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

Really enjoyed it

I was very happy with this book and would only change a couple minor things. It’s the first of this author but I’ll definitely be looking for more. There was no angst and the heroine didn’t annoy me like so many other books.

Great story, characters and steamy scenes!

I am an audible addict, I typically go through a book every 1.5 days and this is the first review I have ever written. I really enjoyed this book. The narrator did an excellent job, the characters are interesting, the plot is a bit different than the typical romance novel as they can tend to seem similar after a while, and the author does a great job with the steamy scenes! I often times find myself skipping through a few minutes of books when I hit the 75% mark of romance novels (characters are too self indulgent, woeful) but I was in this book every minute.

Narrator is the worst uuurrrrggg .

I wish miss Braden only have Ruth Urquhart to narrate her book. I can’t even get to chapter 3 with Mary Sarah narrating the book,she is so annoying. Ruined the whole book. What ashamed.

What a GREAT find.

I was just roaming around looking for someone new to read, and this title stood out. I always read the reviews, and was turned off about what was said about the narrator. She is really bad, but I increased the speed. That made the listening so much better. This is a great story with some good twists and turns to make it different. I am on to the second book, but I will listen to this one again. Sex scenes are very sensual and moving (if you know what I mean). Glad I took a chance on this one.

Stayed up all night to finish.......

Truly enjoyed this book....Great characters and compelling story line. I could not put it down......

Mediocre

Franklin was disappointed in the weak story line and rather unbelievable characters. Very boring and predictable. Perhaps the series improves but right now I’m not terribly motivated to continue reading the next book.

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.

Just Not For Me....

For some reason the first chapter the narrator was VERY difficult for me to understand. it did get a bit easier as she went along but her whispery, very pronounced drawn out S's, P's, TH's and Sh's made it difficult for me to hear clearly. She did excellent in her dramatization, I could tell she got INTO the story. I believe she was too close to the microphone and had whoever was in charge of recording, done their job, so many people would not of struggled with the audible part of this book. I, personally, didn't care for this book. But only because I struggled with the borderline Dominant/Submissive relationship between the characters. The sex scenes were very passionate, and started off almost immediately and didn't let up....so for those readers who are looking for THAT, you won't be disappointed!! It isn't because this book is not well written, because it is. I just prefer different types of characters and a little less on the physical sex side, more on the,romance love side.