Ruthless

House of Rohan Series, Book 1

By: Anne Stuart

Narrated by: Susan Ericksen

Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Few outsiders will ever witness the dark misdeeds of the Heavenly Host. And among this secret society, where exiled Georgian aristocrats gather to indulge their carnal desires, fewer still can match the insatiable appetite of their chief provocateur, the mysterious Viscount Rohan. Pursuit of physical pleasure is both his preferred pastime and his most pressing urge, until he encounters the fascination of a woman who won't be swayed. And while his dark seduction appalls the pure and impoverished Elinor Harriman, she finds herself intrigued...and secretly drawn to the man behind the desire.

©2010 Anne Kristine Stuart Ohlrogge (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Witty, inventive, dark and sexy---a wild adventure for the mind...and the heart." (Susan Wiggs)

Different - and excellent

This one is terrific! It's not a "bit of fluff", but there are still moments of humor, and the reader is lured cleverly into developing feelings right along with the heroine. A difficult task, considering the initial actions of the "Hero"! I loved this one and Book 2 as well.

"The best love story ever!

Loved it! I enjoy reading stories set in a time where romance and chivalry were in fashion. I always enjoyed listening to Susan Ericksen narrate, she has the perfect voice and accent for stories like this. It was romantic and full of mystery an, oh yeah sex. Rohan was wonderfully delicious, and unapologetically wicked. But, he met his match in the heroine Eleanor
! All the other characters were well written and quite interesting
. My favorite part was at the end, When Rohan realized his true feelings, and with no hesitation rushed to the rescue. Excellent read. Unfortunately, these wonderful characters were pushed to the background in the following series; the other stories and Rohans descendants were not as interesting. This is actually the best book in the series. Maybe one day they'll be a prequel, or the lost years of Rohan. I would love to read more about him. Pity.

WOW!!!!

I have always had a hard time with books that are of past times but this one took me from the beginning. Last night i started listening to it and could not put it down, reluctantly I turned it off to sleep but first thing this morning I started in again. OMG, I even stayed home from work to finish it and glad I did. The narrator did an amazing job and now I am going to start the next one in hopes that it takes me away.

Everybody is right

The hero is not convincing as the villain we get pounded into our heads, as he suddenly (like so many formula stories) decides love is real and he does have a heart. But I don’t fault the story for that.

I have doubts about a happily ever after when the basis of the relationship has been he teases he in a mean way the whole way and she takes it seriously. (Or are we supposed to thinks she’s not really angry?)

I thought the way he dealt with her trauma was excellent and worth the listen, and it was at this point his character arch becomes something you can get behind.

Overall I don’t care for heroines with such severe self-esteem problems. I know there are plenty of women that may identify, but I prefer stronger characters who know their worth. It’s believable that she believes a lie, but this kind of thing doesn’t go away the moment someone loves you. (Sorry, guess I’m too much of a realist to enjoy all the angst in this story).

Loved It!

I LOVED this book. The characters were well-developed and the dialogue was witty and often humorous. The plot was even a little bit off the usual "romance novel" path, which made it quite interesting. But what I most loved is that is showed that the the characters of a story don't have to be perfect to be thoroughly likable! Not every hero is always honorable and not every heroine is a delicate, waif-like creature in constant need of rescuing. These characters were both "flawed" in quite different ways, and those flaws made the story believable and very entertaining. The story also managed to be pretty "hot" without a lot of graphic sex scenes. Can't wait for the next installment of this series!

Bang, droop, fizzle

Anne Stuart is an amazing author (whose boots I am unfit to polish), and I literally could not stop listening to this book last night. It was just too, too good to spend time with that delicious hero.
I'm amazed at how erotic the novel was with so little actual sex involved. I'm also amazed that I loved the book and didn't love the story. It began well enough but I found the end was rushed, unconvincing, and unworthy of the amazing characters she brought together.
I'm still looking forward to book two. (But I now know better than to read it on a school night.)

What a fantastic surprise!

I had this in my wish list for a while, and finally started it last night. I didn't expect too much from it, but I was wrong!!!
Excellent writing, very sympathetic and interesting characters, engaging plot, and a very bad, but "oh-so-good" mail lead.

The description of the book makes it seem smutty. While it is sexy, it's surprisingly tasteful and the sex scenes aren't gratuitous.

DEFINITELY worth a buy or credit.

GOTHIC to the extreme!

We have Elinor, an innocent gentlewoman fallen on hard times, who must venture into the chateau of a well-known rake to save her ill mother. Lord Rohan, better known as the 'prince of darkness', is amused to see a feisty innocent come crash his orgy party and start making demands. Like a cat finding a new toy he proceeds to torment her by dangling the safety of her mother and sister in front of her. Elinor endeavors to survive Rohan's mind games and protect the honor of her beautiful younger sister. She has taken the burden of defending her sister and her honor since she was no more than a girl herself and sacrificed a great deal to do so. So she'll be damned to have her efforts thwarted by Rohan as some cruel joke. Of course life chooses that moment to lay even more misfortune upon her and her small household. Until she is left no choice but to return to the dark shadows of Rohan's domain.
I cried SO MUCH for Elinor during the course of this read/listen I'm water logged. My eyes will be swollen all day. Elinor was such a sympathetic and real character that every stab to her heart left me in tears.
Rohan can see that Elinor knows the darker faucets of life including sex, but has never known the pleasure of those sinful delights. He becomes obsessed with teaching those secret pleasures to her. Very sexy times occur. Slow, delicious sexy times.
If I had any complaints it would be her sister, who was easily besotted after meeting a disreputable man once despite all of Elinor's sacrifices for her. Although Lydia was initially presented as a beautiful girl who knew how to use her charms and read the intentions of men I felt her 10 minute romance as ridiculous and out of character. It felt like a deus ex machina meant to resolve the sister issue quickly as to not distract from Elinor's tale. If it was going to be like that I'd rather not have any of Lydia's romance to begin with.
Even with Lydia's nonsense I still enjoyed this book wickedly and was disappointed to have it come to an end! I would love to have more of Lydia and Rohan. Perhaps some kind of epilogue or novella. I need more time with them! Especially if that means more sexy times!

GOOD!

The House of Rohan is an adult book. Very graphic. The story is very crude and filled with detailed descriptions of depravity. The narratives are too long. The author could have presented the exact story in a less time consuming manner. These long periods of BLAH BLAH BLAH are somewhat boring. It makes it difficult to finish the book. Maybe the unabridge version would have been a better buy.

Start of a good trilogy

These are the kinds of romance that I enjoy most - less than perfect hero and heroine and a mystery to make it interesting. The story kept me listening to the end, although I had already read the book. The reader did a good job, especially with the voice of Francis. I hope the other two books in this trilogy are released soon on audio. In the meantime, I'm rereading the other two books in the trilogy until the audios become available.