Road Trip with a Rogue

About This Audiobook

*Road Trip with a Rogue* isn’t your grandmother’s historical romance—it’s a high-stakes, high-wit romp where a botched carriage heist forces a jilted bluestocking and her rakish ex into a grudge-match journey across Georgian Britain. Kate Bateman’s razor-sharp dialogue crackles with the energy of a screwball comedy, but the emotional stakes are real: Daisy Hamilton isn’t just fleeing scandal, she’s outrunning the humiliation of loving a man who once discarded her like a soiled glove. The premise—think *The Highwayman* meets *Pride and Prejudice* with a dash of *National Lampoon*—delivers on both farce and feeling, with Beverley A. Crick’s narration amplifying the chemistry. Her Daisy is all clipped indignation, while her rogue’s voice drips with the kind of smug charm that makes you want to throttle him (or kiss him, depending on the chapter).

What sets this apart from the Regency romance pack is its *movement*—both literal and narrative. The coach’s relentless clatter becomes a metaphor for the story’s pace: breathless, occasionally bumpy, but never dull. Crick’s performance leans into the physicality of the journey, her pacing mirroring the horses’ gallop during chase scenes and slowing to a sultry drawl in the (many) moments of tension. The audiobook format excels here, turning what could’ve been a static historical drama into something cinematic—you *hear* the mud splatter, the clink of stolen silver, the exasperated sighs of a woman who *knows* she’s being manipulated but can’t resist the ride. It’s a romance for listeners who crave wit as much as heat, and a road trip where the real destination is emotional surrender."

"review": "I’ll admit, I rolled my eyes at the ‘enemies-to-lovers in a carriage’ setup—until Beverley A. Crick’s narration sold me on it within five minutes. Her Daisy is a masterclass in vocal restraint: every syllable of her prim, precise delivery simmers with repressed fury (and, okay, lust), while her rogue’s voice is all velvet and mischief, the auditory equivalent of a man leaning too close in a dimly lit tavern. The real triumph, though, is how Crick handles the *silences*—the loaded pauses when Daisy’s resolve wavers, or the way her voice drops to a whisper during the (frequent) moments when the banter tips into something raw. It’s a performance that trusts the listener to lean in.

Bateman’s writing is equally deft, though not without stumbles. The middle act sags slightly under the weight of *too* many coach-stop mishaps (how many times can one heroine nearly get caught?), and the villain’s motives feel thinly sketched compared to the electric push-pull of the leads. But the dialogue? *Chef’s kiss.* Lines like *“You’re not stealing my coach, you’re stealing my patience”* land like dagger throws, and Crick’s timing ensures they hit every time. The production is polished—no jarring edits or volume shifts—but I’d have loved a touch more atmospheric sound design (a distant thunderclap here, a creaking axle there) to deepen the immersion. Still, this is a romance that *moves*, in every sense. If you’ve ever fantasized about a historical bad boy who’s as quick with a quip as he is with a kiss—and a heroine sharp enough to match him—this audiobook is your next fling. Just don’t blame me if you start side-eyeing every handsome stranger on the subway."

"tags": [
"enemies-to-lovers historical romance