Rowena’s review of Viscount Breckenridge to the Rescue (Cynster Bride, Book 1) by Stephanie Laurens.

You are cordially invited to the wedding of Miss Heather Cynster …but not before she encounters kidnappers, danger, and a daring rescue at the hands of Viscount Breckenridge…


Determined to hunt down her very own hero, one who will sweep her off her feet and into wedded bliss, Heather Cynster steps out of her safe world and boldly attends a racy soiree. But her promising hunt is ruined by the supremely interfering Viscount Breckenridge, who whisks her out of scandal—straight into danger, when a mysterious enemy seizes her, bundles her into a coach, and spirits her out of London.


Now it’s up to the notorious Breckenridge to prove himself the hero she’s been searching for all along…

When word got to me that Stephanie Laurens was writing a new series, I was hopeful that I’d enjoy it as much as I enjoyed (if not more) than the last series, The Black Cobra Quartet. I picked up this book thinking that it would be another wonderful start to a great series and while I enjoyed it, I didn’t absolutely love it. I will say that Stephanie Laurens knows how to tell a story that makes you want to keep with the story until the very end. She does a fantastic job of hooking her claws into the reader and not letting go because that’s what happened with this story, for me.

This story follows Heather Cynster and Viscount Breckenridge as they set about trying to figure out who kidnapped her and what his plans are after he’s got her. Heather is taken captive by two thugs and a lady’s maid who have explicit orders to deliver the Cynster girl to Scotland where the guy who hired them will take over the care of Heather. The only person that saw Heather being kidnapped is the one guy that drives Heather up the wall. He’s a rake and a scoundrel and doesn’t like girls like her even though she might have had a crush on him but she’s over that and over him so when she runs into him at a social function, she’s not all that happy about it and she’s even more unhappy when she runs into him outside but all of that unhappiness fades away when he becomes the one person that can save her from her kidnappers.

The story follows Heather and her kidnappers with Breckenridge following close behind, playing the role of weary traveler as they make their trek to Scotland to meet the guy who hired the thugs to kidnap the Cynster girl. Breckenridge thought it would be wise for him to take Heather away as soon as possible to limit the damage done to her reputation and because he could a lot more for her in England than he could in Scotland. But Heather knows that if she goes away with Breckenridge, they might not ever find out who is behind the kidnapping and what his true purpose was in the kidnapping so Heather convinces Breckenridge to play along.

This is a romance so you know what happened along the way…Heather and Breckenridge got closer and closer and then BAM! They were doing the nasty and falling in love, only Breckenridge was too stubborn to admit it and Heather wasn’t having any of this half ass proposals either. She knew that society dictated that they marry since they’ve been in each other’s company for quite some time now and she knew that Breckenridge wanted to do right by her but she’s a Cynster and there was no way that she was going to settle for anything less than love in a marriage. It was hard to fault her since she’s surrounded by all of those love matches in her family. I thought that I’d be more annoyed with her stubbornness for not wanting to marry Breckenridge but surprisingly, I was more annoyed with his stubbornness to not fess up to his true feelings because of his heartbreak before than I was with Heather for anything, period.

Overall, the story flowed well and the romance between the hero and the heroine was easy to fall into but there wasn’t much meat to the other characters in the book that I usually enjoy in other books by Stephanie Laurens. I’m mighty intrigued with the whole mysterious Laird who’s got a crazy mother and in need of a goblet to save his clan….that is proving to be a most promising storyline, one that I’m looking forward to reading.

I think what didn’t exactly win me over is that while Heather and Breckenridge are front and center throughout the entire book, at the end I didn’t feel as if I had a clear grasp on either of their characters. I knew what they went through and I knew how they felt for each other but I still didn’t quite know who they were. It would have been nice to be more clear on just who each of their characters were. It’s been a while since I’ve read a Cynster book so everything was kind of fuzzy for me and I don’t remember who Heather is and it would have been nice to know more about Breckenridge and who the girl was that broke his heart, you know, stuff like that.

This story was cute, I enjoyed getting to know both Heather and Breckenridge. Breckenridge is one sexy beast and I look forward to seeing more of him and Heather throughout the other books. I’m looking forward to reading Eliza’s story next.

Grade: 3.5 out of 5

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