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.

Listening Length

9 hours and 8 minutes
Author

Elisa Braden
Narrator

Mary Sarah
Audible release date

December 5, 2017
Language

English
Publisher

Tantor Audio
ASIN

B077MD62XB
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	9 hours and 8 minutes
Author	Elisa Braden
Narrator	Mary Sarah
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	December 05, 2017
Publisher	Tantor Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B077MD62XB
Best Sellers Rank	#89,587 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #780 in Regency Romance #12,763 in Regency Romances

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

997 global ratings

5 star		61%
4 star		27%
3 star		9%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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susy R

new author

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 22, 2023

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Liked the story between Victoria and Lucien. Harrison seems really stuffy , hope to see his HEA and a 360 in his stuffiness

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katelyn

A Tricky Story Indeed

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 9, 2023

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Surprise twists and turns in this plot. The events keep the reader wondering where this is going in between the steamy and lustful times. Great read.

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AnaKa

Flawed but beloved

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 1, 2019

Verified Purchase

Spoiler alert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love this book and have re-read it several times despite its flaws. Revenge tropes are one of my favorite so I was 100 percent in when I purchased this book. The attraction between the H and h was palpable and you could see how these two came to love each other. The aspects of the book that I see others struggle with are the ones that I actively avoid in order to enjoy other parts of the book. I see many reviews saying that it was not really revenge because the H was kind and grew to love the h quickly. It was revenge because first he takes away her choice in marrying someone that she loves as opposed to being forced to marry the H in order to avoid a scandal. Although she is attracted to him, she is not in love and yes I know that is not an important aspect of marriages in this time period, but it’s almost always important to the heroines in romance novels. He actively forbids her from seeing her brother and ensures that the h doesn’t receive her brother’s letters. She feels sad and isolated without her brother as a support. When she makes attempts to leave and see her brother, the H uses their physical attraction to weaken her resolve and distract her from going to her brother. His staff is even instructed to never allow her to take the carriage or their horses to her brother’s home. He uses her as a pawn and more than once makes her feel that his revenge and his hatred for her brother are more important than the H’s feelings for the h. Despite all of these negatives, what made it more acceptable to me was that we get to see the H’s POV and we can see how conflicted he feels about his actions.

3 people found this helpful

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Tabby1249

Well written, absorbing

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 16, 2015

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The Madness of Viscount Atherbourne contains all the necessary ingredients for a satisfying romance: a dashing, devastatingly handsome but tortured male protagonist, a beautiful, kind and loving female protagonist, a revenge plot, a not too surprising plot twist, good character development, and a hard fought for HEA. Some authors take these elements and create a really good story that clips along and others, with all those same elements create drudgery. I am happy to report that Ms. Braden's efforts fall into the former rather than the later.

For me, the characters' actions need to have some logic behind them, the plot complications need to feel believable, the characters need to develop and grow over the course of the story and the ending needs to make sense. Happily, this story and its characters make sense, is well written and absorbing and the ending made me cry. One of the highlights of this book is the character development, especially that of the the hero, Lord Lucien Atherbourne. The cause of his tortured angst is completely justified even if his method of revenge seemed a little far fetched. However, I felt that the characterization of the heroine, Victoria, was a bit weaker. It took her a little too long to to find her spine, but not so long that I lost patience with her as I so often do in romance novels. There are some interesting secondary characters who make significant contributions to the story. I especially liked the Greek chorus like comments of Lady Wallingham found in the chapter headings. They were pithy, humorous and set a slightly more sophisticated tone than what is often found in Regency Era romance novels.

Bottom line: You may find that this story drags a bit through the first half, that Victoria shouldn't have been surprised as she was at the depth of Lucien's commitment to revenge, and that she gives in a shade too often to sexual attraction when she shouldn't, but you will also find that this is a very well written book. I'm pretty sure that you'll care about the characters and you'll be invested in their achieving a happy ending. In short, it's worth your time and your money. Now I'm off to get the second book in the series.

16 people found this helpful

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Pamela B.

Spellbinding

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 22, 2022

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Such a good story & plot! Each character is wonderfully described and developed. The love story is steamy enough to satisfy!
Love learning about the aristocracy of historical England, or any era when presented as pure entertainment!

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Edwina "I Love books"

ENJOYABLE H/H

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 29, 2018

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Very enjoyable story of a Duel that resulted in the death of Gregory Viscount Atherbourne. The new Viscount Lucien is his brother. Now set on revenge for his brothers death and the death of his sister. He goes after Harrison Lacey Duke of Blackmore for whom he believes are responsible for there deaths. He takes his sister away by publically compromising her at a Ball.

After Victoria and Lucien are wed they have what I would call a erotic sensual connection. What Victoria doesn't know is at this time Lucien is using her by not letting her brother Harrison visit her. He even makes sure she doesn't recieve the letters he writes her. She think he is not answering her letters. When she realizes the truth she is hurt dismayed and wants to see her brother. So she refuses to make love with Lucien. They will only pretend there marriage is a love match in front of the Ton in public.

This was a sad story when you find out why the duel occured and what happen to Atherbourne's young sister. You begin to understand his hatred toward Harrison and why he wants revenge. But is Harrison the Duke of Blackmore Really Guitly? I never though he was. Just from the way he loved his sister and his brother. He was a very honorable man. But I was not sure until i read what caused the duel.

Lucien and Victoria were brilliantly written and I love both of there characters. The secondary characters were well written also.

I started out listen to this story on Audible book but the narrator's British Accent was very hard to understand at times. The story was recorded on a low volume so even when you turned up the volume it was not very easy to hear. I had to then download it on my kindle and read it.

7 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Kindle Customer

Liked Lucien and Victoria but this is a bore

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 2, 2020

Verified Purchase

Dull as dish water. Hated the sexual desperation of the heroine. She allows a complete stranger to ravish her on the very public balcony of a ball, to quote- "expose her bossom and suckle at her breast like a babe", very off putting description but also not believable of a lady of the time. She then is so desperated for him physically she let's him get away with far too much disrespectful treatment of her just for his body.

Don't get me wrong, I love heated stories, I read gritty MC books, dub con books, omegaverse books, all for their heated scenes, so I'm not a prude but her insta lust was completely off putting and just not believable in a historical romance. Even putting that aside. The story and story telling bored me. Too many dull scenes and it was all extremely predictable. Easy to tell that her husband had mixed up the brothers from very early on. Struggled not to give up. It took three days to finally make myself finish, only because I paid for it.

I try to give authors a couple of chances in case I just happen to book the one boring book, so I considered trying her brother Harrison's book and especially James Killbrenner's book because he sounded yum, the small glimpse at the end of this book for those were also boring and put me off purchasing. It's not good when the glimpses ment to tempt a purchase are dull and boring! I'd only recommend a read if it was free on KU

2 people found this helpful

LDRG

Disappointing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 3, 2020

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(Mild spoilers ahead) Having read the prequel to this series, "Ever Yours, Annabelle", I was really looking forward to this book. The plot sounded great. Jaded hero who entraps the sister of his enemy and ends up falling for her? Bring it on! This book seemed to promise tension and passion... but it never quite delivers. Firstly, the two characters fall in love (or lust) almost immediately, whereas I would have preferred a build up. And then the heroine would follow this pattern: angry about being denied the chance to see her brother, she denies her husband the chance to be intimate with her, but would ultimately relent as she couldn't resist him, and this would be repeated a few times. She didn't have much of a back bone. The tension and suspense never reaches its highs in this book and I was overall left disappointed.

2 people found this helpful

giki

A historical romance in the grand tradition.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 13, 2019

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Victoria Lacey is an innocent caught in the crossfire of a vicious feud between her brother and Viscount Atherbourne. Publicly disgraced she becomes the instrument of the viscount's revenge against her brother.
When she is discovered in a scandalous embrace with Atherton on a terrace at the grandest ball of the season, her pristine reputation is in tatters and her wedding cancelled. When Atherbourne offers to marry her she takes the chance to lessen the scandal. But there is also something about the viscount that draws her to him, his passionate kisses, his heated whispers. Nothing like the safe, dull fiancée who cast her off at the first hint of trouble. Perhaps she has a real chance for happiness here, two people brought together for the wrong reasons might just work out well. But Athertbourne's revenge has only just begun, Victoria has yet to discover just how nasty he can be.
This is a fun read and although it does touch on serious themes it remains positive and engaging. I developed a real soft spot for Atherton, especially when he was at his most vengeful.
The redoubtable Dowager Marchioness of Wallingham– who's pithy wit and wisdom starts every chapter, is a real star. She more than makes up for the fact that Victoria can be a bit of a drip at times,

One person found this helpful

Alison10

but even when he was being screwed-up I couldn't dislike him. I felt I could understand his warped ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 15, 2015

Verified Purchase

This is a new author to me, but I can see that I will be searching out others by her.

I was totally involved in the story, and the characters, and found it extremely difficult to put down. And after rushing through it, desperate to find out what happened to Lucien and Victoria, I had to read it again to absorb things I had not fully understood the first time.

Lucien was a very damaged person, but even when he was being screwed-up I couldn't dislike him. I felt I could understand his warped position. Victoria was also pretty believable - starting as a bit of a pattern book heroine (innocent gone astray) but coming into a strong personality and trying to sort her relationship out.

I was also interested in several of the other characters - and hope their lives may be laid bare for us in other books!

This is not a Georgette Heyer Regency Romance. If that is as raunchy as you like, this novel is not for you. However, I felt that all the 'romance' was an extension of the relationship of the hero and heroine and it was therefore quite acceptable to me.

12 people found this helpful

Astrid Steed

Absolutely wonderful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 28, 2020

Verified Purchase

This is my first book by Elisa and I was instantly hooked. What a brilliant story of loss, revenge and forgiveness with sensuality, romance and naughty steamy love scenes. I loved everything about it - the interesting story, the well developed characters, the witty conversations, the sadness, the humour and the steamy love scenes. It’s exactly what I like in Regency romance. I fell in love with Lucien and Victoria. Lucien ruins Victoria and marries her for revenge but then falls for his wife. I am so glad I have discovered Elisa. It's an absolutely wonderful story. I'm looking forward to reading book 2.

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The Madness of Viscount Atherbourne: Rescued from Ruin Series, Book 1 Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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