Potent Pleasures

The Pleasures Trilogy, Book 1

By: Eloisa James

Narrated by: Susan Duerden

Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Nothing is more seductive than temptation.

Reckless desire sends Charlotte Daicheston into the garden with a dashing masked stranger. He's powerful and unforgettable, a devastatingly handsome footman who lures her - not against her will - into a grand indiscretion at a masquerade ball. Then he vanishes.

Several years later, after Charlotte has made her dazzling debut in London society, they meet again. But the rogue is no footman. He's rich, titled, and he doesn't remember Charlotte. Worse, he's the subject of some scandalous gossip: Rumor has it that the earl's virility is in question.

Charlotte, who knows all too intimately the power of his passion, is stunned by the gossip that has set society ablaze. At last, there can be a storybook ending... unless, of course, Charlotte's one mad indiscretion had not been with him at all.

©1999 Eloisa James (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Fantastic

Any additional comments?

This is not Jane Austen by any means, but I think it is a great romance novel. The heroine (Charlotte) is very likable. Her parents are wonderful. The hero (Alex) is a good "bad boy". His behavior to Charlotte can be absolutely horrible sometimes (which is shivering good reading because you know he will get his comeuppance). Pippa, Alex's daughter, is absolutely precious thanks to the performance of Susan Duerden. This book kept my interest from the beginning to the end. It brought tears (satisfying ones) and laughter. I highly recommend it.

Interesting plot. Excellent naration.

I buy automatically every audiobook by Eloisa James narated by Rosalyn Landor.

I liked the heroine and found the hero charming. Most of the time.

Lacks substance

The story line is maddening! I got the era and romance but i expected more of hero and heroine... Blah!

Nothing more obnoxious than a

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I wasn't a fan of the hero of the book. Alex was fine until they married, then he was whiney, refused to listen and irrational. NOPE, if you can look past it, then the book will be fine. I liked the overall story, I liked that she wasn't a pure miss so to speak.

Great story but can’t put up with cruel and stupid heroes.

Overall a very interesting and fun regency plot -but- I have never disliked a hero more than this one. Not one redeeming feature. No heroine would put up with the on and off cruelty he aimed towards her. I love this author and the narrator, but this hero was just so awful.

He’s not as bad as some reviews state

I was worried after a couple reviews and honeybee H treated her. Yes, he was an idiot. Yes, I would have throat punched him, but I’ve read way worse H characters and I liked the book a lot

Excellent!

loved the story. very vivid . had my attention the whole story. I love a great love story.

This performance is a caricature of its self.

The performance is so freaking cheesy I felt like I was in a dairy farm. So the premise, completely absurd, Ok spoiler alert, Earl de-flowers a count’s underage daughter at a low class Soirée. Earl remembers the girl as the girl of his dreams, but can’t remember her when he meets her??? Pulllllleeese!! But ok, it’s the genre all is forgiven…
BUUUUUUUUuuuuuuutttttttt!!!! The performance is effen awful I nearly gave up… it’s a cliche of its own self. This type of pulp fiction is known for its overdramatized nonsense that this reading is laughably cartoonish rendering of that over-polished, golden age, nonsense. I had to back up some phrases for my husband to hear because they were so hysterically badly affected I wanted to share the joke. I’m wondering if the woman reading this ever thought her acting career was going to crash and burn on this gilded pile of garbage.

Ok, but once was enough

For some reason I’ve written my review three times and audible has lost every time! Super frustrating! So what I finally end up with here is a crummy review but after writing it four times you kind of lose your mojo. LOL

I will say that this book took way too long to get to the point, and I sped it up early on. It was kind of ridiculous how long they carried on the storyline of Alex and Charlotte dancing around that they had slept together. Still that was not terribly awful just drawn out. But the one thing that really just completely turned me off of the entire story, and this may or may not be a spoiler so if you hit spoilers of any kind probably don’t keep reading, but when he promised her that he would not get angry at her the way he had and treated her so abominably at one point but then turned right around and did the exact same thing that just ticked me off and I just had lost any respect for both of the characters.

It was probably worth the half credit I paid for it in a two for one sale, but I definitely would’ve returned it if it was a full credit. What I read anymore in the series? I would probably try one more if it was in a two for one sale.

Even free with membership I couldn't finish

My beloved Eloisa James, I'm shocked this is so bad. Passion as a plot device to do stupid stuff is accepted by lovers of this genre. This story, however, reads like it encourages men to ignore it when a woman says get your hands off me.

also, the narrator has that terrible cadence to reading that robs so many lines of their intended emotion to the point of confusion.