Lunatic

Ruthless Asylum (A Ruthless Asylum Novel, Book 1)

By: K.L. Savage

Narrated by: Aaron Shedlock, Tieran Wilder

Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's Summary

Mania: A mental illness consisting of episodes of profound excitement, euphoria, delusions, and over-activity.

I deal with highs and lows, but somehow, I end up making the best of it.
My family disowned me, but family is the reason why I’m in Vegas.
Even with my inability to think straight, I end up being in charge of a bunch of runaway mental patients.
Control doesn’t exist if someone is fighting their mind. We have to break in order to mend.
Constantly.
Hence, The Asylum.
A sanctuary for lost causes.
Where crazy can roam free, and compulsions can be let loose.
My nephew says as long as it stays at The Asylum, we won’t have problems.
What fun would it be if problems didn’t exist? 

And my problem is in the shape of a dancer, twirling on the front lawn in the middle of the night.
Her laughter is music.
Her beauty is timeless.
And my mania has kicked in overdrive.
When I’m obsessed with something, it’s more than what the normal person feels.
If I can’t have her, no one can.
If I can’t have her, I’ll die.
And I’ll make sure she’ll die too.
I’m a lunatic who has found the living breathing version of his mania.

©2021 Ruthless Underworld LLC (P)2021 Ruthless Underworld LLC

Lunatic is an amazing start to the Asylum series!

Aaron’s voice is perfect for Zain! His narration fits Zain and his personality perfectly and Tieran does great on the narration for Chloe/Jessica! I loved listening to Lunatic and bringing this insanely amazing book to life! Zain’s story is heartbreaking but I love how he finds friends being in the Asylum and how much they know and truly care for one another! Zain’s love interest has a surprising plot twist (one I hadn’t seen coming) and I thought it fit the storyline perfectly! I loved listening to his story!

LOVE IT!!!

this is by far my favorite book of all of the K.L.Savage don't get me wrong all the books are great but this one has everything I enjoy, is dark and twisted enough and soo 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 loved the characters and how thr story developed but it is a rollercoaster of emotions but soo worth it. Aaron as always superb but this is the first dark character I heard him narrating and right now my absolute favorite 😁. Tieran Wilder is a new narrator for me but I loved her performance to specially when she needs to narrate 2 female characters and instantly know who is talking....so yeah she was unbelievably amazing.

WOW, WHAT A RIDE!!! Favorite book of 2021 so far!

I feel like I should be giving a standing ovation or something right now, clapping for the narrators and the author on this one. I wish that I actually could, they deserve it three times over! Ever since I read the synopsis of this book when it first came to Audible, I was so eager to read it that it was difficult to wait for the second one to be released but I knew I'd drive myself nuts just reading the first book without the second one to binge on right after. It was difficult to the point where I was checking regularly on Audible to see if it was there yet and a little bit of disappointment flooded me every time it wasn't. Then, there it was, book two! So I dove right into Lunatic with arms wide open, so ready to hear it. I'll start by saying that obviously, my hopes were not dashed. It was all I'd hoped for and more. As someone that works in the mental health field with individuals that struggle with a lot of the issues brought up in this book daily, I loved that the author's approach de-stigmatized mental health disorders, even if that wasn't the primary or even secondary aim. Many of the people I work with are intelligent, empathetic souls that have very little support from their "loved" ones and that love seems to mostly go one way. That being said, I felt like the portrayal of these illnesses was pretty on-par with reality and they weren't glorified nor demonized, making me like and respect K.L. Savage even more than I already did.

Anyway, right, the book! The narration was nothing short of epic. At first I thought that Tieran Wilder's voice sounded a little too mature for her character, but that was just my first instinct and once I listened for a bit, she fit much better and did an excellent job. Aaron Shedlock never ceases to amaze me with the depth of emotion he portrays with his characters, and I can really hear how he's grown over time in his narration since one of my pet peeves was how he'd sound overly whiny when there was an emotional part or he was narrating a female while using slightly overdramatic inflections. I heard none of that in this book, and I can tell this man has worked hard to hone his craft. He brought life into his character and my heart broke for both Chloe/Jess and for Zane in large part due to the emotion that their narration made me feel as I listened.

The content of the book itself was perfection. The depth of Zane's obsession with Chlessica (oh yes, that's what I'm calling Chloe/Jessica and you, dear fellow reader, will just have to deal with that cringe) was something to behold. My favorite kind of romance to read is the romance about the stalker, the mentally ill man, the hitman, the oddball army vet (Two Weeks Notice, best book ever), all of those archetypes that set my blood on FIRE with the depth of their depraved, insane need to have the woman they've caught sight of. That kind of love is something that every woman thinks she wants and likes to fantasize about. Of course, that's not how it works in real life, but it's fun to read and imagine someone so deeply devoted and obsessed with your wellbeing. Zane took those books (which I've read a LOT of mind you), and blew them all right out of the water. He's next level obsessed, to the point where I think there needs to be a new word invented for the term because it's entirely separate from the concept with how much deeper, darker, and insane it is. And I positively cannot get enough of it. I drank up every word of his insane ramblings about killing her and himself if she doesn't want him, his desire to be with her so bad that he's willing to do just about anything to keep her by his side. That level of darkness is something I've been looking for forever In a romantic suspense book, and gosh dangit, that only further sealed the deal for me that I had fallen in love with this series. The darkest obsessions are my favorite, and this one is not for the faint of heart by any means.

In terms of the writing, everything done was done right. There's no monotonous monologues (inner or outer), no overly flowy and fluffy language with mind numbing descriptions of environments that go on and on, no tropes that we see all too often in this genre, none of it. And man, was it the breath of fresh air I was hoping to get for those very reasons. The plot is unique and highly unpredictable (you know what I mean, we all know there's a HEA but I mean that just about anything could happen next and I wouldn't have been able to guess that) and I absolutely love that. I have only one complaint about this book/series, and that's the normal one that all readers on Audible have provided at one point or another on a romance book review; the books seem to be short enough that they could have been released as one novel, so was there a publisher or editor out there that made this decision? Why? I'm not sure if maybe it's just me because I've been listening to 12 hour long romance series more often recently, but I wonder about that. I would think people would often just decide to buy a Kindle version of the book for much cheaper instead (the people I know would, anyway), unless they happen to be a "hardcore" audiobook fan like me. It's too bad, too, because they'll be missing out on some A+ top of the line narration and I can't imagine missing that to read the book instead. Regardless, I can't stop now! I don't have mania, but I do certainly obsess over certain things and right now, I'm obsessing about finishing the second book so off I go!

Explicit and great characters

This isn't a book for people that don't like a lot of details amd dirt in the bedroom screens. They are definitely explicit. I enjoyed it and it made it fun for me and my other half to listen to lol. It isn't all shut though, there is a very good story line and right away you root for the main character. Narrators are both great for these characters

SO GOOD!

LOOOOOOOVED THIS SO HARD ❤🥵 I like the romances with psychological disorders 🤭 Note to self: get straight jacket for kink.

I've started to become disappointed....

I love the Ruthless King Series and have listened to all of them, however the last couple have been incomplete. The previous books all finished the story regarding the current couple but not the last 2 or 3 I've listened to. It has been very disappointing!