Beyond A Shadow (SG-5 08), by Alison Kent [4]

****/***** (4/5)

Thirty-five year-old school teacher Alexa Counsel knows trouble when she sees it. As the dark and mysterious Ezra Moore walks up to her with little Emmy Rose Maples, Alexa purposefully inserts herself as a barrier between the little girl Emmy Rose and the local inn's new handyman, the dark, dangerous and perceptive Ezra Moore. Divorced two years ago, Alexa discerns danger in Ezra Moore and her intuition screams at her to run and protect herself and friends from Ezra Moore. This constitutes my first book by Alison Kent, and I found BEYOND A SHADOW very refreshing in the romance/erotica genre. I thought the writing was above average, the settings in small-town Comfort Bay, Oregon, strong, the plotting and pacing grips while the romance steadily evolved and could appeal to both guys and gals, something very rare in the romance/erotica genre. The characterizations of our lead pair Alexa Counsel and Ezra Moore reminded me of Madeline Hunter's characters: mature, compelling, and the two together exhibit an electrically-charged chemistry. Alexa and Ezra's exchanges aren't childishly antagonistic, but rather exude wit and inflammatory passion. I understand Alison Kent writes a series of books on SG-5 (Smithson Group), or Hank Smithson's team of rogue undercover operatives. Ezra Moore has appeared in prior SG-5 novels and the group's involvement and role sometimes obfuscate the plotting for completely new readers to the series. I found the finale very anticlimactic and for an accomplished operative, Ezra seems to blunder and fails to anticipate problematic scenarios which arise at the end. Ezra's overwhelming feelings for Alexa could excuse his oversights though.

This book's romantic crux describes a spiritual cleansing of the battered and damaged goods that are Ezra Moore. Certainly not the first romance novel to depict a bad boy finding redemption in a strong woman's arms, I found BEYOND A SHADOW nonetheless gritty, engaging and substantive. Approaching Anne Stuart's bad boys, Ezra Moore surpassed the well-muscled, well-endowed and rakish heroes common to most romance and erotica. In fact this book simply doesn't dwell on appearances as so many other romance books and we don't find detailed accounts of a hero's "aquiline" nose, handsome face, chiseled frame nor the heroine's ample beauty. The passion wasn't nearly as one-sided (all the pleasure and giving from the hero to the heroine), and I can't tell you how much I appreciate heroines actually enjoying giving their heroes pleasure. It's so rare because most of erotica/romance is all about the rake igniting the heroine's passions (the hero's touch, lick, suckle, blow, steady and slow deliberations) that the reverse rarely happens or when it does, she does it out of rote, not necessarily out of her desire for him. Whereas the hero yearns to taste her and savor her everywhere, the woman simply receives it. Whereas the hero really treasures her response to his ministrations, the heroine oftentimes becomes greedy time after time. A woman's uninhibited reactions to a man's ministrations definitely signify to the man, but to me, any attractive and learned man can engender such a response. It's when a woman enthusiastically does something just for her man that really captures that man's heart. Alexa Counsel is so uninhibited in her response, so giving in kind, so genuine, I found Ezra's overwhelming love for her justified. Enthusiasm and genuine desire trumps skill in every guy's book. In fact he's very lucky to have found someone so understanding and giving like Alexa.

The Story, possible SPOILERS.

Ezra Moore accepts a handyman job for the Maples Inn in small town Comfort Boy, Oregon, as a cover in order to eliminate the virulent organization SpectraIT headed by Warren Aceveda and Cameron Gates. He's expected to rendezvous with a couple of SpectraIT representatives who will arrive at the Maples Inn in a week's time. Ezra arrives early to reconnoiter the small town and embed himself within the community to avoid any suspicion later when SpectraIT's representatives arrive. Respected schoolteacher Alexa Counsel provides the perfect excuse to insert himself within the community... or so he tells himself. The two explore their mutual attraction the very first night. While Ezra intends to use Alexa as his connection to the local community, Alexa has a police officer friend investigate Ezra's background because she still doesn't completely trust him. Some of the chapters from little Emmy Rose Maples' perspective (Alexa's close friend's daughter) are some of the most funny and interesting.

Ezra's plans goes terribly awry when someone from his ignominious past shows up for the arranged meeting with SpectraIT instead, all the while holding Alexa hostage in the process. One of the most touching scenes in the book was Alexa "cleaning" Ezra of his dirt after the dangerous fray, symbolically cleansing him of his crimes. The finale, though anticlimactic, still concluded the novel satisfactorily.

Overall I found BEYOND A SHADOW a very satisfying read and a slight detour from juvenile romance stories so common to this genre.

The Romantic, by Madeline Hunter [4]

****/***** (4/5)

1. The Seducer (**)
2. The Saint (*)
3. The Charmer (****)
4. The Sinner (SKIP)
5. The Romantic (****)

Madeline Hunter's dark, strong and silent heroes continue to enthrall in the final installment in this series on the Dueling Society. Unlike THE CHARMER (which belonged to its heroine), this novel thoroughly belongs to its tall, dark, handsome and silent hero who is a romantic at heart: Julian Hampton. A solicitor by profession and lacking the title and wealth of other romance heroes, Julian Hampton's pithy and succinct eloquence shields a poetic, romantic heart that yearns for the woman he's loved since he was a youth. From the amusing letters he's conjuring to write to the happily-married ladies who thrust eligible ladies at him, Julian exudes a sly sense of humor. The eligible ladies fail to excite him however because for all of his teenage and adult life, Julian Hampton's heart surreptitiously aches for Penelope, the notorious Countess of Glasbury and Viscount Leclere's sister (from THE SAINT). THE SEDUCER and THE SAINT builds the foundation for Julian and Penelope's story here in THE ROMANTIC. Although THE CHARMER features the best historical backdrop, THE ROMANTIC contains the strongest plotting and pacing of the series, engaging me and surprising me even as I predicted other elements. There's suspense, adventure, murder, a trial, whodunit mystery, and of course, romance and passion. I was thankful that even though Julian yearns for Penelope his whole life, the book avoids the copious pining and repetitive introspection which would take away from his character. One thing you have to love about Madeline Hunter's characters and stories: her stories offer more historical backdrop and plotting than the average romance book while her characters are doing something beyond seeking and having sex. Here, Penelope is very proud of authoring a piece on married womens' rights.

THE ROMANTIC is probably the darkest book in the series as well. Penelope isn't a virgin and she's married: separated from her husband, the earl of Glasbury, who engages in sordid sexual activity including BDSM. Penelope's notorious reputation, Julian's angst over Pen's affairs following her separation with the earl, Pen and Julian's advanced age (both are 'old' for romance stories) and the reprobate earl's insidious designs all make for a dark read. I found some of the early, seductive interaction between Julian and Penelope a bit jarring. I think the book tried to build chemistry by making Pen feel for Julian early but it didn't seem to fit. For instance, after returning from Naples and faced with the terror of returning to the depraved earl, Julian comforts Pen in his strong but silent manner with a hand-to-hand touch or a squeeze on her shoulder. These subtle touches sends shivers of anticipation through Pen, and it didn't fit after all these years. This is the first time she's noticing Julian in such a manner? Why, all of a sudden now, I mean she's known Julian her whole life, right? Sleeping next to Julian's room and taking a bath in Julian's cottage all seem to force the sensuality between the two too early as Pen enjoys the delicious seduction. Still, I enjoyed Julian's angry reaction to Pen's list of potential conspirators in a public affair to force the earl to divorce her. She leaves out Julian as a potential candidate, and he's furious.

Another thing you have to love about Madeline Hunter's stories: both the hero and heroine end up giving to each other in love. The giving and loving is mutual. As much as Julian protects and loves Pen his whole life, Pen helps him and takes care of him at the end. You could tell she's really awed by the depth of his love and loves him in kind. She did seem too ignorant of the depth of his love though, always making excuses for his loyal protection and love earlier. When she still couldn't surmise the recipient of Julian's unsent love letters during the trial at the end, her ignorance started to grate. However, Pen's ignorance added to the drama and tension in the plotting. I would have hoped the book made Pen's ignorance of Julian's profound love deliberate on her part. Like she knew subconsciously the depths of Julian's love for her but couldn't face it because she felt she was unworthy or she was afraid to believe in it. Alas, there's no such admission, she simply says she had no idea and that she's honored by Julian's lifelong love for her. Despite her persistent ignorance, I did feel Pen deserved Julian. It's clear Pen is very compassionate always abandoning her interests for the sake of others'. Pen says she married Anthony because he was an earl and she was young and stupid but that wasn't the complete picture. I couldn't abide Pen marrying the earl in the first place, but then we learn financial straits handicapped Pen's family during her first season. The earl of Glasbury's generous offer compelled Pen to accept and she later convinced herself that it was her fault. Then after separation, she avoided outright confrontation with the earl because she wants to shelter her family from scandal as much as possible. Yes, I think Pen is very deserving of Julian's undying love and devotion. I could understand Julian's love for Pen since they grew up together and Julian witnessed first-hand Pen's compassion serving as her family's solicitor.

The Story, possible SPOILERS.

After a comfortable separation between the earl and countess of Glasbury lasting many years, the earl desires to sire an heir off the countess, Penelope. The reasons which previously checked the cruel earl's hand no longer matter seem to matter to him, and he demands his conjugal rights as a husband and master of his wife. The earl is, after all, well into his 40s while the countess Penelope well into her 30s. The earl harbors a cruel streak in sex as he enjoys inflicting pain and subordinating his sexual partners. A virginal Penelope didn't know any better at the beginning of her marriage, and finally flees after witnessing the earl's horrible treatment of another child. She divulges the worst to her friend and solicitor Julian Hampton. We know from THE SEDUCER that Hampton secured a permanent separation for Penelope by threatening to reveal the worst of the earl's twisted pleasures. Now, years later, the earl wants her back to sire an heir and no revelations of his sordid depravities will check him. English law bestows all the rights in marriage to the husband, especially an aristocrat, and Penelope has no choice but to run for her life.

Penelope runs straight to Julian Hampton like she did before and Julian promises to protect her from the earl. They retreat to Julian's rustic cottage but eventually the earl discovers Penelope's whereabouts. They again flee, this time to meet the one witness who could convince society that the earl has wronged Penelope. When they find the witness deceased, Penelope feels she has no choice but to flee the country and travel to America. Julian eventually convinces her to face the problem head-on and make a choice for herself instead of trying to protect her friends and family. Both decide to engage in a very public affair of convenience, hoping to incite the earl to file for divorce.

The story grows and evolves with twists and turns, getting stronger the more you read it. Pen's strife to escape the earl meshes with her burgeoning feelings for Julian. In the end, the varying elements of suspense, mystery, love and passion manage to entertain and engage.

The Charmer, by Madeline Hunter [4]

****/***** (4/5)

The Dueling Society Series
1. The Seducer (**) - Daniel
2. The Saint (*) - Vergil
3. The Charmer (****) - Adrian
4. The Sinner (SKIP) - Dante
5. The Romantic - Julian

I was charmed by Hunter's 3rd installment in this Dueling Society series entitled THE CHARMER; finally a story in this series I can get behind! Although the inspiration for this novel lies with Adrian Burchard, THE CHARMER soundly belongs to his heroine Sophia Raughley, the new Duchess of Everdon. Remarkably, provisional laws granted by British royalty allows a daughter to inherit the Dukedom of Everdon after sons. Following the death of Sophia's cruel father, Sophia now comes into Everdon's title and vast estates. Only Sophia doesn't want any of it. THE CHARMER contains by far the strongest historical backdrop in this series and I always appreciate a story which offers more than the run-of-the-mill romance. Reform over aristocracy's power in the English Parliament entangles the new Duchess as each side of the Reform movement vies for Everdon's power over its 12 elected M.P.'s in the House of Commons. Everdon also holds a vital seat in the House of Lords and although the Duchess cannot sit in the House of Lords, the one she marries can.

Like most of Hunter's novels, the book is emotionally charged. Sophia's demons and tortured history take center stage and Adrian mitigates Sophia's journey from the frightened girl constantly running away to a woman who finally assumes responsibility and gives in love. Since THE CHARMER gradually reveals Sophia's demons, at first I found myself disliking Sophia who just seemed like a spoiled brat. But I found myself doing a 180 on her by the end of the novel as I grew to empathize her after learning of the treatment she receives from her father and her struggle with her tremendous guilt (over her brother and betraying reform activist Captain Brutus). It's a tribute to Hunter's writing and plotting that compels the evolution of the reader's opinion of a character along with the character. As for Adrian, I truly treasure Hunter's heroes like Adrian Burchard because even though he isn't the notorious rake of every other romance novel, he makes a substantial impact and the story wouldn't work if he didn't push Sophia at every step. He's dark, and unlike heroes who command a room when they walk in it, Adrian's power lies in the background since he's an accomplished spy. I always enjoy Hunter's heroes who aren't born into title and wealth. The prose is excellent, the characters poignant (especially Sophia), the h/h chemistry evident and I found the plotting and pacing equal parts political, witty, engaging, comical and suspenseful. THE CHARMER is the first book in this series from which the meticulous setup from the previous two novels finally hits home. I don't have too many complaints with this novel, and it's worth a re-read actually.

The Story.

After the Duke of Everdon passes away, the Iron Duke, the Duke of Wellington, dispatches his protege Adrian Burchard to fetch Everdon's errant daughter, the new Duchess of Everdon, Sophia Raughley, from Paris. Wellington and other members of the aristocracy along with the King of England require Everdon's vast influence to defeat a hotly-contested Reform bill currently in the House of Commons. Seven years ago, 29 year-old Sophia Raughley escaped her home, country and father following very traumatic events to while away in leisure and comfort in Paris. Adrian boldly a enters a staged harem scene in Sophia's home in Paris and whisks away a foxed and scantily-clad Sophia from further debauchery. Great, Adrian thinks, he has to deal with a debauched duchess and force her to accept a responsibility she renounces. Adrian perseveres however and after some fun games of wit and clashing of wills, Sophia finds herself back at Everdon's seat in Marleigh and suddenly visited by the King of England, the Duke of Wellington and other key members of the aristocracy. Wellington's political party - the Toreys - want Sophia to direct her subordinate boroughs to vote against the reform currently in the House of Commons while a prior amorous acquaintance, the radical Captain Brutus, threatens Sophia to support the reform. Wellington also wants Sophia to marry Gerard Stidolph according to her late father's wishes.

She's torn from both sides of the reform bill, she's haunted by demons from the past, and the King and Wellington want her to marry someone whom she despises. In the midst of it all, Adrian Burchard accompanies Sophia in her journey to overcome demons from the past and present as she travels to her boroughs and meets her M.P.s in the House of Commons. The tension between Sophia and Adrian slowly builds and their chemistry resonated. Whenever Sophia wants to run away from it all as she's done previously, Adrian lends a firm yet supporting gentle hand of reassurance. Adrian is fascinated by Sophia's layers and slowly but surely, he digs deeper to learn and love each layer.

There's truly some hilarious moments in the novel like Jacques' accusation that English men don't measure up to the lovemaking of Frenchmen and Adrian's funny rescue of Sophia and her menagerie from a burning house. There's really some witty banter between Sophia and Adrian that only Madeline Hunter can deliver on. There's always a danger in this type of novel focusing on a heroine's plight that the hero disappears and blends into the background but that's not the case here. Adrian Burchard makes a substantial impact from beginning to end.

Worth a re-read? No doubt.

Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen [4]

****/***** (4/5)

I found Sara Gruen's WATER FOR ELEPHANTS thoroughly enchanting in a very engrossing tale of the 1930s traveling circus Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Part wonder, part adventure, part tragedy and turmoil, and part romance, my first Gruen novel conveys a novel artistry in the settings, characters, prose and storytelling that resonated. Similar to Cornwell's rendition on Arthur, I find here a popular style of writing many authors choosing as of late: a first-person narration that shifts from a flashback when he's 23 years old and to the present tense when he's 90... or 93. The flashback comprises the bulk of the book's content over the span of 3 to 4 months when 23 year-old Jacob lands in a shady traveling circus amidst the historical backdrop of the Great Depression and the prohibition of alcohol. Normally, first-person flashbacks tend to affect a doleful disposition. Not so here. Remarkably, I found the present happenings of our senile 90-or-93 year-old Jacob in a nursing home refreshingly funny and instructively captivating as we laugh and empathize with Jacob. I'll never look at my grandmother the same way again. In fact the book derives its title from a grumpy Jacob grousing over another old man claiming to bring water for elephants in his younger days.

Bathing is...embarrassing, because I have to strip...Now, there are some things that never die, so even though I'm in my nineties my sap sometimes rises...[The nurses] always pretend not to notice...It means they consider me nothing more than a harmless old man sporting a harmless old penis that still gets uppity once in a while. Although if one of them took it seriously and tried to do something about it, the shock would probably kill me.

Personal wants and simple plot devices prevented a perfect 5-star rating on my part. I'm impressed by Gruen's research into the time period and traveling circuses, and admittedly, Gruen's hypnotizing writing style, symmetric storytelling and gritty characterizations far surpasses many of my 4 and 5-star books. I read a 553-page large print edition of WATER FOR ELEPHANTS containing black-and-white photos of 1930s circuses and for the first 100 to 200 pages, I was enthralled. The wonder and the adventure of it had me smiling and on the edge of my seat. The book then settles down with the August Rosenbluth character who factors in more and more prominently. Much of the plotting deals with August, his wife Marlena and our protagonist Jacob as the third wheel at a private dinner or outing. August's violent schizophrenia took center stage and the August character and his prominence choked much of my enthusiasm. Instead of August, I was hoping for more wonders of the circus, more Camel, Walter, and more plots with the animals of the menagerie. When circumstances finally unite our star-crossed lovers, we then have the Circus manager Uncle Al episodically fomenting trouble. The caste-like, hierarchal circus society consisting of performers, workers and rubes was very interesting, but Jacob's helplessness within that hierarchy, although gritty and realistic, proved altogether exasperating. I was hoping to see Jacob doing more, whether helping the elephant or protecting Marlena (both from August). I also found the ending a bit disappointing and anticlimactic, I wanted to see at least one more chapter of closure in the flashback rather than relaying the aftermath in the present tense.

At its heart, the book expresses Jacob's story of love -- an impossible love for his wife, a love for animals and the elephant, and of course, a love for the wondrous circus. Unlike so many potboiler romance novels, here's a love between a man and woman that isn't so trite: we have a sexually-inexperienced, red-haired 23 year-old college boy and the compassionate star of the circus who dares to love him, and in return, warrants his affection, caring, loyalty and love. Even though their first love scene isn't ideal by romance standards, it nevertheless reverberates with passion and we witness Jacob's joy for giving as she guides him. Granted, it's written entirely from Jacob's perspective and even though the first lovemaking wasn't scientifically precise (again, by romance standards), the book captures how each gives their heart for the other. Everything isn't initiated by Jacob and that in itself was noteworthy. For myself, love is about mutual giving, and I always hope to see some semblance of that. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS doesn't disappoint.

...she lies nestled against me, her hair tickling my face. I stroke her lightly, memorizing her body. I want her to melt into me, like butter on toast. I want to absorb her and walk around for the rest of my days with her encased in my skin...I lie motionless, savoring the feeling of her body against mine. I'm afraid to breathe in case I break the spell.

I'm astonished to read a very believable and resonating account of a male character written by a woman. In spite of Jacob's frustrating helplessness at times, I loved how realistic, how passionate and how intense he was about the animals, friends and love he cares for. I appreciated Jacob's passion and intensity minus the inane, repetitious introspection so common to the romance genre. No, guys don't think and muse about things for endless pages, and Gruen thankfully discarded that element of the romance. Things are happening anyway, so Gruen need not fill the pages with cheap introspection.

The Premise.

The story actually begins with the ending. It was actually deftly done, and Gruen fills in the details when we encounter the prologue at the very end of the book again. Ironically, this adds a measure of suspense to the novel.

We then transition to a present-day nursing home where ninety (or ninety-three) year-old Jacob Jankowski reminisces about his past with a circus. Although this may sound very melancholy, Gruen enriches the dour present with anecdotal humor. The story shifts between a presently old Jacob and a 23 year-old Jacob's adventures with a traveling circus in the 1930s (I don't think it's clear exactly what year). During the last year of Jacob's veterinary degree at Cornell right before exams, Jacob's parents perish in a car accident. It's the Great Depression, times are bad and the bank consequently confiscates his parents' home and his father's veterinary practice. Jacob grieves all the more when he discovers his father mortgaged everything to help pay for his Cornell tuition. Without a dime to his name, without a home and having walked out of final exams, Jacob hops on a train in the middle of the night. He discovers later the train belongs to a traveling circus: Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.

We eventually find out that many traveling circuses are disintegrating during this time and the Benzini Brothers don't actually run this circus. Uncle Al ruthlessly manages this circus and he's described as a "buzzard, a vulture, an eater of carrion." Essentially, Al keeps his ears open to failing circuses and ensures he's around to absorb some of their prizes. More than anything else, Uncle Al covets freaks. Uncle Al's equestrian director and superintendent of animals is schizophrenic August Rosenbluth, and eventually Jacob works for August. August is the common flavor of tall, dark and handsome: charming, affable and inviting -- when he wants to be. Twelve years his junior, August's wife is the pretty and acrobatic Marlena, the star of the equestrian act and really the star of the circus.

The circus travels from city to city and Uncle Al makes an impromptu detour for a failed circus to absorb some of its spoils. Uncle Al especially desires a man with a twin protruding from his chest. Ringling picks up the freak but Uncle Al lands Rosie the Elephant instead. They even acquire the train car to house Rosie. On one charming night that turns awry later, the audience erupts in appreciation of Marlena and Rosie's incomparable act.

As I mentioned before, I thought the book limps to its conclusion. I would have appreciated another chapter in the flashback depicting our protagonists in a new act with another circus. Still, I found the reading experience a captivating novelty to say the least.

Ashes in the Wind, by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss [4]

****/***** (4/5)

"You honestly wanted to marry me?" [Alaina] questioned in amazement.

"Madam, I wanted you any way I could get you, and that's no lie."

There's romances... and then, there's romances. Kathleen E. Woodiwiss' sweeping, 565-page civil war romance ASHES IN THE WIND warmly engages readers. It's incredible that a book published back in 1979 such as this one still reigns supreme compared to the spewing potboilers shedding from romance shelves these days. In ASHES IN THE WIND, the hero and heroine verbally spar on an equal level and there's a veritable seesawing in the game of wit rather than the common hoax of making the hero look like a moron in response to the heroine's "wit." Here, each of our leading pair give as good as they get, in terms of the sexual tension, games of wit, love, and caring. There's a connection and chemistry here that actually overshadows the common scientific ministrations of a libertine initiating a virgin (or near-virgin) to sexual passion, a initiation "plot" often dominating romance novels. Here, the heroic pining at the end isn't forced, it isn't egregious and it isn't so blatantly one-sided (from the hero)! Here, the intrigue/war plot parallels the passion skillfully! Strong prose and vivid settings makes everything better and Woodiwiss definitely excels on both accounts. I will have to read other KEW books in the future, and I wonder if there's other civil war love stories out there. I found the book's attempts to describe the civil war an anemic affair, and the focus firmly rests on Alaina and her struggle.

My problems with the novel: torpid pacing, a ridiculous ending and a fun yet debilitating second part which seems to handicap its protagonists. The first half of part two features some rather fun moments of strife (and tension) between the hero Cole Latimer and the heroine Alaina MacGaren based on a misconception. The second half of part two, meanwhile, actually spent time portraying their mutual love and caring for each other reminiscent of Julie Garwood's sweet h/h interaction. I thought Woodiwiss made the bickering from the first half of part two fun and balanced, a rare talent amongst romance novelists and yet she still spent time on their tenderness and caring for each other after they prevailed against the misconception which separated them intimately. Unfortunately, Woodiwiss intersperses clues which portends the return of villains at the end, and Cole and Alaina just seem to ignore all the clues and fail to proactively dig deeper and possibly prepare better against villains at the end who have them at a decided disadvantage. Essentially, the romance handicaps them from thinking and acting logically, especially Cole. I also felt the pacing meandered quite a bit in this 565-page epic with seemingly pointless passages.

ASHES IN THE WIND soundly belongs to its heroine Alaina MacGaren, a young seventeen year-old girl who loses everything to the war and the Yankees: her father, her mother, her brother and her home. She dons many guises including that of a ragged boy to escape persecution when she meets a Union Captain, the Doctor Cole Latimer. Alaina, of course, detests Yankees. Alaina is many things, but foremost among them: resilient beyond belief. The book follows Alaina, her adventures and her thoughts much more closely than Cole's, all in the context of the American Civil War.

The Story, possible SPOILERS.

Alaina MacGaren must flee her home Briar Hill on a plantation in Louisiana after some crooked Union soldiers brand her a spy for sheltering Confederate soldiers and carrying some things for one of them to a Confederate camp. Alaina's father and one of her brothers has already died serving the South in the war and her mother passes away shortly thereafter. When the crooked Union soldiers threaten her, she and her devoted huge slave Saul journey south to New Orleans, a city the North currently holds. Although she's separated from Saul, she meets Union Captain Doctor Cole Latimer in New Orleans who rescues her from three bullying Union soldiers. Dressed as a dirty, ragged boy to protect her identity and the price on her head, Cole has no idea who this is and escorts "Al" to her uncle's home in New Orleans, Angus Craighugh.

At the Craighugh home, Cole meets Alaina's cousin Roberta, a twenty-two year-old superficial beauty after money. Cole also offers Al work at the hospital he's stationed at and Al agrees to earn her keep at the Craighugh home. When Roberta discovers Cole hails from a wealthy family from Minnesota, Roberta makes a play for Cole while "Al" persists in her enmity for all Yankees though it's getting harder and harder to do in Cole's case. KEW's plots and settings again reign supreme crafting a circumstance which has "Al" inexplicably save a drunk and unconscious Cole from the river one night. Cole bears a rather large bump on his head, and Al takes him to the Craighugh home for rest late in the night when Roberta will be asleep and her parents out for the most of the night. Al dulls Cole's pain with more liquor once Cole is in the guest bedroom. In a drunk stupor, Cole awakes and mistakes Alaina for a prostitute in a brothel. Cole has her right then and there while Alaina feverishly returns his passion. When Alaina sees her virgin blood, she runs from the room as Cole sleeps away his injury and inebriation after taking Alaina's virginity. An incensed Roberta wakes to find Alaina's virgin blood on the bed Cole sleeps in and takes steps to trap him. Roberta's parents arrive on the scene and a befuddled Cole must marry Roberta considering the evidence in plain sight.

Part one ends with the conclusion of the war as a crippled and limping Cole takes his unhappy and acrimonious wife Roberta back to his home in Minnesota. Cole finally discovers "Al" 's true identity and grudgingly leaves Alaina. Alaina now must contend with the unsavory attentions of the book's villain, one Jacques DuBonne. By this time, more allegations against Alaina MacGaren mount as she's unjustly branded a spy, traitor and murderer by both the North and South. Alaina assumes the identity of her friend Mrs. Hawthorne's niece and finally Alaina can act like a lady for once. On the down side, this also attracts DuBonne's attentions. When DuBonne's advances become difficult to fend off, Cole offers Alaina marriage after Roberta passes away.

"...Major [Cole] Latimer has assured us by letter that he understands the entire situation, but he also assures" -- Mrs. Hawthorne's lips twitched beneath the spurs of a threatening smile -- "that he heartily doubts that you (Alaina) would have the wisdom to accept [the marriage proposal]. I believe he said -- ah, yes -- here it is. 'She has a penchant for foolishness and trouble that outweighs all the considerations of common sense. I extend the suggestion [for marriage] most willingly and wish you luck in your attempts to convince her, though I doubt much will come of it. Will be anxiously awaiting your reply.' "
...
Alaina's mind flogged itself in a confused melee. Outweighs all common sense! That blithering bluebelly idiot! She could just see his gaping grin above his broad brass-buttoned chest. That miming jackanapes! He pities me and plays his savior's role most heartily, but he does not want me for a wife.

Her mind hardened, and her neck stiffened. Well I don't want him as a husband!

After DuBonne abducts Alaina only to have Alaina burn him, a stubborn Alaina finally consents to marriage with Cole. Although Alaina fumes over Cole sending a proxy to say the marriage words, she does finally travels up to his estates in Minnesota as his wife.

Part two chronicles the stringent, combative tension between a married Alaina and Cole, both under a false misconception perpetuated by a very bitter Angus Craighugh, Roberta's father. The tension-filled, witty altercations were often fun mainly because there was a genuine back-and-forth. The tension then mellows out to a loving care and giving on both their parts as they finally succumb to their passions. Mystery and suspense coincide this burgeoning romance in part two up in Minnesota. Jacques reappears, and Cole's stepmother Tamara Latimer also makes an appearance to explain some of the intrigue from part one. It seemed like everything connected too neatly and the ending was a bit nonsensical. Cole and Alaina dismiss the clues too easily earlier.

Still the book was fun overall, epic in proportions, the love was equal parts fun and heartwarming by highlighting the connection between our leading pair, and the plotting was laced with engaging intrigue. The writing and settings were far superior than I'm used to from romance novelists. Olden is still golden...

Warily [Cole] asked, "Now that you have me up here, what are your intentions?"

"Hot and cold compresses to make the swelling go down. That much I know about home remedies." [Alaina] gestured casually. "That robe, please. I plan to see to the entire man. After we've tended your leg, I'll shave and bathe you."

"I'm not an invalid, madam," [Cole] assured her. "I can bathe myself."

"You'll have difficulty getting into the tub. It will be simpler if you're bathed here."

His brows crinkled thoughtfully. "All over?"

Alaina's eyes raised slowly to his. "I think you can manage a few places."

"You've crushed my hopes."

"Serves you right," she chided with a smile twinkling at the corner of her mouth...

Cole had second thoughts as to her charity when she slapped the frigid bulk of snow onto his leg, almost bringing him straight out of the bed. And if that was not enough, she nearly scalded him again, this time with a steaming towel still dripping wet from the kettle. "Be careful with that thing!" [Cole] yelped. "You could end our hopes for a family altogether."

"I'll try to be more careful," Alaina apologized, sweetly contrite...

Bloodsucking Fiends, by Christopher Moore [4]

****/***** (4/5)

Tommy went to the news racks by the registers and gathered up an armload of women's magazines... There was a pattern here. Cellulite, PMS, and men who don't commit were the enemies. Delightfully light desserts, marriage, and multiple orgasms were the allies.

Tommy felt like a spy, as if he should be microfilming the pages under a gooseneck lamp in some back room of a Bavarian castle stronghold, and any minute some woman in SS gear would burst in on him and tell him that she had ways of making him talk. Actually that last part wouldn't be too bad.

Women seemed to have some collective plan, and most of it seemed to involve getting men to do stuff they didn't want to do. [He] flipped [to an article] entitled: "Men's Love for Sports Analogies: How to Use Vince Lombardi to Make Him Put the Seat Down." ("When one player falls in, the whole team gets a wet butt.") He read on: "When it's fourth and ten and Joe Montana decides to go for it, would his linemen tell him that they won't go to the store to get him tampons? I don't think so."

My first Christopher Moore novel BLOODSUCKING FIENDS: A LOVE STORY delights, enthralls, and heartily amuses in tearful fits of laughter, all in the context of a vampire love story spun into a hysterical parody. BLOODSUCKING FIENDS sucks you right in, and even during the slower mid-to-late portions of the novel, I couldn't put the book down. I absolutely loved the contemporary western prose replete with references to American movies, writers and products, I was enchanted by all of the characters, I enjoyed the San Francisco backdrop, and I was charmed by the love story itself. Nothing special in the plot, Christopher Moore writes to his strengths: absolutely relentless humor and a satirical parody of sorts. This book had me laughing out loud at various places as Moore relentlessly packs every paragraph with his offbeat, quirky humor. The book contains adult language and at times some violence (thought nothing too bad).

Did I enjoy it? You bet, and I'll be reading more Christopher Moore down the line for sure. Reading Christopher Moore for the first time was like being a kid in a candy store.

The Story.

BLOODSUCKING FIENDS features 26 year-old, "cute-but-not-beautiful," green-eyed, red-haired, Transamerica employee Jody Stroud breaking free from her shell of insecurities and fears. Jody can't seem to live without a man in her life and attracts the worst kind of handsome, hunky assholes who exploit her sweet, passive nature. She's lived with so many guys over the years, she's lost count.

As the story begins, Jody is meekly walking home to her latest, hunky asshole of a boyfriend, Kurt. After she's suddenly attacked in a dark San Francisco alley, she wakes up the night after with heightened senses, a bunch of money and a wry retaliatory disposition, the vampire predator in her finally fighting back. Jody rebels, she rebels against people walking all over her, she rebels against her asshole of a boyfriend and knocks him out to suck some blood, and her survival instincts kick in as she seeks dark shelter from sunup to sundown. We're treated to the fun superhuman intricacies that go along with learning to cope with your new Vampire-self. Jody kicks some serious ass and the book rises above the hangover a lot romance novels have over insecurities in appearance. But then again, this isn't exactly a romance novel as much as it is Christopher Moore's hilarious parody on vampire love.

[Jody] thought, There must be a hundred thousand dollars here. A man attacked me, choked me, bit my neck, burned my hand, then stuffed my shirt full of money and put a dumpster on me and now I can see heat and hear fog. I've won Satan's lottery.

Meanwhile, C. Thomas Flood's family and friends ostracized him from his home in Indiana for trying to make it as a writer and being a bit on the sensitive side. Tommy doesn't exactly fit in with stereotypical hickville consisting of bowling, beer and rampant sex. After his car burns down from the drive to San Francisco, Tommy now needs a place to stay and a job to support his potential writing career. A comical, older homeless man known as "The Emperor of San Francisco" suggests a Safeway store for Tommy's job. By the way, the Emperor and his dogs, Bummer and Lazarus that he affectionately refers to as his "troops," are in some ways the heart of the novel. The Emperor rocks!

At the Safeway store, Tommy leads the graveyard shift stocking the shelves with the "Animals," juvenile delinquents between the ages of 16 and 27. The book describes some of the Animals' hilarious escapades during the graveyard shifts including using a turkey to bowl on a lubed, slick surface, surfing on a high-tech janitorial machine and drinking beer. The Animals always manage to get their stocking done though! All the Animals are introduced, from muscular, macho Simon to explosive expert Drew; all of them are fun and interesting and leave their mark on the story in their unique way.

Tommy meets Jody one late night as Jody searches for someone to do her daytime errands after she leaves her latest boyfriend (errands such as retrieving her impounded car, picking up her last check from Transamerica, etc.). Tommy calls her beautiful and Jody aggressively asks him out on a date. Jody would never have done that her last life, she thinks. Jody does and says things otherwise beyond the meek girl she once was, and Jody is absolutely loving her new, confident Vampire self. Things between Tommy and Jody progress intimately after a rather humorous first date and they quickly move in together. Jody trusts a younger Tommy who wears his emotions on his sleeve, and reveals everything to Tommy (about how she was turned into a vampire). Tommy agrees to help with Jody's errands during the day. Despite growing closer intimately, both still feel lonely since they're not like each other (one's a vampire, the other a human), and a younger Tommy constantly laments, "You're going to break my heart, aren't you." Jody answers, "Irreparably."

Jody and Tommy experiment over the fact vs. fiction of vampire culture. The exchanges are funny and I thought Moore handled the interchanges between a younger Tommy and an older Jody well. Since he's younger, Tommy does get a bit whiny at times, but he never manages to lose his sense of humor. It's a tumultuous relationship but a funny one nonetheless and Moore gets guys right: horny, sex-crazed beings of lust that can show tremendous love. Thankfully, Moore avoids the endless lovesick introspection romance novelists force upon their heroes' thoughts for their heroines and yet BLOODSUCKING FIENDS: A LOVE STORY still captures our hero Tommy's emotional affection for Jody.

"Let's try something." [Tommy] held his hand by her face. "Lick my finger."

[Jody] pushed his hand away. "Tommy, just finish eating and we can go home and do this."

"No, it's an experiment. My cuticles get split from cutting boxes at the store. I want to see if you can heal them." He touched her lower lip. "Go ahead, lick." [Jody] snaked out a tentative tongue and licked the tip of his finger, then took his finger in her mouth and ran her tongue around it. "Wow," Tommy said...his cuticle, which had been split and torn, had healed.

"Do another." He thrust another finger in her mouth." She spit it out. "Stop that...."

"Let's go home," Tommy said. "I've got a blister on my big tow."

"No fucking way, writer-boy."

"It's low in calories," Tommy coaxed, prodding her foot with his sneaker. "Good, and good for you."

"Not a chance."

Intermingled with this romance, Moore weaves the growing concern over the mysterious deaths of terminally ill people. Our homicide detectives investigating the deaths, the gay-but-rough Cavuto and the serene Cuban/Mexican/Colombian Rivera, make for an intriguing pair in their own right. The older vampire who initially turned Jody seems to be at large, and Jody and Tommy suspect the older vampire. It's funny, some of the interchanges between a feisty Jody and the laughing, older Vampire reminded me of the myriad of hero-and-heroine interactions from romance novels. The hundreds year-old vampire is darker and more mysterious than Tommy and that darker, mysterious quality fits the romance-hero mold much more so than our humble, skinny writer-boy Tommy.

In many ways, Jody and Tommy represent Moore's iconoclast figures in love stories.

Tommy interrupted, "Actually, there's only one body in the freezer. The other is my girlfriend."

"You sick fuck." Cavuto drew back as if to hit Tommy.

BLOODSUCKING FIENDS: A LOVE STORY had me in a constant state of laughing, chuckling, smiling and anticipating fervor. Good book, the love story itself may not work for some, but I enjoyed that aspect as well. And guess what. There's a sequel to this...

Into the Fire, by Anne Stuart [4]

****/***** (4/5)

There's too many things to like about Anne Stuart's INTO THE FIRE. In my continuing quest for a fusion between romance and other genres, this particular one blurs the lines of distinction between contemporary romance, suspense and mystery, though it's still a romance at heart. I thought INTO THE FIRE does a very decent job in all of these genres and yet still manages to pull off a world unto its own. Aside from the contemporary world, the novel seemed to breath a new world within the garage building in remote Cooperstown, Wisconsin (U.S.), where most of the novel takes place. It was surreal, yet grounded. The settings -- though good -- I thought could have been better if Anne Stuart spent even more time than she already did describing the decrepit garage building. As it is, the inanimate garage building still came alive. The prose isn't bad at all, and the characterizations were excellent with ample backstories and well-realized. Especially Bad-Boy Dillon Gaynor. The romance was very passionate, electrically charged. Anne Stuart even made me laugh as she sprinkles in some witty dialogue.

I've heard you haven't read bad boys until you've read Anne Stuart's bad boys. Within the context of the romance genre, I would have to agree. Although INTO THE FIRE's Dillon is a convicted felon, a high-school dropout, a drunk, a drug dealer, and an all-around insensitive jerk, he still manages to capture our good-girl heroine Jamie Kincaid's attentions, and later, her heart. You have to hand it to Anne Stuart for getting bad boys right, and still have the reader find them endearing, at least on some level. I've also heard Anne Stuart redeems her heroes fully by the end and such is the case here as well because bad-boy Dillon doesn't have the most noble, gentlemanly intentions towards his heroine Jamie starting out.

Jamie signifies courage during very trying circumstances and a spunky wit on her own right, and in that regard, her character pretty much golfs par for romance. What I found funny though: she drives all the way from her home in Rhode Island to Dillon's car garage in Wisconsin for some answers only to find herself wanting to flee Dillon -- constantly. Classic case of a heroine's nerves and instincts guarding her falling heart, but I thought it was funny here, and unique in the midst of the eerie, suspenseful car garage building. For those of you that are a bit squeamish (I myself can't take S&M), I must warn of a rape scene in the beginning. It's part of Jamie's flashback, and I thought it was important in two respects: it showed Jamie's strength of character and it signified in the overall love story and passion between Jamie and Dillon.

My problems?

Well for one, I thought the book contained too many plot holes. I didn't mind that it often bordered on paranormal elements, but it didn't provide a reasonable explanation for the happenings in Dillon's car garage at the end. Either make it paranormal or provide me with some reasonable explanations please.

And secondly, this is getting back to my need for some satisfactory ending - not necessarily happy 100%, but satisfactory nonetheless. I didn't like how the ending didn't spend enough time between its hero and heroine, Jaime and Dillon. It also felt contrived and rushed.

Finally, I felt Dillon was reformed too easily, and all the criminal charges against him absolved too conveniently. Could be related to my problem with plot holes.

The premise (spoiler-free).

Twenty-eight year-old school teacher Jaime Kincaid has just lost her beloved cousin Nate to death. Tall, dark and handsome, Nate possessed a beguiling smile and a comforting, easy presence. Nate and Dillon Gaynor have been best friends forever and Nate was found bludgeoned to death in his best friend's car garage. Jaime fears thirty year-old Dillon for many reasons: she's had a crush on Dillon since she was 15, Dillon's James-Dean, Rebel-Without-a-Cause persona infringes on her deepest, darkest desires, and he's violent in the worst ways having served jail time for almost beating someone to death when he was 19. Yet, Jaime treks out there in her Volvo for some answers and Nate's belongings since Dillon ignores her letters. The police have dropped Nate's case and Jaime is determined to get some answers.

As she arrives at Dillon's eerie car garage, she's horrified to watch Dillon beating someone up. Nope, Jaime thinks, he hasn't changed at all.

Bad-Boy Dillon Gaynor has his own reasons for intentionally withholding Nate's belongings and hoping to see Jaime again in person after 12 years. They aren't the most noble reasons either, he just wants to use her for his own satisfaction. As soon as Jaime arrives, she wants to escape, to return to Rhode Island while Dillon treacherously sabotages her means to return. He effectively imprisons her in his creepy, dilapidated car garage building.

The story continues its wild ride from there as good-girl Jaime and bad-boy Dillon struggle with ghosts from their past and with each other.

A very engaging reading experience, and it had me completely hooked from beginning to end.

Flowers from the Storm, by Laura Kinsale [4]

****/***** (4/5)

My second Kinsale novel after SHADOWHEART (***), Laura Kinsale's novels are always a challenging reading experience, but I thoroughly enjoyed FLOWERS FROM THE STORM. The ending was icing on the cake; in fact, the ending was cherry on top of the icing on the cake. Why are her novels so challenging to read? Well, because Kinsale hits you hard with her own dose of brutal honesty, and the stories aren't rosy, 2-dimensional surfaces, but three-dimensional, very complex, very intense. Written well before SHADOWHEART, I found FLOWERS FROM THE STORM's (1992) prose and settings inferior to SHADOWHEART, but its characterizations and story superior. Have I mentioned I loved the ending in this one yet, epilogue and all?

There's many themes and stories in FLOWERS FROM THE STORM, but I find myself drawn to one in particular: the brutal consequences of the lifestyle a blackguard and libertine chooses. A carefree, depraved lifestyle leading to an account of the lowest lows. A lot of regency romances depict a chaste, virgin heroine rescuing a rakehell from a dissolute, worthless life. But I haven't read any which chronicle the consequences of this dissolute lifestyle in quite such a brutal way. More often than not, rosy regency romances sugarcoat the hero's dissolute lifestyle as a prerequisite to his Master of Seduction title, ably deflowering our virgin. In a way, FLOWERS FROM THE STORM is a spin on this same'ole-same'ole storyline: a virgin heroine saving the blackguard hero, but in so many others ways, it's so honest, so brutal: both in the delivery and in the execution, and therein lies this particular story's beauty.

For myself, the journey from a blackguard hero's horrible, nightmarish lows to the salvation he discovers from his heroine represents the heart of the novel: flowers from the storm, if you will. Even though the heroine Maddy saves her hero, I thought novel firmly belongs to its hero, the Duke of Jervaulx (pronounced Sher-VO) Christian Langland.

FLOWERS FROM THE STORM takes the virginal-heroine routine to its extreme where we have a Quaker heroine from the time period ("Friends") shunning materialism and worldly notions as a result of their puritan, spartan upbringing. The hero, however, is materialistic and licentious to the extreme on the other end of the spectrum. In this way, the characters in this novel represent caricatures, symbols from opposite ends of the spectrum. You really get a true sense that their arduous journey to discover common ground represents no small feat: the entire ordeal very arresting, very resonating.

On the downside, I felt the story was very, very slow developing. SHADOWHEART was one firework after another while the 533-page FLOWERS FROM THE STORM languishes in places quite a bit, especially the beginning 2-300 pages which feature the blackguard's lowest lows. Still the story wouldn't be the same without this accounting. I also felt the prose and setting were far weaker than Kinsale's more recent SHADOWHEART. Obviously, her writing has evolved but showed promise from the start.

The Story.

It all begins as the Duke of Jervaulx Christian Langland, a brilliant mathematician, is enjoying a dalliance with his 3-month mistress, the married Lady Edie Sutherland, in the Sutherland home. His mistress is already with child and the child is clearly Jervaulx's since Edie's husband has been away for more than 3 months. The plan is to pass the child off as her husband's since he'll return soon. Unfortunately, the husband walks in on Jervaulx and his wife, and calls him out in a duel. Headaches which seem to plague Jervaulx incapacitate him at the duel and leave him in a comatose condition for a week. When he awakens, his family finds him insane and has him confirmed in a mental institute.

Religion played a huge role in SHADOWHEART and FLOWERS FROM THE STORM is no different. Miss Archimedea Timms ("Maddy") is a Quaker, a religious sect emphasizing nonviolence, shunning social hierarchy, and rejecting materialistic pleasures to the extreme, often choosing dull, drab clothes and a simple lifestyle. Similar to Jervaulx, Maddy's father also enjoys a passion for mathematics, and both Maddy's father and Jervaulx have been collaborating on a revolutionary theorem. Maddy brings Jervaulx's notes to her father and vice-versa, though she's never met Jervaulx in person often having to wait in his parlor for hours to obtain his notes from the butler.

Maddy & Jervaulx meet for a presentation of the theorem the night before Jervaulx's duel with Edie's husband. Jervaulx is caught by Maddy's plain garb and plain appearance, obscuring a beauty. In a very fresh and entertaining way, Jervaulx describes Maddy's appearance to her blind father later that night for dinner.

The story slows down after Maddy comes to the mental institute and aids Jervaulx as his personal attendant. The gravity of Jervaulx's fall from grace is hard-hitting, and his perspective in the beginning no short of a challenge to read. Jervaulx isn't exactly insane, but he can't understand, formulate and articulate coherent speech. The words people say around him is too fast for him and he loses his patience, loses his temper and is driven to violence. He also has trouble remembering words for simple things like cats, razors, and articles of clothing.

Maddy feels it's her calling, her Quaker "Opening," to assist Jervaulx any way she can, and she's very patient with him. She discovers he can write and talk in math very fluently, but everything else requires substantial effort and she has to speak slowly for him to understand. She slowly focuses on one word at a time, and he answers in a similar, but much more jumbled manner.

Jervaulx finds an inner peace, but only with Maddy's calming presence, and he slowly progresses and improves with Maddy's help. Although Jervaulx never fully regains his speech, Kinsale really impresses on her readers Jervaulx's steady improvement with Maddy's help.

Overshadowing this entire recovery is Jervaulx's family's attempts to usurp his fortune and estates and have him declared permanently incompetent. Jervaulx has fallen from grace so hard, he's even detached from his mother and sisters. FLOWERS FROM THE STORM doesn't paint Jervaulx's family in the most positive light either, he hates his mother's over-pious disposition and he hates his sisters' and their husbands' avarice for his money. Only the Lady de Marly, Jervaulx's Aunt Vesta sides with Jervaulx, and vies to protect his title, estates and fortune. She's a fun character, and she pretty much has a one-track mind: procreation and begetting an heir for Jervaulx.

When Aunt Vesta demands Jervaulx marry another Lady as the only way she will keep him out of the mental institute, Jervaulx runs from the altar with Maddy instead. The adventure takes off there as Maddy and Jervaulx race to return Jervaulx's speech to some semblance of rationality before the next competency hearing. A hearing arranged by his mother, his sisters and brothers-in-law.

Although slow moving overall, the finale was grand once you get there. And very heartwarming. I thought both Jervaulx & Maddy acted honorably and maturely, even with Jervaulx's tricks. Maddy surprised me time and time again during situations and circumstances prime for a cliche regency-romance-heroine run and gun.

Anyhow can't say enough how much I really enjoyed this novel. An entertaining and heartwarming take on regency romance to the extreme.

Warprize, by Elizabeth Vaughan [4]

****/***** (4/5)

Lords of the White Castle is something of an epic, and it looks like I'll be at that one for a while. In the meantime I'm cataloging reviews of other books I've read from the past.

Vaughan's WARPRIZE is a very endearing, enjoyable romance with an extremely satisfying ending. I found many parts of the novel funny as well, and the supporting cast of characters are all a delight to read. I'm looking forward to the sequels after this one.

Xylara (Lara) is our heroine, a very passionate healer, and Daughter of Xy. The Warlord and his barbarian host has been soundly defeating the Kingdom of Xy and the King of Xy (Xymund) acquiesces to the Warlord's demands for a "peace," one of the demands including a tribute to the Warlord, King Xymund's own half-sister Lara.

The book's heart rests with Lara and her struggle to balance her duties with her heart, which changes over the course of the novel.

I do have 2 complaints.

I find writing an entire novel in the first-person lazy. I thought Vaughn could have done a better job of building context, setting and history if the entire novel wasn't written in the first-person.

I thought the premise of the novel rested on Lara's trepidation to ask a simple question: what does being a Warprize mean? She finally asks Joden three-quarters of the way through and obviously, she is overjoyed.

The Leopard Prince, by Elizabeth Hoyt [4]

****/***** (4/5)

Elizabeth Hoyt's stories are quickly becoming a delight to read, and THE LEOPARD PRINCE follows THE RAVEN PRINCE very satisfactorily, albeit just a notch below THE RAVEN PRINCE. Hoyt sprinkles the right touches of a heart-felt romance, humorous wit (real wit), frenzied passion, a relatively engaging plot and unconventional, well-developed characterizations. Settings are stronger in this book, with the rain, the smells, and the lavish estates. Unlike THE RAVEN PRINCE, I thought THE LEOPARD PRINCE dragged a bit in the second half though, especially after Harry Pye's recuperation from the beating. Still, the ending was grand; unique, hilarious and pleasantly trite all at the same time. Like Julia Quinn's endorsement on the front cover, I really didn't want THE LEOPARD PRINCE to end.

I found the combination of an ordinary, average-of-height hero finding love with a spinster, a wealthy heroine very refreshing to read about. Our 30 year-old hero is a lowly but street-smart land steward while our 28 year-old heroine is an earl's sister but the head of her family's finances, the lone benefactor of a wealthy aunt's bequeathed vast fortune and estates. The obstacles our leading pair must surmount to be together is greater than most; the hero is not only much poorer (though he's done well for himself), but also from a lower class.

Similar to the slight discourse on feminism in the beginning of THE RAVEN PRINCE, I thought the brief railing against hierarchal society detracted from hero's strength of character and the story in general suffered because of it. I didn't think hero Harry Pye as one to mope around over the unfairness of life and aristocracy. Thankfully the book doesn't dwell on the subject.

I thoroughly enjoyed the way Hoyt weaved the story of the The Leopard Prince as the story within the story, very much akin to her previous novel.

The Story, possible SPOILERS.

Twenty-eight year-old Lady Georgina "George" Maitland, an earl's sister and the sole benefactor of vast fortunes and estates, exhibits a sparkling wit, and a hilarious innocence. She's on her way to her estate at Woldsly Manor as per her 15 year-old sister Violet's request. The book describes George's striking ginger hair at length, but she isn't a stunning beauty by any stretch of the imagination.

I loved the way Hoyt relates our heroine George's innocence in matters of passion and love in the beginning. I found George's wit and humor over her innocence regarding matters of lovemaking very refreshing and, ironically enough, mature. The satirical humor lent the whole virgin experience in a very humorous yet passionate light. Of course George exhibits a very witty humor in general, one I suspect stems from Elizabeth Hoyt.

George's land steward Mr. Harry Pye accompanies George to her estate, a wound-up man, reticent in manner and speech, not to mention all too proper. George pokes some fun in her musings to herself at Harry's very phlegmatic demeanor, Harry the unknown recipient of George's humorous gibes. Harry returns her carefree fun with some straight-faced sarcasm of his own. Harry Pye is average all around, both in looks and height. However, he possesses a hidden, overpowering physical strength and absolutely devastating emerald eyes.

On their way to George's estate, the carriage overturns in the midst of a torrential downpour and Harry & George spend the night at a dilapidated cottage nearby, hailing the onset of a very passionate yet funny romance.

While riding the following day, George & Harry observe some dead sheep from poisoning on a neighboring estate owned by Lord Granville, our proverbial villain. Once at Woldsly Manor, George's sister Violet reveals rumors implicating Harry Pye in the sheep poisonings. More details surface of a mutual enmity between Lord Granville, whose lands currently suffer from the sheep deaths, and Harry Pye. I found this plotting with the sheep poisoning a weak backdrop to our story, though curious enough to hold my interest. For all of Harry's investigation over the poisoning conspiracy, it didn't seem like he got anywhere until they spoke to the wizened Granville nanny, Mistress Humboldt. The entire investigation was boring not to mention unproductive.

The investigation did provide an excuse for our leading pair to spend more time together though, and George's claim to Harry's "maleness" was funny, not to mention very passionate. At one point, George blurts out she'd like to see a naked man once.

I didn't mind the torture scene after Granville captures Harry. I thought that was very empowering to read about -- Harry enduring the beatings showed much more strength than a heavily-muscled, chiseled hero from common romance novels.

THE LEOPARD PRINCE belonged to...? I'd say both George and Harry equally share possession of the novel, and though Harry had more of a mysterious background, George had more flair, more panache. I really liked the ending, and it didn't seem to unman our hero as other romance novels often do; ironically enough, our lowly, average steward seemed much stronger in character and spirit than most tall, dark and handsome heroes which pine and wilt before the heroine and her whims in so many romance novels.

Another very fun, enjoyable novel and wow, Elizabeth Hoyt is on fire!

By Possession, by Madeline Hunter [4]

****/***** (4/5)

Madeline Hunter's writing always seems to be a notch above others', and BY POSSESSION is no exception. Having read and loved THE RULES OF SEDUCTION before (the only "romance" novel I've given 5 stars thus far), I was right at home with Hunter's medieval-era BY POSSESSION. I'm amazed at how realistic and believable Madeline Hunter's heroes are, and Addis de Valence is very compelling, not the sort of "alpha" romance heroes that are more pining than anything else. Though I found myself thoroughly captivated by BY POSSESSION, I thought the plotting and settings took a firm backseat to BY POSSESSION's heart-wrenching love story. The characterizations of our leading pair Moira and Addis are exceptional (Moira especially), but the settings and plotting are a bit weaker than what I'm used to from THE RULES OF SEDUCTION.

BY POSSESSION chronicles the heart-wrenching tale of a serf-woman's impossible love for a lord, giving all she has and expecting nothing in return. Deservedly, this tale belongs to Moira Falkner, serf-born daughter of an acknowledged prostitute. Moira is servant to Claire, the lady betrothed and later married to the handsome Addis de Valence, lord of Barrowburgh. Moira is so forgettable, so ordinary, Addis dubs her Claire's Shadow when Moira is young. Moira however fosters a deep-seeded and hidden love for Addis, and though many openly ridicule Moira because of her mother's dubious position, Addis is kind to Moira when she's young. Moira returns that kindness with such a profound love that blew me away, Moira gives everything she has, her soul, her heart, to Addis without ever expecting anything in return.

In order to escape a disastrous marriage to Claire, Addis leaves on a crusade in the Baltic, where he's captured and held in slavery for 6 years. Upon his return, he finds himself a foreigner in his homeland where everything has changed. Addis' stepbrother usurps Addis' father and now holds Addis' family's stronghold, Barrowburgh. Addis' father is dead, his wife is dead and he discovers he actually has a son, the heir to Barrowburgh. Only Moira remains as a symbol from his tortured past, having cared for Addis' heir and keeping him hidden and safe from Addis' stepbrother.

Even though Moira is no longer bondwoman, Addis refuses to give her up, and tenaciously grasps onto that symbol from his past, refuting her testimony that she was freed. After a few escape attempts, Moira unwittingly finds herself back in Addis' arms and desperately tries to deny her childhood love for Addis each escape attempt. She doesn't want to repeat her mother's rather notorious and dubious position as a lord's mistress even though both loved each other and were true to each other.

As a serf-born girl, Moira knows she has no real future with the rightful Lord of Borrowburgh, and refuses to accept him as his mistress like her mother accepted her lord. Moira desires a home of her own, and she will obstinately accept nothing less. She's prideful, and she holds her honor and respect in society above else, even trying to suppress a deep-rooted love for Addis.

The remainder of the story tells a heart-wrenching tale of Moira's love that can never be, and the unspeakable peace and love Addis finds with Moira. Addis will only take a willing Moira, and honors Moira so much that he won't even use seduction as a means of her acceptance. Instead, Addis is content finding a peace by just being with and around Moira. Addis finds he is only whole with Moira, and can find no peace elsewhere.

Moira's impassioned love for Addis knows no bounds, she gives so freely without any strings attached, without any expectation, that I was blown away. It was a heart-wrenching love because she knows she can never truly be with a Lord, and everything she gives to Addis is that much more profound, that much more impassioned, that much more gut-wrenching.

Again, an excellent tale and I look forward to reading other medieval-era books by Madeline Hunter.

The Raven Prince, by Elizabeth Hoyt [4]

****/***** (4/5)

A very enjoyable read, even though it is a bit heavy on the sensual/erotica side. I was close to giving this book 5 stars, but it seemed a bit lacking in the plotting / vivid settings and bit too heavy in the love scenes for me to give it the 5 stars. I prefer a novel in which the descriptive actions and settings is on equal footing with the banter, the dialogue; however, the banter and conversation overshadows the action and settings in THE RAVEN PRINCE.

Still, THE RAVEN PRINCE is too sweet, too fun to really dislike, even if the sensual passion and dialogue seem to reign supreme. Also, there's a bit of a discourse on feminism in the beginning of the novel which I really didn't care for.

I was surprised to read a novel which seemed to get stronger and stronger the more you read it. I was actually having the most fun in the second half of THE RAVEN PRINCE. The story within the story about the fairy tale titled The Raven Prince which gives the book its title was also very endearing.

Like most romance novels, the heart of THE RAVEN PRINCE belongs with our heroine Anna, as she breaks all social barriers and goes to whatever lengths necessary to claim her man.

The Story, possible SPOILERS.

Near-destitute thirty-one year-old Lady Anna Wren, widowed for 6 years, lives with her mother-in-law and seeks employment to improve her impoverished conditions. Although unbecoming of a lady, Anna reasons that it's better to take a hit in status than not live at all. This constitutes the first of many steps Anna takes to break out of her lady-like shell.

Enter our tall, dark, broad-shouldered and unforgivably rich Earl of Swarthingham, Lord Edward de Raaf. Known for his ugly visage due to his pox scars and rueful temper, he's chased away the last two secretaries and it falls on his pitiful and mercy-worthy steward Mr. Felix Hopple to find one in a day. Anna is at the right place at the right time, and though unheard, Mr. Hopple agrees to take on Lady Anna as the earl's secretary.

After Edward meets Anna as his secretary, tempers and passions flare and the story takes off from there. When Anna learns Edward plans to travel to London to satisfy his manly needs, she follows him and meets him at a stylish bordello as a masked temptress. When Edward finally discerns the identity of the masked temptress who seduces him for two nights in a row, the story couldn't get anymore fun.

My biggest complaint...

Not surprisingly, the range of depth in our heroine Anna's characterization far outshines that of our hero. It seemed all too easy to simply just kill off everyone from Edward's past life, his parents, his sister, his brother, his wife and his stillborn child. After Edward shares how his wife and child died, it came to a point like... c'mon enough already, okay, he has a tortured, wounded past, we get it already! I did appreciate how Edward wasn't a reputed libertine, and actually tries to make something of his estate before Anna. Still, Anna's characterization seemed far more interesting and realistic and Hoyt spends much more time with her obviously. Her desire and need to bear a child she couldn't with her first husband was poignant.

Despite Edward's egregious and fulsome wounded past, traces of feminism in the beginning and a little too much of erotica, the book settled on an enjoyable pace, ending very satisfactorily.

Charming the Prince, by Teresa Medeiros [4]

****/*****

My first Teresa Medeiros novel, and I couldn't be more pleased. The book is just too charming and witty to not love. I was reminded of the classic fairytale Cinderella and the classic movie Sound of Music throughout the novel, but the novel still managed to maintain a fresh, original appeal.

The novel's heart and soul belongs with our witty yet resilient heroine, Willow. It begins with a child Willow looking forward to a new mother only to find out she's a cruel stepmother with a horde of children of her own. A child's dream of being loved by a mother vanishes in a heartbeat along with her own father's favor since his new wife brings money to their impoverished castle and estates.

Willow grows up as little more than a servant and nurse for her stepsisters and stepbrothers. She's bent, but not broken, and still dreams of a prince rescuing her from her beleaguered condition.

Lord Bannor the Bold, favored by the King of England, seeks a plump, unattractive yet caring mother for his estranged 10 children who harass and annoy him daily. He doesn't want anymore children of his own, so resolves to seek an unattractive lady. When he sends out his vassal in search of this lady, they bring back a beautiful Willow, who defies her father and resolves to marry a man she has not seen just to escape her situation. Instead of finding a prince to love, she finds 10 children she must care for as a nursemaid and once again her dreams are shattered.

The charming yet hilarious story really takes off there as a kind, witty and resilient Willow captures the hearts of not only Bannor's children but Bannor as well.

I do have some complaints.

SPOILERS ahead.

I thought Willow should have been more assertive about having children of her own. She says she doesn't want to have her own children, but she gives in to Bannor about this point too easily.

I also thought the ending could have been better crafted, it left something to be desired as Medeiros inserted other romances without having much to show between the lead pair.

I was actually looking for more scenes between Willow and Banner's children, but it seemed we got all too little of that.

Finally, it ended too quickly! I wanted more of Willow, and I wanted to see the second wedding between Bannor and Willow confirming their vows in front of Willow's family.

But oh well, a thoroughly entertaining and charming read nonetheless.

The Last Dragonlord, by Joanne Bertin [4]

****/*****

Overall, a very entertaining read here. If you're looking for heroic swordplay or a hard-nosed, kick-butt male protaganist, you won't find it here. Bertin's Linden Rathan is a bit on the sensitive side, and despite songs and stories of his glory, there's no evidence of his mastery with the sword or magic in this particular novel. Bertin presents Linden as a pretty weak character, both mentally and physically (and I don't mean his size, he's weak with sword and magic).

Still, at the heart of The Last Dragonlord, there's something very endearing, very magical about a girl who lands her lifelong hero, even as a guy reading it, I found it very endearing. I couldn't help but fall in love with Captain Maurynna Erdon's character -- she's stubborn, headstrong, not the most beautiful girl but certainly no hunchback, very accomplished, and of course, a fledgling dragonlord.

Joanne Bertin's strengths are obvious. She writes very endearing romantic scenes, compelling female characterizations (Maurynna, Maylin, Tasha, even Sherinne), and some interesting political intrigue. I even found myself laughing out loud on a number of occasions, especially via Bertin's Otter. In general, the tone and prose of the novel conveys a light, fast read.

Bertin's weaknesses? With the exception of Otter, her male characterizations are weak if not uninteresting. Ironic isn't it, since our female heroine finds Linden Rathan the most interesting hero ever. There are some plot holes in the story, but what story is perfect anyway? There are passages from certain characters which doesn't really add to the impetus of the plot, and more or less fractures a disjoint story even more. Bertin tries to set the stage using various, disjoint passages from a wide variety of perspectives, but in the end, they don't add much.

The Story.

The plot blurbs and book inset really doesn't do the story justice. The real story: Dragonlord Linden Rathan is the last dragonlord in a top-ranking society of dragonlords, and the only dragonlord without a soultwin. Dragonlords are an interesting breed, they can change between human and dragon form, they have some magical capabilities, and each is bonded by soul to another of the opposite sex. For over six centuries (or was it 8?) Linden Rathan seeks his soultwin, but without any luck. He's always bitter and jealous when he has to witness other soultwinned dragonlords together. Linden was 28 when he endured his first Change to a dragon and like all dragonlords, he hasn't aged physically over the centuries much since his first Change. Dragonlords also have a very interesting dichotomy: there exists 2 sentient souls in one body, the human soul and the dragon soul. Out of amusement, the dragon soul - though stronger and more powerful - slumbers and is usually content to let the human soul dominate over the body (both in human and dragon form) until the human soul wearies and passes away, leaving the truedragon. A dragon is pretty patient and time has no meaning to them anyway.

The rest is backdrop: Linden is sent by the "Lady" of the Dragonlords to Casna to oversee a conflict of regency after the Queen of Cassori dies as well as her Prince-Consort, leaving a very young boy as the only surviving heir. There exists 2 uncles contending for the interim Regency until the boy comes of age, Peridaen and Duke Beren. Three dragonlords are sent to sit in judgement and prevent civil war. There's plenty of bureaucratic council meetings which hold the 3 dragonlords at Casna for an extended period of time and the rest of the novel. A plethora of political threads are hatched as soon as the dragonlords arrive, delaying their return back to dragonkeep even more.

Along with the bard Otter, Captain Maurynna Erdon, 19, travels on her ship the Sea Mist to Casna's port to deliver her cargo for trade. Descendent from a wealthy merchant family and rising to Captain quickly, she has family in Casna: an aunt, uncle and 2 cousins, Maylin & Kella. Like her younger cousin Maylin, Maurynna has a peculiar marking: mismatched eyes, one blue, the other green. Interestingly enough, Otter is the connection between Linden Rathan and Maurynna, since Otter is friends with both. Although rare for a truehuman, Otter can mindspeak Linden, and asks him if he objects to being introduced to Maurynna in Casna. Otter knows that Dragonlord Linden Rathan has always been Maurynna's hero, you see, and she dreams of meeting him one day. For Maurynna, meeting Linden Rathan would be a dream-come-true and she yearns for that meeting like nothing else. Linden consents to the meeting though he inwardly dreads another meeting another girl fawning over him and his heroics from ages long past.

Unbeknowest to Maurynna, 3 dragonlords -- including her hero Linden Rathan -- are at her destination in Casna to arbitrate the dispute over regency. Otter teases her about a surprise waiting for her, without revealing any details. Maurynna constantly threatens to keelhaul Otter.

While our heroine Maurynna is still en route, Linden mires himself with the most beautiful woman at Cassori court: the Lady Sherrine of Colrane. Our beautiful, young Sherrine has a rather lascivious reputation of picking up and dropping men like flies. No one dumps Sherrine, Sherrine dumps them. Sherrine is daughter to Lady Anstella of Colrane, while Anstella is Peridaen's lover; recall Peridaen is contending for the interim regency. Kas Althume -- Peridaen's "steward" -- plots to have Sherrine in bed with Linden in order to pluck more information about the tightly-wrapped magical abilities of the dragonlords. Althume is not what he seems. A powerful blood mage, Althume aspires to destroying dragonlords once and for all and revives the Fraternity of the Blood, a clandestine cult bent on the supremacy of truehumans and truehumans alone. Anstella, Peridaen and Sherinne are all enlisted in this Fraternity.

Yet-to-be-soultwinned Dragonlord Linden Rathan is quite a catch, you see, with all the young women and ladies vying for his attention and company; even a fleeting, cursory acquaintance would suffice for them. Sherrine strikes just the right cords with Linden and she has Linden snared from the first moment. However, she isn't all that successful in gaining more information about dragonlords and their magic. Linden does manage to hold that information back, but not for long.

While the bureacratic council meetings over the Cassori Regency drag on intolerably, Linden discovers other things outside of the council meetings and outside of his affair with Sherinne. Young Rann - the only survivng Cassori heir - is sickly, pale and emaciated. Healer Tasha has tried fair number of things, none of them working. Duke Beren's wife, Lady Beryl seems to constantly hijack Rann for "lessons." Duke Beren himself is very billigerant towards dragonlords and towards Linden. Linden falls into all the usual traps of outward appearances, and starts suspecting and believing exactly what Althume and Peridaen want him to.

There's a joke in the novel when Linden and Maurynna first meet about how tall, big brutes like Linden usually aren't very bright ("Big and stupid as the day is long."). Not just a joke in Linden's case, even at the climax where it seems like Linden has finally connected all the trails of scheming and all at once, he's still pretty dense. Linden and the dragonlords are, for the entirety of the novel, reacting to the political plots and schemes set in motion, never really commanding any of their own.

When Linden chances upon a place of blood magic in the woods which drives truehumans away, Linden and the other dragonlords don't really do anything about it. Even when Linden returns above that place in the woods as a dragon, and even when Rathan (Linden's dragon soul name) wanted to torch the whole place, Linden prevents it. We're not sure exactly why Linden prevents it, except apparently it may torch some nearby farms. Uh if this place is so deep in the forest as we're led to believe why would there be farms nearby? If this is a place of pure evil blood magic as all the 3 of the dragonlords in Casna agree, shouldn't they mindcall some other dragonlords to watch the place at all times, at the very least? And doesn't Maurynna's dragon soul torch the place in the end anyway? Following Linden's discovery of the place and Rathan's confirmation of its evil, Althume constantly uses that place to sacrifice prostitues in order power a soultrap jewel. Another dragonlord or two called in should have been watching it at the very east. If Sherinne can walk into that Place of Evil at the end, surely =someone= can keep an eye on all the trails leading to it, right?

Throughout the entire novel, we're led to believe that a dragonlord's dragon soul is very dangerous, but then why is all the evidence in the book contrary to that? The dragonsouls have all the right instincts and they never fail to aid when called upon during times of greatest need. When Linden and Maurynna finally mate and Rathan takes over, no one is hurt despite all the warnings to the contrary. And Maurynna hadn't undergone her first Change yet so it was supposedly very dangerous to them both. But they're both fine afterwards. When Althume attacks Dragonlord Tarlna via the soultrap jewel, Tarlna's soultwin Kief isn't strong enough to help. That's when Kief's draconic half Shaeldar awakens and aids him in saving his soultwin Tarlna's life. Again, the draconic being very helpful and having all the right instincts. Obviously, Rathan's original instinct to destroy the Place of Evil Blood Magic was the right one.

Not only is Linden pretty dense, but he's also very weak. He doesn't display any talent for magic or swords despite all the historical stories of him to the contrary. I have no problem with the poisoning plot with Sherinne, leaving Linden incapacited and weak.

It's Linden's weakness during the climactic end I have a huge problem with. After Linden connects many of the dots of the political schemes all in one page, he rushes to the Place of Evil (a place he should have had someone watching at all times to begin with) to stop Althume from sacrificing Rann. All of a sudden, the lingering effects of the poisoning incident many, many days earlier still debilitates Linden, and Linden is too weak to really help. Althume's one guy Pol manages to knock Linden over the head, and Linden doesn't even see it coming. With an unbelievable amount of effort and struggle, Linden manages to kill the unarmed, truehuman Pol with his greatsword. But of course he can't do anything else, he obviously didn't really think things through when he rushed headlong to the Place of the Evil to rescue Rann. He decided against Changing into a dragon first (his reasoning against the Changing makes zero sense, because obviously it helped Maurynna when she arrives there as a dragon later on, and Maurynna has no experience!). During the final climactic scene at the end, Bertin notes that Linden is still weakened from Sherinne's poisoning. By why, didn't it happen weeks before?! Wow. Maurynna has quite the strength then. She swims her way back to Casna after jumping ship in the middle of a storm (and she swims quite a distance from the middle of the sea!), climbs a very steep cliff, almost falls, and she's perfectly fine changing into a dragon for the first time, flying to the Place of Evil, frying a dragauth (ugly beast raised by Althume) before it killed Linden, kills Althume too and then flies away. After Maurynna's dragon soul (Kyrissaean) flies away from the Place of Evil, Linden runs out of the woods to Change so he can subdue Maurynna's draconic soul and bring back Maurynna. But he's too weak to even Change!

I have real trouble believing in all the fabled stories of Linden's heroism; he isn't very smart and he certainly isn't very strong with sword and magic. I understand why an author wouldn't want to make characters seem too powerful, but man, Linden is as weak and dense as they come in this novel. His sole purpose: a big oaf for Maurynna to moon over.

The highlights of the novel obviously belong to Maurynna. She's very fun to read, especially when she's mad at Linden for something. Her anger melts away though every time she's back with him.

I enjoyed Maurynna's first meeting with Linden. Obviously very romantic, as Maurynna mistakes Linden for a dockhand when she arrives in Casna. She calls him an ass and orders him to earn his pay. Linden obliges. Not knowing either one's names, Linden kisses her in the hold of Maurynna's ship, both driven by an intense and inexplicable attraction to one another. Linden later confirms that Maurynna is his soultwin and he's finally found his soultwin after all of these centuries. They meet for the second time at Maurynna's aunt's place when Maurynna drops a coin into a well, wishing to see the dockhand again. Also a very romantic scene there as Maurynna discovers who her dockhand really is -- her lifelong hero, Dragonlord Linden Rathan. Bertin's Otter is in his humorous element here. Later, there's again a very romantic picnic scene on a beach, and again Bertin is in her element. Maurynna can't believe this is happening to her. Maurynna is content, and happy beyond belief to be with Linden. Linden equally so, but Maurynna's dream-come-true to meet with her hero easily overshadows Linden's centuries-long wait for his soultwin.

Sherinne intervenes from here after she discovers that some low-born wench (Maurynna) has stolen Linden away from her. No one dumps Sherrine, Sherrine dumps them. And more, Sherrine actually feels a love for someone (Linden) for the first time in her life. So with her guards in tow, Sherrine hunts down Maurynna's aunt's home demanding to see Maurynna. She injures Maurynna as Linden arrives. After Maurynna is healed by Tasha, the Dutchess Alinya (current ruler of Cassori until the regency is settled) advises Linden to stay away from Maurynna lest he endanger his soultwin even more.

Linden consents and tells Maurynna they can't see each other again. The words rip out Maurynna's heart. Even this part is fun to read, because it really hits home Maurynna's dream to be with Linden. She lashes out Linden, "Then go. Go ur Lady Sherrine, Linden; she's beautiful. Not like me, with my mismatched eyes and calloused hands... It shall be as you wish, Your Grace. Indeed, I never want to see you again," she lied. "Go." She cries herself to sleep.

Later, she takes out her anger on other people for not being able to see Linden. She mutters, "I hate him," over and over but obviously she can't let go of her need, her intense desire, to be with him.

When a Fraternity spy divulges that there's a fledgling dragonlord about and that she's Linden's soultwin, Althume, Peridaen and Anstella are too smart for their own good as they arrive at all the wrong conclusions. Althume assumes Sherrine this soultwin, reasoning that Linden rejected Sherrine in favor of this new girl in order to protect Sherrine. Completely unintentional, and nothing of Linden's doing, but very convenient for Maurynna. Although in a different location, Sherrine has the same wine-colored birthmark as Linden, which seems to lend credence to the fact that she may be a fledgling dragonlord and Linden's soultwin. As tightly-wrapped as dragonlord secrets are, apparently these markings are public knowledge? Okayyy. Althume targets Sherrine for a dragonlord enslavement spell, and without any further investigation into the other girl whatsoever.

When Althume schemes to have Linden drink from Sherrine's Farewell Cup in public, Linden is completely incapacitated, and in the grips of severe pain later on. When he's alone and intercepted by Althume and Pol, Linden spasms in pain and cannot open his eyes. The magical poison mixed in the cup allows Althume to asks questions and control the victim completely, a truth serum if you will. After Althume has learned a great deal of dragonlords' magic, he asks Linden if there's a fledgling dragonlord in Casna. With little resistance, Linden answers, "Yes." Just when Althume is about to ask who this fledgling is (to confirm Sherrine), Maurynna arrives in a frenzy with a dagger in hand. Taking Maurynna for a mature dragonlord, Althume and Pol flee. So Maurynna really saves herself here, and arrives just in the nick of time to prevent Linden from revealing the true identity of the fledgling, because Althume was planning on letting Linden go with the antidote after he had his answers. Maurynna doesn't really know that she's a fledgling, but she really saves herself here even though Bertin would have us believe that otherwise. Before running in on Althume, Pol and Linden in a frenzy, Maurynna was at a ceremony and couldn't get Linden out of her mind. She feels that Linden is in danger somehow, but really it was her that was in danger if Linden revealed the fledgling's name.

After the traumatic poisoning episode, many days pass as Tashsa finally discovers how to purge Linden of the poison. Maurynna is forbidden from seeing Linden during this time. After Tasha purges Linden of the poison, he reverts into a state of self-pity. Again many days pass. Linden is recovering, but he still feels sorry for himself, horrified that he's revealed some important dragonlord secrets.

Again, Maurynna rescues him from this. Maurynna is still bitter towards Linden and Bertin describes this black dog which claws at Maurynna with every thought or mention of Linden, a very enjoyable part to read actually. She hates Linden but she can't get him out of her mind, not for one instant. Maurynna is very direct with Linden when she finally sees him in a pitiful state and gets his attention right away. They make love for the first time, and Linden is unable to control Rathan's intense desire for their soultwin in such a weak state (though shouldn't Rathan be weak too, since they share the same body?). Despite the constant warnings of danger though, neither Linden nor Maurynna die . Again Rathan's instincts prove on the mark, and a very entertaining romantic scene ensues.

The lingering effects of this weakness from the poisoning lasts many days later as Linden's weakness pops up at the worst possible moments, debilitating him into uselessness during the climactic ending.

Really, Maurynna rescues Linden twice. I don't count running in on Althume and Linden during the torturous questioning as an actual rescue. Maurynna saves herself there more than Linden, since Linden was about the reveal the true identity of the fledgling. Maurynna does rescue Linden from the pathetic state of self-pity following the poisoning though, and then of course at the end when Maurynna's dragon soul fries the dragauth about devour Linden.

Linden is too weak to do much of anything and too stupid to root out any political scheming until the very end, and then only in one page all at once.

My other complaint: too many disjoint passages from a wide array of perspectives that didn't add or amount to much, from an older mage trying to protect the soultrap jewel early on, from Beryl, from Rann's nurse, and from Astlana. Many of the passages from Athlume's perspective aimed to make the book a page-turner, imparting a sense of impending doom. But some of them (2 or 3 paragraphs max) didn't really reveal anything and they don't add to the story all that much, other than to fragment the story.

I did enjoy Maylin's perspective, as feisty as she is, and they were significant since they were shared with Maurynna for the most part.

Again, an enjoyable read overall, primarily because its heart lies with Maurynna's characterization, to land the hero of her dreams, her true love, her soultwin, while at the same time coming to terms to her own dragonlord status.