The Madness of Viscount Atherbourne

Rescued from Ruin Series, Book 1

By: Elisa Braden

Narrated by: Mary Sarah

Life for Victoria Lacey should be perfect. And it is - perfectly boring.

Agree to marry a lord who has yet to inspire a single, solitary tingle? Why, of course. Smile as though this is not the thousandth time he's mentioned hounds and hunting? It's all in a day's work for the oh-so-proper sister of the Duke of Blackmore. Surely no one would suspect her secret longing for heart-racing, head-spinning passion.

Except, perhaps, a dark stranger...on a terrace...at a ball where she should definitely not be kissing a man she has only just met.

Hatred, not love, drives Lucien Wyatt, Viscount Atherbourne, to tempt the "Flower of Blackmore" into sin. Her brother has done unthinkable damage to Lucien's family, and he intends to exact revenge in the only way left to him: Ruining his enemy's sister, then stealing her from Blackmore by making her his own.

As Lucien carries out his ruthless plan, tutoring his new bride in the finer points of pleasure, her surrender leaves him breathless...and soon a new obsession awakens - a scandalous fascination with his irresistible wife.

Contains mature themes.

©2015 Elisa Braden (P)2017 Tantor

Beautifully written, wonderfully narrated.

This book was enchanting, compelling, and wonderfully narrated. There was simmering romance and heartbreaking moments. I loved it!

Great debut to a fantastic series

I read this series all out of order and I’m somewhat glad I did. The passion of the book was amazing, I loved the introduction of so many great side characters that will get their own books and are so rich and nuanced. I really felt the world building in this book as if it were a fantasy world and not just your every day regency romance. The passion between the hero and heroine was palpable and it’s one of the hotter HRs I’ve read. But while this book exhibits all of Braden’s smooth and captivating story telling abilities but on my second listen I found Atherbourne’s actions toward Victoria very disturbing and nearly abusive: separating someone from their family, loved ones, and even friends and allies so that they becomes completely dependent on you is a form of abuse. She gets to the point where she is thrilled that he has deigned to agree to attempt to be friends. Though there is no physical abuse and he dotes on her in many ways (she can have any room she wants, she can have any THING she wants etc) he emotionally isolated her - this is probably a small thing to many romance readers but it was upsetting to me and may be to others. I feel Victoria was too forgiving and he didn’t really have a grovel or lightbulb moment (just that he had actually been wrong about the perpetrator all along). So while I loved the storytelling I had some issues with the hero that didn’t RUIN the book but definitely knocked it down a peg or two.

Excellent

What makes this book great is a good story, a balanced mixture of sex scenes and themes that are cohesive and which make it like a concerto. Everything blends well in this book.

Terrible British Accent

The narrator's accent made me cringe and really detracted from the story. I'm American and even I know to pronounce Berkeley Square as "Barkly" Square, not "Berkly" Square. And if you're reading Regency Romances aloud, at least make an attempt to get "ton" right! And those are just two of many examples. As other reviewers have said, the way she pronounces some words makes it hard to understand. I have to use context clues and think, "Oh, that's the word!" before moving on. The story was good enough but I won't be listening to more in this series because they all have the same narrator.

Stormy sexy

I didn’t love Victoria much, but Lucien was very smooth and sexy. I read book 7 out of order so now I am on to book 2. I hope it’s good I have high hopes for Harrison!