Audiobook Review: The Viscount Who Lived Down the Lane by Elizabeth Boyle

The Viscount Who Lived Down the Lane 
by Elizabeth Boyle
Series:  Rhymes with Love #4
Pub. Date:  October 28, 2014
Publisher:  HarperAudio
Narrator:  Susan Duerden
Length:  10hrs 34min
Format:  Audiobook
Source:  Library/Overdrive
   

My Rating:  
Sultry Scale:

In New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Boyle's fourth novel in the Rhymes With Love series, a resolute young woman goes toe-to-toe with the Beast of Mayfair...

She has no desire for love...

As she arrives in Mayfair, Louisa Tempest is horrified when her incorrigible cat bolts from the carriage and dashes into a neighbor's house, where she comes face-to-face with the reclusive Viscount Wakefield. But even more dismaying than his foul temper is the disarray in which she finds his home. Convinced his demeanor would improve if his household were in order, Louisa resolves to put everything to rights.

...until she meets the viscount who lives down the lane.

Much to his chagrin, Wakefield finds it impossible to keep the meddling Louisa out of his home, invading his daily life with her "improvements," and his nights with the tempting desires she sparks inside him. Wounded in the war, he's scorned society ever since his return . . . until Louisa opens the door to his heart and convinces him to give love a second chance.

I picked up this audiobook from my library (via Overdrive)... and my library had it listed as first in the series. Not until about halfway through did I look at Goodreads and see its actually fourth! Argh! This makes me twitchy with self-diagnosed reading OCD. I must read things in order! Shame on you Nola Public Library for contributing to my crazy.

Anyway, despite reading these way out of order - I LOVED THIS AUDIOBOOK! The story was cute as all get out. I loved the characters, even Hannibal the Demon cat. I laughed, I cried, I smiled alot. The narrator was fan-freaking-tastic, she was very posh and British and added a great element to the story.

Our heroine, Louisa, is a twin who has traveled to London for a season because her sister, Lavinia, wants to get married. The Tempest twins bear a surname that is apropos because they leave absolute chaos in their wake. Both are extremely clumsy and accident-prone, which rather reminded me of myself. This is Louisa's story, which is somewhat intertwined with Lavinia's story, Knave of Hearts, which will be released later this year.

Upon arriving in London, Louisa's hellcat, Hannibal, bounds off into her neighbor's house creating mass havoc. The neighbor is our hero, Lord Wakefield, and a reclusive war veteran who has not left his residence since returning home injured from the Napoleanic War. Louisa invades his home and life like an aptly-named tempest, determined to do the neighborly thing and put his household to rights whether he likes it or not. As you can imagine, the well-meaning goofball klutz creates more havoc than order, and hilarity ensues. But it turns out that havoc is just what Wakefield needed to bring him out of his drunken stupor and back to the living.

This was a sweet lighthearted romance with a few steamy encounters along the way. Don't think the story had only the neighborly interaction though, there was a little bit of everything to satisfy the avid historical romance reader including the season, Almack's, shopping, gossip, scandal, carriage rides in the park, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this one and look forward to going back to start the series from the beginning. 

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Rhymes with Love Series