Husband Hunt audiobook

This is one of those books that I enjoyed quite a bit, but recognize that it’s got a lot of flaws. So if you’re in the mood for a fun, fast-moving story about a hero and heroine who were clearly meant for each other, then look no further. Just know going in that you’re going to have to “just go with it” in order to get full enjoyment.(view spoiler)[The book starts with the heroine, Lisa, at a brothel getting drugged by the Madame, whom she’d stupidly thought of as a friend. The Madame reveals she was paid by a particular suitor who wants to rape Lisa in order to force a marriage. Lisa’s maid manages to escape to find Robert, Lisa’s childhood friend, whom she’s been in love with forever, though he claims to think of her as a sister.While she awaits rescue, the Madame comes back, forces Lisa to drink some kind of drug, and has her dressed in a see-through gown to await her suitor. Then Robert climbs through the window to save her in the nick of time. He’s pretty shocked to see Lisa’s shapely body on full display, and it jolts him out of his self-enforced determination to always see her as a little girl with pigtails. Lisa is totally loopy and uninhibited because of the drugs so she confesses her love for Robert for what is apparently the hundredth time. He, wrestling with an inconvenient erection and unable to tear his eyes away from her body, insists that he doesn’t feel the same. Even in her inebriated state, this hurts Lisa’s feelings and she says that maybe she should turn her attentions to finding a different man then. Robert says that he wishes she would. Lisa runs into her house in tears.Then she bizarrely only takes a nap and then is ready to go to a ball. Apparently being kidnapped and drugged aren’t enough for her to want to take the night off. In fact, she doesn’t even really think of her experience as an ordeal. She’s much more upset by what Robert said in the carriage, and she’s determined to move on from him. So she plans to throw herself into the titular Husband Hunt. There’s one guy in particular, Findley, whom she remembers from her last trip to London. He was handsome and she hopes to see him again.Meanwhile, Robert runs back to the brothel to try to determine the name of the suitor, but the Madame escapes. Robert hires a Bow Street Runner to track her down, but in the meantime needs to see that Lisa is protected. So he follows her to the same ball and then pulls her brothers-in-law into a side room. The BILs then conspire to make it so that Robert has to guard Lisa himself. See, both men know that Robert loves Lisa as much as she does him, he’s just not ready to admit it. So they figure that throwing them together will be just the thing to make him come around. They also seem remarkably unconcerned about this would-be kidnapper/rapist/forced husband.Lisa is a smashing success at the ball and all the eligible men fall all over themselves to catch her attention. It’s like a balm to her self-esteem, after all these years of being rejected by Robert. And Findley is there and he’s charming and very interested in her. Robert, on the other hand, is feeling very grumpy at having to watch all these young bucks dancing with Lisa. When Findley tries to steal a kiss on the terrace, Robert interrupts and drags Lisa away.The next morning, Robert moves into Lisa’s house to protect her. He can barely take his eyes off her, but still maintains that he doesn’t want to marry her or anyone. Robert’s backstory is that he’s been raised to believe that the men in his family are cursed to always wed unfaithful women. And, in point of fact, both his mother and grandmother had rather public affairs. His mother hadn’t even waited the traditional mourning period after his father’s death before moving in with her lover. So Robert is quite sure his own marriage would be doomed to the same fate. Therefore, he won’t marry until he absolutely has to, to produce an heir. The next bit of the book centers around Lisa going to various functions with her adoring suitors, and Robert following her in order to keep her safe. There are three men who really catch Lisa’s fancy, but Findley is the front-runner. During another outing, he gets Lisa alone and again almost kisses her, but Robert breaks it up and drags her back home, lecturing her on how she’s taking chances with her life by going off alone. Lisa basically tells him to buzz off. That she’s trying to find a husband and she can’t do that if he’s constantly interrupting.That night at a ball, she and Findley again go out on the terrace and this time he does kiss her. She’s conflicted about the experience. She’s always wanted Robert to be her first kiss. But since he didn’t want her, she felt like she needed to try with Findley. And it was pleasant enough. She didn’t realize, however, that Robert was watching. He’d forced himself not to intervene this time, but inside he was seething. The next day, a bunch of Lisa’s suitors come to call on her at her house and one of them, Pembrook, gives her pastries. She eats them, but soon after she starts vomiting. Since the pastries were the only thing she’d eaten all day, suspicion is cast on them. She’s too sick to go out that night and Robert tends her. After she’s gone to bed, someone comes through her window and tries to kidnap her. Robert is able to save her, but the man gets away. Everyone now suspects that Pembrook is the suitor, since he was the only one who knew she’d be too sick to go out that night.Lisa’s feeling better by the next day and goes to another party. Robert warns her not to go near Pembrook and she says she won’t. However, through a series of mishaps, Pembrook manages to get her alone in the garden where he tries to kiss her. She’s able to get away, but Robert then accosts her and he’s pissed. Ranting about how he’s trying to keep her safe and the moment his back is turned, she runs off with the one guy he told her to steer clear of.He pulls her into a dark room where he starts to berate her for being loose with her favors. She slaps him, and he says he’s going to have to “punish” her. This leads to an impassioned kiss where they’re both wild for each other. Things escalate quickly but then they knock over a table and break apart, realizing how easily they could be found in a compromising position. They exchange some words and Lisa gets in a great zinger about how she needs to get out of the room because she’s “certainly not going to find a husband in here.”Then she runs right into Findley, who claims her for the next dance. He’s seen the state Lisa and Robert were in and guessed what they were up to so he asks if they are an item. Lisa, unbelievably, blathers on about how Robert was just “punishing her with kisses.” This leads Findley to ask if Robert’s kisses were better than his own, and Lisa suggests that Findley give her a “punishing” kiss as well, for comparison. So he takes her back out to that much-used terrace and gives her a very forceful kiss that she finds cruel rather than exciting.The next day, she attends a public outing where she wanders off alone to think. She’s confused. Robert’s kisses prove he doesn’t think of her as a sister, but he’s still insisting he’s not interested in marrying her. Robert follows her and she calls him a coward. She says she knows he loves her, but he won’t admit it because he’s afraid of being hurt, then tells him to leave her alone. He does, but he’s barely a few feet away when a masked man jumps out, renders Lisa unconscious, and tries to kidnap her. Robert fights him, getting a minor knife wound in the process.Lisa wakes up at home, distraught that Robert could have been killed. The BILs and Lisa’s sisters hatch a scheme to try to trap Robert into marrying Lisa. Again, they seem a lot less worried about the attempted kidnapping than in trying to get these two lovebirds together. The plan is for Lisa to seduce Robert while the rest of them are “out” only once she’s good and compromised, they’ll miraculously come back early and “find” them, which will force Robert to do the honorable thing. Lisa isn’t so sure about this. She thinks Robert will hate her when he finds out she set him up, but the sisters insist it’s all for the best because they belong together.So Lisa puts on the see-through dress that should hold traumatic memories of her near-rape but apparently doesn’t, and goes to see Robert. He needs all of about 5 seconds of “seducing” before he’s on Lisa like a rabid dog. No hesitation, no second thoughts, nothing. Afterward he falls asleep. Lisa decides that she can’t go through with the plan. The entire experience was beautiful for her and she doesn’t want to tarnish it by trying to force Robert to marry her. She thinks they’ll both be miserable if he spends their whole marriage just waiting for her to cheat on him. So when she hears her sisters at the door, she quickly rolls under the bed. Once the sisters leave, Lisa comes out and Robert says they have to marry now because she’s compromised. She tells him that no, they don’t. No one knows what happened between them and that’s how it’ll stay. She won’t let anyone force him into a marriage he doesn’t want. He kind of splutters but can’t really deny it. He still doesn’t have any faith in the institution of marriage, though he acknowledges to himself that if he DID, Lisa would be at the top of his list. The next day she deliberately avoids Robert, only coming out of her room when Findley arrives to take her on a picnic. She has a nice time and at the end, Findley starts to ask her to be his wife. Robert interrupts him before he can get the words out and then insists Lisa ride back with him. This leads to Lisa and Robert having sex again, this time on the floor of the stable. Robert falls asleep, again, and Lisa takes off, not wanting to have another conversation about why she won’t marry him. She stays in her room for a while to avoid him, but Robert breaks in via the window, ripping his stitches in the process. This leads to her in his room, helping him re-bandage his wound. He tries to talk about marriage again and she tells him not to, so he switches to seduction and gets her worked up, saying that if they were married, they could enjoy this passion every night. Helpless to fight against their attraction, they have sex again, but Lisa’s in despair because she knows his views on marriage haven’t changed. So as soon as he falls asleep, she leaves. Shortly thereafter, her family bursts into Robert’s room again. Robert is a bit annoyed to find Lisa gone because, if she’d been there, it would have settled the marriage question. He then starts thinking about purposely getting caught, then is shocked with himself.He gets up to go pace in the middle of the night and Lisa’s BIL finds him and tells him that he’s been thinking about his parents’ marriage all wrong. That Robert’s father was an awful, bitter, woman-hater who made life miserable for Robert’s mother. That while it may be true that the mother eventually cheated, she was probably driven to it by how awful her husband had been. Robert then thinks back to his childhood and remembers going on outings with his mother, only to come home and have his father immediately accuse the mother of being off with a lover. Any time she went anywhere, she faced the yelling, insults, and accusations when she got home. And even though she had eventually taken a lover, it wasn’t until many years later, when his parents had already been living separately and only remained married because of the stigma against divorce. He comes to the realization that the real curse in his family is a legacy of women-hating fathers poisoning their sons with the same thinking, and that if Robert hadn’t grown up knowing Lisa and her sisters and seeing that not all women were cheating whores, he would probably be a much worse person.The next morning, Lisa decides that she needs to hire herself a bodyguard so that she’s not in forced proximity with Robert anymore. Before she can leave, Findley arrives with a bouquet of flowers. He makes it clear that he wants to marry her, then leaves. Robert overhears and tells her that she can’t marry Findley when she could be pregnant with his child. She needs to marry him instead. Lisa reiterates why she won’t marry him and before Robert can explain about his recent epiphany, he’s told that the Runner he had tracking the Madame has just turned up with news. So he leaves Lisa alone and she runs out of the house and jumps into a hackney without an escort.The driver drops her in a bad part of town and takes off, then Findley turns up to “rescue” her. In his carriage, he proposes to her outright. Lisa hesitates and Findley turns nasty and reveals he’s been the villain all along. Turns out he’s a predator who likes to torture women sexually and that’s what he wants to do to Lisa. So he takes her to his house and locks her in the basement. He intends to go to that night’s ball to establish an alibi before dragging her off to Gretna Green for a forced marriage. He’s going to begin the torture tonight, when he returns from the ball.Robert and the BILs figure out that she is missing and the Runner found out from the Madame that Findley was the suitor so they know he must have Lisa. So they go to his house and rescue her without much fuss. Robert gets knocked unconscious in the process. Back home, Lisa goes up to her room only to find Findley there waiting to carry her off. Robert wakes up just in time to see them disappearing out the window. He runs outside and he and the two BILs confront Findley with guns. He runs into the street to get conveniently trampled to death by his own horses.Back upstairs, Robert gives Lisa a wonderful and heartfelt declaration of love that she completely ruins by acting like a crazy ninny, going on about wanting to record his words to use in a book that she’s suddenly decided she wants to write. It was very cringey. The epilogue picks up a few years later. Both sisters now have children and Lisa is in labor with her first. It’s a girl and Robert says they’ve truly broken his family’s woman-hating curse because you can’t hate women when you have a daughter you adore.I really liked this one. I liked that Lisa loved Robert so completely, but also that she’d decided to move on and stop being a lovesick puppy dog. I liked Robert’s jealousy and irritation as he came to realize that he’d actually quite liked and counted on Lisa’s love and he felt the loss of it keenly. They sizzled together in sex scenes and I was really rooting for them to get together.The mystery was easy to figure out, and it was more than a bit ridiculous that no one except Robert seemed to be taking the danger seriously. Lisa was a bit TSTL at times too, with how often she put herself at risk. But, like I said in the intro this stuff didn’t bother me because I liked the H and h together. (hide spoiler)]

Lo que adoro de las protagonistas que crea Lynsay Sands, es su personalidad tan valiente, tan única y especial de las demás mujeres, es una mujer que sabe defenderse, me encanta...

Best Moment: Okay...there are special sexytimes for this couple and...I swear to you...one of the funniest moments in the history of my reading Lynsay Sands (and that says something) and historial romance was when Lisa is attempting to predict what is about to come by remembering how it's described in her romance novels: "one of the books she'd read had described as planting his victory flag in her turf..." (201). Just...awesome. Particularly with the reference two paragraphs after that. HeeheeWorst Moment: The worst moment for me wasn't actually terrible. There's the traditional "no I can't be with him" and "no I can't be with her" which I find a little tired, but it's done well enough.Synopsis: Lisa Madison wants a husband and, really, just wants one man--the man she has loved all her life, Robert Langdon. The problem? Robert insists on seeing her as a little girl. When Lisa finds herself in danger, she turns to her childhood hero to rescue her, and so he does. Except, now Robert cannot possibly see her as a girl and is desperate to protect her from unknown danger. Robert knows exactly what his family's record is for successfull marriages--zero. He's grown up listening to his father and grandfather curse women and their infidelity. He has no plans of furthering the curse by getting married...least of all to Lisa...except...the longer he stays close to protect her, the harder it is to imagine not staying right where he is.The Good: Like all of Sands books, this one is quippy, funny, and full of earthy wit. One of my favorite things about this book is the subtle metacriticism. At the beginning, Lisa is thinking about how she's just read "Fanny." She is of course referencing Fanny Hill, one of the first novels to be written and quite notorious for its detailing of the exploits of a girl forced into prostitution. It's quite lascivious and a pretty well kept secret of most English teachers and librarians (there be smut in your library!). Anyhoo, Lisa often compares herself to the heroines she's read about and corrects as she goes along, trying to locate herself in different stories. What I love about this? Most women do this in their romance reading journey. What story am I in, they ask. Which character am I, they wonder. Lisa, for the most part, is like the reader, and thus she is incredibly easy to engage with emotionally. The characters are charming, the story interesting, and, best of all, the love story is classic and full of good humor. Nevermind that, for once, it is the girl trying to debauch the Lord (and thank God Sands doesn't traipse back across that with the whole 'you tricked me' sub-plot).The Bad: There's some pretty tried and true tropes in here. It's not a terrible thing, but I do have to say I wasn't terribly surprised about who the villain turned out to be. I kept flashing back to these Sweet Valley University books I read when I was 13 or so, and remembering the villain there. Also, what good historical book has such free-wheeling relatives who look the other way in the name of debauchery? I kept thinking...shouldn't there be dueling and pistols for the sake of honor here?The Ugly: Random girl in a frilly dress and some hot pink outline thrown in...again. *sigh* But I did buy the paperback of this book...surprise, surprise! BUT check out the inside cover, too.We’ve all been there. We’re wandering through a bookstore, or maybe  aimlessly searching suggestions, looking at  random lists on Amazon.com for something to read. Happily, we traipse through booktopias convinced that we’re going to find something wonderful to read and then… We are greeted with the cover.Before I begin, I feel I must point out one very simple fact:Most authors get absolutely no input in their covers, or, if they do, it’s mostly a kind of courtesy. Publishers rule. Authors weep and hope for reprints.Challenge accepted. But sometimes...just sometimes...you find something not too bad at all.[caption id="attachment_1015" align="aligncenter" width="466"] For some reason I am fascinated by what she's sitting on. Is it a log? A chaise? A footman?[/caption][caption id="attachment_1016" align="aligncenter" width="333"] But wait! There's more![/caption]This cover is not bad. I was able to pick it up and buy it despite it's weird centered girl with the hot pink cover framing the Drawing Room Jungle here. What kills me like a howler monkey on speed is the inside cover. I thought the smutty inside cover had gone extinct, but apparently I am very wrong. Very, very wrong. I don't get these things. It seems like something I should put a dime into and then crank a handle to see. Oooh, it's a semi-girly cover that seems appropriate. Let me turn the OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH why are those people undressing? My God, what's on the back cover?!?!? Words?! Dammit. Whose got a quarter? Mama needs a 1974 thrill.As posted on http://bookswithbenefits.com

The Madison sisters are back to find a happy ending for the last among them yet to be married. We first met Lisa back in The Countess and it was obvious, even then, that Robert would be the man for her. Unfortunately, Robert is the only one who doesn't see it.Two years have passed since the events of the last book. And while Lisa has grown older, Robert still sees her as a little sister. Lisa is tired of waiting for him to come around so she decides that she will finally come out and choose another man to focus her affections upon --her search is on for a husband.Before she can put her plan in action, she is drugged by a local madam and nearly handed over to a mysterious "suitor." Thankfully, Robert saves the day at the last minute, but the suitor gets away without making his identity known. Now Robert must keep Lisa safe until he can ferret out who is after her. And of course, that means he gets a front row seat for her husband hunt.It doesn't take long for Robert to began seeing Lisa differently. I really liked watching him succumb to his desires for her. But he had some decidedly lame reasons why he wouldn't get married, which kind of annoyed me. Lisa's impetuousness bordered on stupidity once or twice, putting her in unnecessary dire straits. And unfortunately, the identity of the suitor was really obvious from early on. Overall though, I did enjoy the book. Lynsay Sands injects humor into her romances, which I like. And the sex was good. I also liked that Sands managed to ultimately tie in the dangerous "suitor" part of the storyline with the plots of the previous books.We do get our happy ending --and a satisfying conclusion to the series. 3 1/2 stars.*ARC Provided by NetGalley

The story starts off with a bang--the heroine, Lisa Madison, sneaks off to visit a woman who gifts her with sleazy books. This time, the woman drugs her and her maid, with the intention of giving the heroine to a "suitor" who plans to ruin her and then force her to marry him.The hero saves the day, then messes it up again by hurting her feelings (she's madly in love with the guy and still dopey enough from the drugs to make a pass, which he soundly rebuffs).Anyway, once she sort of sobers up, she makes up her mind that she has to forget him and go husband hunting (hence the title). But the hunt is complicated by the fact that the hero has made up his mind to stay close and keep an eye on her until they figure out who paid the madam to help him rape her. Which leaves her sending all these other guys come-hither looks while he plays dog in the manger (it does get a little silly).It wasn't too hard to figure out who the bad guy was (and he is really, really creepy), but his repeated attempts to get his hands on her kept things hopping while the H/h get their stuff sorted. I had a small quibble early in the book (see comment) but that issue didn't really come up in an intrusive way again, so it's all good. Four stars.

Loved this book. Lisa has been in love with Robert for years, but can't get him to see her as a woman, not the child he remembers. When he tells her he doesn't feel that way about her, she gives up and starts looking elsewhere, even though she still loves him. I loved watching him as he tried to convince himself that he saw her as a sister. His issues with marriage have him planning to not marry for many years yet. However, he finds him in the position of having to guard her, which causes him to realize that he wants her but doesn't want to risk the family curse. He also realizes that he doesn't want anyone else to have her. When his actions make Lisa realize that he does care, she takes things into her own hands to try to get him to admit it. I loved the interaction between the two, and watching Robert fight the inevitable. The final rescues are great. I loved the humor in some of the situations.

Damn I love lynsay sands.... Pretty self explanatory really :)

Like the other books in the series, this is madcap and sensual, ahistorical and nonsensical in places, but basically impossible to put down if you can take the book for what it is. I appreciated that Lisa’s story feels significantly different from Suzette’s and Christiana. I am interested in the fundamental issues each main character is dealing with, and I like how the author handles these. Lisa is trying to grow up and be seen as a woman, she’s learning self confidence, coming into her own, and managing rejection in a way I like and admire (and also dealing with a stalker/would-be kidnapper, but that’s a side note and in some ways not central to the emotional core of the story). Robert is coming to terms with feelings he’s rather avoid. In the process, Robert, who is generally a Good Guy, has to overcome some damaging internalized misogyny (also known as the Langley Curse). My favorite part of the book is how this is dealt with. I absolutely love that Sands shows how this misogyny damages Robert himself, as well as Lisa. I love that Robert’s male friends help him confront this. This is an important and significant message that I’m so glad to see in a romance novel. That said, though I suppose it is realistic, I struggle a bit with Robert and his mistresses and past trips to brothels. It is hard to deal with the distinct differences in expectations for sexual behavior for men and women. While as far as I know, it’s accurate to the time, it feels gross to me and was very unavoidable in this book. It just made me like Robert less. There is a pretty powerful anti-BDSM message, suggesting that you have to be Really Sick to be into that. This was slightly mitigated for me by the main character having some realizations about the differences (or lack thereof) between prostitutes and ladies (nothing much, mostly circumstances). To enjoy the book, you have to suspend disbelief a fair bit, but I’m learning that Sands makes that easy for me to do. She writes fun, engaging books that let me enjoy the ride without stopping too often to ask myself why, for example, Lisa goes to a ball the very same night she was drugged and kidnapped. I don’t believe in feeling guilty about pleasure, but my experience with Sands’ books might best be described as guilty pleasures. There are reasons I can see while I’m reading to perhaps dislike these books (some of the messages, some of the things that don’t make sense, whatever), but I am having too much fun to put the books down. I would be cautious recommending these because I’d want to be sure the other person knows how to take things with a grain of salt. But if you can, these are really enjoyable stress relievers.

A nice continuation/ending of the story started by the previous two books in the series. I think the author took an interesting turn in how some men are unknowingly raised to be “woman haters“. A lot of people don’t really think about that sort of thing. I think being more conscious of the messages we send our kids with regard to gender race and Other factors that differ among people is super important. You never realized what a kid is going to pick up whether positive or negative so always being mindful of what you do and say and their presence is super critical. Anyway the story itself was pretty well written and I enjoyed it. It was a nice soft read. Robert really was forced to do some self examination and Lisa, whether she knew and intended it or not, was giving him the space to do that. I like this author in general and I’m looking forward to reading more books she has written.

Audiobook from the libraryThe conclusion of the series. Lisa is a fun character and the madness she goes through to get the man she has desired all of her life to marry her is fun. Leave it to the lovely bookworm to get caught up in a situation with a Madame and a mysterious "suitor" who paid the woman to procure the young Miss Madison. The narrator was different for this book too, which was kind of fun, as it gave each girl their own "voice". I will definitely revisit this series periodically!

Madison Sisters #3I really enjoyed this series, though, I definitely saw this one coming. Regardless, found this book to be both humorous and engaging throughout the creative romantic action-adventure. It missed out on being five stars only by virtue of the fact that though I was fully engaged throughout, I still found the story predictable. Had one thing surprised or shocked me, I believe it would've received five stars.Read:February 22-23, 2018 – Audible Audiobook

This is an excellent read! It takes you on a journey through the childhood of the characters. As Lisa and Rob grow up into adults Lisa is always in love with Rob. However, it's through four big events in Lisa's life that we see how Rob really feels about Lisa. Even from as far back as when they were kids. I would recommend this book to all my friends and family.

I don't think I have laughed out loud at a book in a while, but there are several points where the banter between Lisa and Robert did just that. My favorite part is where she told Richard to shoot her but just not in the bum because the leg would be far more easy to recover with while lying in bed. XD A great way to end the Madison Sister's tale.

I love historical romance .it is what hooked me in reading when I was younger. Lindsay Sands brings in romance with humor, drama ,suspense and a wonderful HEA. A wonderful story with a real hero and a heroine to fall in love with.

One of my all time faves! I love a brother’s best friend trope. The protective, ‘I really shouldn’t want to bone you but I do’ trope. It never gets old to me. This is a classic example of an HR book with fluff, angst, steam, and adventure. ❣️

This hits all the right places as far as love being unrequited but still longing for it. The characters were funny and there was more action in this book than I though there would be. I need to read the rest of the series. But you can read these as standalones though.Lisa Madison wants to being married to her hearts desire, Robert Langley. Except he only looks at her as a sister. So she tries to change his view by changing her dresses, flirting with other men and getting into scrapes that he apparently feels the need to rescue her from. He doesn’t want to be her knight but he keeps taking on the role. Throughout these episodes, Robert is seeing Lisa in a new way- an attractive womanly way. He wants to do things to her he never thought he would before. This book had all the secret kissing scenes and men being all protective to their women. It was so fun to read really.