The Madness of Viscount Atherbourne by Elisa Braden
On the surface, Victoria Lacey has the perfect life. She comes from a respectable family with extremely caring brothers that she’s close to and she’s landed a good fiancé. The Flower of Blackmore is set to have a safe and wonderful future. The issue? It’s so safe that Victoria is doomed to marry a kind but extremely boring man! At least, that was her future until Lucien Wyatt seduced her at a party, publicly destroying her image in the process. The Flower of Blackmore is no more, and she’s about to marry the man who is using her as part of his revenge plot against her brother!
I am loving this series! The writing is excellent and the stories are gripping. While this one drags for a little bit in the middle, it was almost as good as the prequel novella of sorts! We follow Victoria and Lucien from the day they destroy her reputation all the way through the early days of their marriage. It was interesting to see Victoria go from lamenting about her boring future to entering a marriage with someone who ignites her from within. What a huge difference!
The twist was quite interesting. I’m really interested in seeing how that continues to affect various characters as the series goes on. I think the relationships are truly the shining star in this book. Victoria has a relationship with several characters, and I particularly loved her relationship with her new friend Jane. I’m excited to see more of Jane in the next book, which I believe follows her in addition to Victoria’s brothers! I also liked the dynamic between Victoria and Harrison as well as Colin even though we didn’t get to see much of it due to the revenge plot.
While we got to know several of the characters, I feel like we didn’t get to know Lucien as well as Victoria even though he was one of the protagonists. We got to know what was most important about him, but it was otherwise superficial and mostly about his lust and love for his wife. I think that’s part of why the middle of the book dragged for me. At that point, it was mostly about how in love and in lust the two were for each other while waiting for the other shoe to drop without the high stakes. However, it seemed like we knew Lucien about as well as Victoria did at that point other than knowing that he’s a pretty solid dude at the chore.
Otherwise, it’s a pretty good book! I found it believable that Victoria and Lucien fell fast and hard for each other. It seemed like we danced around getting to know Lucien all book long, but there’s a good cast of characters and a great story on top of excellent writing. I’m looking forward to seeing more of the characters as well as their dynamic with one another in the next book!
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