and she hands kids to him, but then at the end she still has to crawl thru the small hole with Mark pulling her out from the other side because it was too small for him....how did he get out with the kids?
WHY would Jane go to all the trouble of dressing up like a prostitute to get into Newgate only to turn around and tell the truth? Couldn't she have just said she was his wife to get in?
ALSO it's ridiculously unbelievable that Lord H wouldn't recognize Sally. If he can recognize that she has the same nose as the king when she is a prostitute and then again when she's a countess....how could he possibly not recognize her as the same person??

The narrator sounds Australian half the time