Lynn Messina has 12 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 3 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.3★ across 23 ratings. The most-rated is A Brazen Curiosity: A Regency Cozy.
A Brazen Curiosity: A Regency Cozy
Summary
Twenty-six-year-old Beatrice Hyde-Clare is far too shy to investigate the suspicious death of a fellow guest in the Lake District. A spinster who lives on the sufferance of her relatives, she would certainly not presume to search the rooms of her host's son and his friend looking for evidence. Reared in the twin virtues of deference and docility, she would absolutely never think to question the imperious Duke of Kesgrave about anything, let alone how he chose to represent the incident to the local constable. And yet when she stumbles upon the bludgeoned corpse of poor Mr. Otley in the deserted library of the Skeffingtons' country house, that's exactly what she does.
©2018 Lynn Messina (P)2018 Lynn Messina
A Scandalous Deception: A Regency Cozy
Summary
As much as Beatrice Hyde-Clare relished the challenge of figuring out who murdered a fellow guest during a house party in the Lake District, she certainly does not consider herself an amateur investigator. So when a London dandy falls dead at her feet in the entryway of a London Daily Gazette, she feels no compulsion to investigate. It was a newspaper office, after all, and reporters are already on the case as are the authorities. She has her own problems to deal with anyway - such as extricating herself from a seemingly harmless little fib that has somehow grown in into a ridiculously large fiction. Truly, she has no interest at all. Except the dagger that killed the poor earl seemed disconcertingly familiar.... And so Bea is off to the British Museum because she cannot rest until she confirms her suspicion, while trying to allay her family’s concerns and comprehend the Duke of Kesgrave’s compulsion. For the handsome lord has no reason to waste his time solving a mystery alongside a shy spinster. And yet he turns up everywhere she goes.
©2018, 2019 Lynn Messina (P)2019 Lynn Messina
A Nefarious Engagement: A Regency Cozy
Summary
Having long abandoned any hope of making a match, 26-year-old Beatrice Hyde Clare finds herself a little overwhelmed by her engagement to the Duke of Kesgrave. Cloying society matrons clamor for her attention while her aunt reels off an endless list of servants she will have to oversee. Even the most intrepid female would quake at the prospect of managing eight footmen! Fortunately, Bea knows the perfect distraction - an intriguing mystery - and pays a call on the Countess of Abercrombie, who had promised her that very thing only the evening before. But her ladyship is reluctant to discuss the details with a newly minted duchess-to-be, and it dawns on Bea that the investigation cuts closer to home than she could have ever imagined because this time the murder victims are her own mother and father, who had died 20 years before in a seemingly straightforward boating accident. Alas, nothing is straightforward, and as Bea digs into her past, she discovers with growing horror that she has no more idea how to be a daughter than she does a duchess.
©2019 Lynn Messina (P)2019 Lynn Messina
An Infamous Betrayal: A Regency Cozy
Summary
Having solved the two murders that somehow fell in her path, Beatrice Hyde-Clare is on the lookout for a third. Through a absurd quirk of stupid fate, the shy spinster has fallen in love with the thoroughly unattainable Duke of Kesgrave and is desperate for something, anything, to occupy her mind. A dead body would do nicely. Fortunately for her, a fellow guest from a Lake District house party appears on her doorstep with exactly that: the lover of his fiancée's mother expired after a wretchedly painful episode just that morning in an apparent poisoning. As unorthodox as it is, he would like Bea to investigate rather than calling the authorities. Bea begins her inquiry into Mr. Wilson's death at once and almost immediately finds herself in the company of Kesgrave, who is as determined as ever to assist her. 'Twas patently unfair, for the whole point of the investigation was to get away from the handsome lord. Now Bea is faced with the daunting challenge of exposing the villain without revealing her heart.
©2018 Lynn Messina (P)2019 Lynn Messina
A Treacherous Performance
Summary
Having inexplicably nabbed the duke of Kesgrave, 26-year-old spinster Beatrice Hyde-Clare is determined to marry him at once, and no amount of hand-wringing from anxious family members, worried friends, and well-meaning acquaintances will convince her to delay. Except, maybe, she is a little swayed by her uncle’s efforts to make amends for treating her with cold indifference during her childhood. And her aunt’s concern about the growing scandal around her unfortunate habit of unmasking murderers in the middle of society events isn’t entirely unfounded. And then, there’s the truly unfathomable appearance on her doorstep of the former Miss Brougham, the spiteful heiress whose cruel taunts derailed Bea’s social career. Remarkably, the society matron has a mystery to solve and knows Bea is the only person who can help her. A dead grandfather, a missing jewel, a cryptic letter, an opportunity to condescend to her archnemesis - the case seems simple enough. Yet, somehow, it all goes terribly, horribly wrong.
©2019 Lynn Messina (P)2020 Lynn Messina
The Bolingbroke Chit: A Regency Romance
Summary
Earning the nickname Lady Agony was no minor achievement for Lady Agatha Bolingbroke. It required a great deal of effort to make herself so disagreeable, but she did it for a good cause: The fewer invitations she received, the more time she had to paint. Her mother, refusing to accept an unpopular daughter - or, worse, a talented one - insists on dragging her to every event of the season. To thwart her parents and to vent her frustration, Agatha creates a wicked alter ego: a caricaturist whose mocking illustrations take ruthless aim at the ridiculousness of the ton. Her most recent target is Viscount Addleson, whom she dubs Viscount Addlewit for his handsome but empty head. Then one of Agatha's drawings goes too far, and a villain threatens to reveal her true identity if she doesn't comply with his demands. Now she has an impossible choice - ruin herself or an innocent young lady. And to her utter amazement, the only person who can help her is Lord Addleson, whose handsome head, upon closer inspection, isn't empty at all, and whose eyes are full of mischief. Suddenly, she finds it very difficult to be disagreeable to him.
©2015 Lynn Messina (P)2019 Tantor
The Impertinent Miss Templeton
Summary
No, no, no! It doesn't matter how many times the Duchess of Trent (The Harlow Hoyden) requests her help with a delicate matter regarding a patent for her sister's invention, Tuppence Templeton will not lend a hand. She has a habit, yes, of coming up with ingenious plans to solve other people's problems, and it is true that she's clever and daring enough to pull off the proposed scheme. But there's no way she's going to confront the arrogant and dismissive Earl of Gage again. She is still shaken - or is it stirred? - from their last encounter when, rather than thank her for saving his sister from ruin, he railed against her for having the temerity to interfere in his family's business. And yet somehow when the opportunity arises, she finds herself unable to resist issuing the challenge. Nicholas Perceval, Earl of Gage, cannot believe it when the impertinent upstart who exposed his sister to disaster maneuvers him into escorting her to the Bill Patent Office. What a perfectly ridiculous request! And then to discover that she manipulated him while they were there so that she could "find" a missing application - he has never been so angry in his entire life. And it's not because he'd unexpectedly enjoyed her charming and irreverent company. No, that has nothing to do with it at all. Perhaps maybe a little...
©2018 Lynn Messina (P)2019 Tantor
The Other Harlow Girl
Summary
A woman in the British Horticultural Society! The very idea horrifies everyone, including ardent horticulturalist Lavinia Harlow, whose own name has been put forth for membership by the provoking Marquess of Huntly. He does it as a joke, of course, to get back at her for an imagined slight - well, to be fair, she had insulted his writing -and Vinnie, older sister to the infamous Harlow Hoyden, is far too sensible to rise to his ridiculous challenge. Determined to head off further scandal (her name has already been recorded in the betting book at Brooks's!), Vinnie dashes off a polite note refusing the honor - which she has every intention of sending. Really. Only she can't help but chafe at the way everyone keeps demanding that she decline at once, even the marquess. Oh, especially the marquess, whose perfection she finds intolerable. Who ever heard of a gentleman being so handsome and so intelligent and so well-informed about foreign flora? Clearly, the man needs to be taken down a peg, and somehow, despite all 24 years of faultless propriety, Vinnie is just the hoyden to do it. Bonus content: This audiobook includes the novella The Fellingham Minx.
©2014 Lynn Messina (P)2019 Tantor
The Harlow Hoyden
Summary
Miss Emma Harlow hasn't earned the reputation as a hoyden for nothing, so when the duke of Trent discovers her in his conservatory stealing one of his orchids, he isn't surprised - charmed, delighted and puzzled, yes, but not surprised. It is Emma who is amazed. She has naturally concluded that the man reading in the conservatory must be the country cousin (who else in London would actually read?) and is quite vexed to discover that he is the duke of Trent himself - imagine, stealing the duke's prize Rhyncholaelia digbyana under his very nose! But her vexation doesn't last long. For Emma is a practical young lady with a mission: to end her dear sister Lavinia's engagement to the villainous (and dreadfully dull!) Sir Waldo Windbourne, and she thinks that the famous libertine is just the man for the job. If he would only seduce her sister away from Sir Waldo...well, not seduce exactly, but flirt mercilessly and engage her interest. Perhaps then Lavinia would jilt the baron. The duke of Trent is resistant, of course. Despite his reputation, he does not toy with the affections of innocents. And besides, it's not her sister he longs to seduce.
©2014 Lynn Messina (P)2019 Tantor
A Boldly Daring Scheme
Summary
Finally, Flora Hyde-Clare has wrest the narrative from Beatrice by finding her own compelling murder mystery to solve. Well, it’s not entirely her own because the victim is her cousin’s former beau Mr. Theodore Davies, whose father cruelly separated the young lovers (though not so cruelly, for it left the door open for Bea to woo the duke of Kesgrave). Bea insists, of course, that the law clerk’s death was merely an accident. If only he had not been in the path of that wretched carriage! Oh, but Flora knows that evasive look on her cousin’s face. Bea is hiding something. Clearly, Davies had gotten himself entangled in some nefarious business, and Flora is determined to discover the truth despite the danger it puts her in. Or is that because it puts her in danger? After all, any heroine worth her salt must be willing to take on a great deal of personal risk. And Flora has her mind set on being a heroine of the highest order.
©2020 Lynn Messina (P)2021 Lynn Messina
Love in the Time of Zombies
Summary
It's 2017, and a raging virus has drastically reduced the world's population of men, transforming all but a fraction into a race of putrid, brain-dead zombies. So what's single, ambitious 23-year-old Hattie Cross to do for fun, not to mention romance? In this hilarious marriage of post-apocalyptic fiction and super smart chick-lit with a wry twist, novelist Lynn Messina spoofs dating manuals, monsters, and the superficial media world, all the while creating a feisty, funny heroine with heart. Lynn Messina is the author of eight novels, including The Girls' Guide to Dating Zombies and Fashionistas, which has been translated into 15 languages. Her essays have appeared in Self, American Baby, and the New York Times, and she's a regular contributor to the Times's Motherlode blog. Lynn lives in New York City with her husband and sons. This is a short audiobook published by Shebooks - high quality fiction, memoir, and journalism for women, by women.
©2014 Lynn Messina (P)2015 Audible, Inc.
A Sinister Establishment
Summary
The former Beatrice Hyde-Clare is having a little trouble adjusting to her new situation. Now installed as the duchess of Kesgrave in elegant splendor in Berkeley Square, she is confounded by the stately residence’s seemingly endless array of rooms. And every time one of the maids addresses her as "your grace", she flinches. And the butler! Oh, yes, that imposing servant holds her in utter contempt and has no qualms about sharing his opinion with the rest of the staff. It’s all so wretched. But just as Bea begins to despair - a bright spot. A neighboring house has suffered a ghastly tragedy, and although the constable deems it an inadvertent decapitation, she can’t believe anyone could be so careless as to accidentally lose his head. Determined to discover the truth, the new duchess pays her first social call. Because even if she can’t find her way around her palatial home, she certainly knows her way around a murder.
©2020 Lynn Messina (P)2020 Lynn Messina