• Shameless

  • House of Rohan Series, Book 4
  • By: Anne Stuart
  • Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
  • Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (421 ratings)

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Shameless  By  cover art

Shameless

By: Anne Stuart
Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
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Publisher's summary

A long string of tragic loves haunts Viscount Benedick Francis Alistair Rohan. Cool and cynical, he's weary of life's fickle games and wants a prim and proper wife he can ignore while indulging his sensual appetites.

Lady Melisande Carstairs is nothing less than a tornado storming into Benedick's measured life. Possessed of boundless energy and the soul of a reformer, Melisande always conquers, whether it's saving the souls of soiled doves or seducing the man she's inconveniently fallen for. When she informs Benedick that his brother's newly revived Heavenly Host has graduated from simple carnal debauchery to sadistic violence, he's compelled to investigate, undercover. Under those covers, however, is Melisande herself, playing a dangerous game in the name of justice. And the Heavenly Host has just seen her hand, and more.

Pay another visit to the House of Rohan.
©2011 Anne Kristine Stuart Ohlrogge (P)2011 Tantor

What listeners say about Shameless

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The end of a wonderful series. Re: Susan Ericksen

I love Anne Stuart's Rohan books. I didn't like the third book as much as the first two, but this one was very good. (Ruthless and Reckless are two of my favorite audiobooks.)

I'm responding here to Susan who complained that the narration was unbearable. Susan Ericksen is one of the most well loved and well respected narrators in Audio Books. She is flawless in every book that she reads. And if she doesn't say Don Quixote quite the same as you do, consider that you are from Georgia.

Ericksen began her auidio career in west Michigan when Brilliance Audio was a start-up company. The amount of work she does to get her characters voice and accents right is amazing. Check out her biography from Audiophile Magazine. She also works hand in hand with BBC productions for their recordings and is renown for her study of accents and ability to do various English accents, depending on the character's location and background.

She has received so many awards it's hard to count.

I write this knowing it may not be read. But I listen to so many audiobooks, that I am shocked when someone goes off on one of the absolute finest female Narrators on audible. Only Rosalyn Landors as widely respected.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Strong entry in this series

I really like this series. The characters aren't perfect and I prefer them that way. There are some laugh out loud moments, especially with Richmond (the butler?). There are enough teasers throughtout the book to indicate the next book in the series will be about Brandon (Benedick's brother) and Emma - two very flawed and interesting characters. I can't wait for that one.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Solid Romance

Okay, I didn't notice the "Don Quicks-Oat" mispronunciation. I did notice a fun story.

Most of the book is completely unbelievable, but I'm fine with suspending belief for 10 hours.

I have not read any of Rohan series so I can't really compare it to the other books. I did think Shameless was fine as a stand-alone novel.

I will warn you that the sex scenes are explicit. The heroine is totally sexually repressed and learners the ways of love through the hero. It's pretty much a sexin 101 class, but with the occult. Good times!


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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Love this family.

What made the experience of listening to Shameless the most enjoyable?

I enjoy the Rohan family stories. The Rohan's (both husbands/wives/heroine's) are fabulously fun personalities. I did find myself laughing out loud in a few places.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Shameless?

The tiny gun - too funny.

Have you listened to any of Susan Ericksen’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

She's always pleasant to listen to.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

A devilish affair.

Any additional comments?

Not one of the best in the series but definitely a nice escape and fun listen. Looking forward to the next one. Keep them coming Anne.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

The formula works better here

There’s a certain sameness to all of this author’s books. The character types in particular always feature average looking ladies with disappointing sexual histories (whether by abuse or just poor lovers) and experienced, devilish lords who put on big fronts, pretending not to care about love and honor, while being unable to resist the precocious, vulnerable plain-Janes thrust into their orbit. The series also revolves around a club of debauchery, making soiled doves and abuse of women a permanent plot point. Sometimes this last bit, and the darkness of the gents, goes too far for me to enjoy (case in point the previous book: Breathless).

In this book, the formula works mostly well. Melisande is delightful as an earnest, yet remarkably innocent, champion of a gaggle of ruined women. Benedick is convincing in his struggle to avoid romantic entanglement. The flirtation has chemistry and the get-togethers are sinfully sexy. I really enjoy the author’s writing style.

However, the internal struggles of both of them run longer than needed. The intrigue surrounding a threat to the fallen ladies also runs longer than needed with depressing observations of the plight of working girls. And, my biggest disappointment is the author’s unfortunate fixation on creating conflict by making the h a victim of assault. In my regency romances, I prefer the lords to save their ladies before they are assaulted by the bad guys, not after. Here, Melisande’s assault is merely referenced after the fact, but I still think it was entirely unnecessary. Finally, I was exasperated by the author’s odd formula of having her ladies jump into sex so quickly after being abused. Here, there’s literally a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am when facing imminent.danger and death.

Thank goodness for Ms. Erickson’s narration, whose energy kept me invested and whose tone kept things from getting too dark. There is a conclusion/HEA for Melisande and Benedick in this book, however a lot of groundwork for Brandon’s story arc is laid out in preparation for the next book: Heartless.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Second time is a charm

I had listened to Susan's narration once and was sorely disappointed with her performance on that book...I am glad to say she did a far better job with this series...it helps that this was a different kind of series based on generations.....I think the whole summoning the devil and all that was taking it to a different turn but it was a strong enjoyable and entertaining series.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Gothic and sexy

This follows the same formula as its predecessors. A beautiful Rohan rake meets stubborn girl with average looks and falls in love. Nicknamed Charity for her good works the widowed Lady Carstairs spends her fortune getting young girls off the streets to be housed and trained for employment under her roof. Associating so closely with the whores and lower class of London has made her a social pariah, but as she has no plans to ever remarry she doesn't care. But her girls start turning up dead at the hands of a mysterious sex cult called the Heavenly Host. To investigate the cult and ultimately save her girls she must enlist the help of Lord Rohan, whose family has old ties with the cult. Benedict Rohan -like his predecessors- sees the naive, feisty girl as a plaything to tease and taunt and agrees to help her. Along the way he loses his heart to her and must fight to save her from the clutches of the evil sex cult.
To my delight no secondary romance!! The best friend DIDN'T fall in love with some random dude after 5 seconds. They built up her character and gave a first interaction with a hint of more to come. She probably has her own book. Finally! Strong female bestie is getting her due respect.
If I had any criticism it would be that the plot focused a little too much on Rohan seducing and not enough on the overarching plot of stopping the evil sex cult. I mean, I don't want to give spoilers, but it was akin to those scary movies where the stupid teenagers take a break running away from the mutant shark/serial killer to make out. Its just frustrating. Like, "REALLY dudes? You're going to do that NOW?! Lives are endangered! Yours included. Time sensitive threats still in play and you're doing that NOW?" I mean I guess the main point of the book is to be sexy. It's just a pet peeve really. I guess I don't buy the premise that a person would feel horny in a situation like that.
I very much liked the characters and it was fun to see other Rohans guest staring as support characters.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Don Quicks-Oat? Really??

If the producer listened to this, the mispronunciation of Don Quixote evidently didn't leap out and slap his ears as it did mine. Glaring errors like that one can distract me for hours from what might otherwise be a fine story.

In this case, the story was a rather weak addition to the Rohan series. The female protagonist isn't terribly interesting, and the Rohan offspring whose attention she draws is not wicked at all, just a bit crude for her taste. He's a rake of course, but seems to be missing the anti-hero gene that made his father and brother irresistible..

"Shameless" has merit because it's an Anne Stuart novel, even if not one of her best. The narration, imperfect throughout the series because of the fake English accent, has by Book 4 become downright annoying.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Least favorite of the series. Still good.

I've enjoyed "The House of Rohan" series. Mild bodice ripper, Regency romances. Anti heros that you can fall in love with. Heroines that are damsel in destress, because of the anti-hero. But strong enough to rescue themselves.

This is my least favorite installment. The heroine was tedious and very difficult to cheer for. Asks the hero for help. Then fights his help every step of the way. The premise of her righteous anger was a simple plot devise: all of the aristocratics-bad. All lower class-victims and good. That simplistic writing is not Anne Stuart's usual fare.

Still. I have enjoyed the series overall.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Favorite series delivers again! 💜💜

I honestly keep expecting to be unsatisfied, I mean, we cant love ALL the books in a series can we? Well, so far I sure have! I llllooooooovvvvveeeeee Susan Ericksens narration!!! Its so easy with her soothing voice to get immersed in the book. Oh how I wish she did more of this genre!!!!

This story was a little different than the others in that Benedick wasn't part of the HH, just a relation. Melesande is a woman who dedicates her life to giving prostitutes a safe place to live and the opportunity to garner skills to work outside of that profession. She seeks his help because of his connection to HH and the fact that girls are coming to her having been harmed by the new HH group. I love the part of the storyline with the saving of the prostitutes and I absolutely love the “gaggle” of girls she has. The only thing a little disappointing is that it wasn't really explained, at the end of the book, what happened to them when Melesande married. But, since the next story is about Brandon and Emma, hopefully we’ll get the explanation.

I am devastated that I’ve only got one story left! I want to both read it right away because I love this series, and also put it to the bottom of the queue to be savored!!!

Definitely worth a full credit!

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