Moonlit Thorns

Midnight Manor, Book 1

By: P. Rayne

Narrated by: Rose Dioro, Marcio Catalano

Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

No one knows what happens up at Midnight Manor.

The home of the Voss brothers sits like a sentinel looking down on our small town, remaining a mystery. The four brooding billionaires rarely leave the confines of the iron gates, fueling rumors that have existed for decades.

When my father dies, all the security I’ve known is ripped away, forcing me to come face to face with the eldest brother, Asher Voss. His outward beauty is just as I’d heard—it belies a predatory nature, irresistibly drawing me in.

A bargain is made, and I have no choice but to live in the shadowy confines of his gothic manor to save my family. As time passes, it becomes harder and harder to deny our attraction.

Asher Voss might be too old for me, and he’s definitely cursed by his own demons, but an inferno of passion between us threatens to either consume or destroy us both.

MOONLIT THORNS is a dark contemporary romance Beauty and the Beast retelling.

©2024 Piper Rayne Inc. (P)2024 Piper Rayne Inc.

WOW!

This was a red hot, adult version of Beauty and the Beast. It was very enjoyable. However, Annabelles’ character was not the sweet innocent I was hoping for and neither was the MC. I love that it was also an age gap romance. If I had to sum it up, I would say that it was a good read but had very few references to Beauty and the Beast.

The story felt a bit too forced, but it is duet narrated, so that is a plus

This is a contemporary, somewhat dark thriller, romance loosely based on the Beauty and the Beast tale. The characters of Asher and Annabelle are generic and flat, and their interactions were choppy. The story overall was ok, not intolerable, but just not great either. The saving grace was that this audiobook is duet narrated, so all of the male voices were done by Marcio Catalano, and the female voices were all done by Rose Dioro.

A spicy Beauty and the Beast retelling!

This is the first book in three Midnight Manor series and it is so good! It is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast but a gothic dark romance version.

Annabelle meets Asher Voss when she shows up at his estate to try to save her families home after her father’s passing. Asher makes a deal with her that if she works for him for a year then he will not take her families home. The twist though is she has to live at his estate and she can’t have her phone.

Annabelle and Asher have a bit of instant love but Asher tries hard to not act upon it. Annabelle eventually learns a huge Voss family secret which brings Asher and Annabelle together.

They both have intense chemistry and their journey and watching them both grow individually and together kept me wanting to keep reading to know what would happen next.

We are briefly introduced to the other Voss brothers and I can’t wait for the other books to learn more about them!

I really enjoyed the audiobook of this and loved the narrators! It was easy to follow along and kept me entertained!

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

🖤 dark romance
🖤 fairytale retelling
🖤 age-gap
🖤 dual POV
🖤 billionaire
🖤 BDSM

Great Story

Piper Rayne has another great book. Love the story. Has a lot of ups and downs but a another great book. Keep up with the great books

THE SPICE ohhh THE SPICE

Overall, I'd give this a 4. The plot could have been improved upon, and the foundation of the relationship felt a bit rushed, but the audio performance deserves a 5! I enjoy Piper, and I think she writes really good "dark" material! I can't wait to get more of the brother's stories!

worth it!!

worth the credit!
This audiobook is excellent and the narrators bring it alive.
it is hot and sexy.
I highly recommend.

FL is irritating asf

FL started off strong in the beginning but she literally becomes a love-struck idiot after being intimate ONCE. Her immaturity and desperation is embarrassing. She is 22 and constantly argues that she is “older” but her attraction to ML—who has been a jerkwad literally the whole time—makes her crawl back to him each time even when she knows he treats her terribly. Don’t get me wrong, I like these tension. But the FL lacks spine and literally loses all her dignity over one intimate moment.

The dual narration is EVERYTHING!!

The overall feel of this Beauty and the Beast retelling was definitely my vibe. Between what happens in the basement, and the little bit of the suspense in the plot line, I was definitely intrigued. These two had quite the journey as well. I loved Archer's backstory, and I'm excited to see how it impacted all the brothers differently throughout the series. I'm always intrigued by characters that are grumpy and kind of mean, but actually can be very sweet to the woman they like. While it took him a while to warm up, there’s just something about "only nice to her" that I just really, really love! I also really loved Anabelle throughout the story. I feel like she was tested on many levels, for many reasons, and she showed up. I thought it was interesting how the authors tied in the different elements of the beauty and beast story into this one. I always find it really fascinating to see how authors do retellings, and I enjoy what they come up with. The whole vibe of this book was just totally on point for my style, which made some of the little cliche parts easier to deal with. I think this story set up a solid foundation for the rest of series. I’m feeling like it's going to get better with each book and I’m really excited about it. I do think that this would be a good introduction to dark romance for contemporary readers, because it’s not too dark. I really loved the set up for the series, and I cannot wait to get to know all the Voss Brothers! Next up is a Rapunzel retelling and I am here for it!

Vague-est Beauty & the Beast retelling

It's really more of a mafia-style BDSM romance with a MFC who is a complete doormat and a MMC who murders, yells, commands and bullies. There is no curse or magic, just trauma begetting trauma. ofc that may be fine if you like that sort of thing, but I generally do not. Also, there is no sort of redemption typical of the B&B type of story-- dude starts and ends brutal. He just learns to talk about his trauma. It's not enough of a transformation for B&B type to really apply. And the MFC is just awful-- whiny and simpering who falls in love w/the MMC presumably bc of his magical dom/sub s*x skills bc gosh knows there is little else to recommend him except for that and his wealth. Thankfully the narration was lovely or I would've abandoned ship early on instead of plowing through to the end.

Great Read!

The story and narration were both good! The dual narration made it more enjoyable. I look forward to the other brothers stories.