Lord of Temptation

Lord of Temptation by Lorraine Heath R

Lord Tristan Pembroke escapes the clutches of his uncle, who is determined to kill him and his brothers so he can claim the Dukedom, and while his brothers go separate ways, Tristan heads out to sea. Over the next decade he makes a learns the ocean and gains his own ship, going by the name Crimson Jack, and even when he goes back to London and enters society he does not feel like he is a part of that world. Lady Anne Hayworth is determined to make her way to her fiance's grave so that she can make peace with her fiance Walter who was killed in battle. Her father and four brothers do not agree with her plans so she is forced to find her own means of transportation and when she asks Captain Jack he decides to ensure that Anne has no choice but to choose his ship. When every other captain ha been bribed to turn her down, Anne comes back to Jack, who demands a kiss in return for passage. He wants the beautiful young woman, even while knowing they come from different worlds and have no future, and will do everything he can to seduce the beautiful young woman. During the journey, both of them discover much about the other, and Jack is the one to hold her while she cries at her dead fiance's grave.

On their last night together Anne decides to claim a bit of happiness for herself and gives into the passion she feels for Jack. Back in London, Anne finds herself swept up into the whirlwind of a London season, and with her family pressuring her to get married, she is being courted by her dead fiance's brother. Jack finds that he cannot bring himself to leave Anne and return to the sea, and he certainly cannot stand to see Anne courted by another man. The two engage in a secret affair, behind everyone's backs, but Anne knows that Jack is not one to settle down with a family and while she will never have the same passion with Lord Chetwyn, he offers her comfort and stability. The two promise that they will stay away from each other and Anne agrees to marry  but she cannot stay away from Jack and he is trying to use all of his powers of persuasion to convince her that Chetwyn is not for her. But both of them realize that life without the other isn't an option and both of them are willing to make changes to their expectations before discovering that as long as they are together, nothing is really a sacrifice as long as they can have a happily ever after.

This book continued the Lost Lords of Pembrook series admirably and had the same feel as the last one with the tortured hero and a very likable heroine. I really liked Anne because she was determined and capable without coming across as headstrong or naive. She knew what was expected of her from her family and she accepted it but still went about fulfilling her obligations in a way that did not seem like she was 'giving in' and still remained true to herself. Jack was incredibly tortured and dark, not fitting in to either world he straddled and unable to find a place where he belonged. I understood his dilemma, but still felt  unimpressed with his feelings and his inability to make nice, as if he was purposely setting out to be difficult. I quickly became bored by reading about his horrible life and how he straddled two worlds, partly because it was so similar to what I read in the previous book in the series about his old twin brother. I did like that we had a lot of character development from him throughout the book as he fell in love with Anne and made some changes in his life in order to have her in his life. He was a fun and lively hero who changed for the better with the help of a good woman, and I liked that.

There were a lot of interactions between Anne and Jack and I could really feel how these fell in love and every scene between them built into the story. There were fun and happy scenes where he attempted to seduce her, there were heart wrenching scenes where he comforted at her fiance's grave, and there were passionate scenes. There was a really deep emotional relationship between them and Heath did an oustanding job portraying this. There was a lot of sex between them and it was fairly hot, spread throughout the book, and really contributed to their developing relationship. I did have an issue with how many times Anne promised herself she would stay away from Jack, after realizing that they had no future together, and then reneged on her vow. It made her seem weak and it happened so many times that it quickly got tiresome. I also enjoyed how Heath did not make Chetwyn a villain, or anyone a villain for that matter, because it really was just a story of two people finding love and working through their differences to find happiness together. As usual, Heath's style is fun and fast while still delving into tough emotional issues.

Rating: A very enjoyable book, with a very strong relationship between the characters, but I had some issues with the heroes emotional trauma.

The Ice Princess

The Ice Princess by Elizabeth Hoyt 1119

Coral Smythe is the Madame of the most famous brothel in London, Aphrodite’s Grotto, but because of some financial difficulties it is actually the cruel Jimmy Hyde who owns most of the business and in effect controls Coral. Captain Isaac Wargate is not a fan of Aphrodite or her business and every time his ship docks in London he is forced to go and rescue his men. He and Aphrodite have a bit of an interesting relationship where every meeting leads to a war of words. But one day Jimmy decides to auction off a week of Coral’s favors and she has no way to refuse. Sensing her dilemma Isaac throws himself into the fray and through luck or fate he ends up winning. Neither Coral nor Isaac are certain how this week should play out and Coral is determined to maintain business like and not become the scared little girl she was when she first entered the business. But Isaac throws her for a loop by spending the entire week going slowly, getting to know her and winning her trust and eventually her heart. Coral is terrified of love and it is up to Isaac to prove to her that their pasts don’t matter and they can have a future together.

This was a short story and I will admit that I have recently really started liking short stories because they often skip some of the filler and needless problems that longer novels contain. When written well, like this was, I get a decent feel for the characters and the relationship they have together. Ladies of the evening have been featured as heroines in several books recently, almost always with a back-story to explain away their profession and this was no exception. Coral had family issues and needed the money but she did not make any apologies for her decisions and I admired that. Isaac was wonderful as the dark and handsome hero who was widowed, loved his wife and didn’t have to vilify her in order to fall in love again, and he was so obviously dedicated to Coral. They really got to know each other during their evenings together and I could really sense that they worked well together and had a solid relationship. The sex between them was not as hot as some of Hoyt’s other writings, but it was interesting enough and served to cement the feelings they had for each other.

Rating: A very good short story that I very much liked with two wonderful characters and enough problems between them to keep it interesting. 

Cloudy with a Chance of Marriage

Cloudy with a Chance of Marriage by Kieran Kramer 616

Jilly Jones is the proprietess of Hodgepodge, a quaint little bookshop on London's most cursed street, Dreare Street in Mayfair. Her neighbor, Captain Stephen Archer, is home from sailing the high seas and capturing pirates and is making the most of the house on Dreare Street that he inherited. He and his fellow shipmates have been engaged in a raucaus party for the past week and Jilly has finally had enough and decides to confront Stephen. Before she knows it she is joining in the fun and both she and Stephen are thinking that there might be something more between them. But Jilly has a secret; she is a runaway wife from an abusive husband she married in order not to be thrown out on the street. Stephen only knows that he likes making his oh-so-proper neighbor loosen up and plans to dedicate himself to doing so. But then some distant relatives show up to use his new house for the season and to stave off their matchmaking efforts with their daughter he informs them that he and Jilly have an understanding.

Jilly agrees to go along with Stephen's ridiculous idea only if he agrees to help her with her newest idea to help bring cheer to Dreare street and raise funds for everyone to pay off their lease. Pretty soon Jilly and Stephen, and the rest of Dreare Street, is completely caught up in the momentum and determined to make this the best fair ever, including getting the Prince Regent to attend. Throughout it all Stephen and Jilly grow closer, talk about themselves, and while Stephen wonders if Jilly could be someone special and she wishes she could go back and change things. But bringing herself to the attention of the Prince Regent means it is easy for her husband to find her and when he shows up on Dreare Street he throws everything into disarray. Stephen is heartbroken and feels betrayed and the street fair is doomed and Jilly worries that she will have to spend the rest of her life with her abusive husband. But both of them realize that what they have is worth fighting for and together they can save Dreare Street and find a way for the two of them to wind up happily ever after.

Kramer continues with her Impossible Bachelors, this time with Stephen Archer, the ship captain whom I admittedly don't really remember much about from the other books. I was incredibly surprised to find so many negative reviews for this book on amazon and there were a lot of complaints about the writing, the characters, and the romance itself. I found this book to be incredibly light and very fast to read and felt from the reviews that people were expecting quite a lot from this book. I really liked both of the characters and did not mind that they did fall into a couple of romance novel cliches, such as when Jilly insisted she would not succumb to Stephen and yet she did so quickly. Jilly was a little too passionate to seem completely realistic, but I felt like it fit well with a woman who had escaped a bad marriage in order to start a new life. She was full of life, she was smart, and she was dedicated to a cause which she became invested in. Her decision to open up a bookstore on a cursed street was rather unintelligent, but that was my biggest problem with her, really.

Stephen was also interesting enough in his own right, but I felt like he was a little too carefree and I am getting tired of heroes who spend the first half just kind of breezing through everything and not really seeming to care how there actions are be interpreted by the heroine. But by throwing himself in with Jilly to plan the street fair, he proved that he was willing to be something more for the love of a good woman and I liked that about him. Their relationship was well developed and they spent a lot of time together and I really enjoyed reading about them falling in love. There was almost no sex between them, or steamy scenes either, and it was all at the end, but I had been expecting this after her last books. The street fair was rather ridiculous I'll admit, but I felt like it was a fair way to get Stephen and Jilly on the same page and working together so while I didn't really like it, I went along with it. Jilly's marriage was a nice little addition to add some emotional turmoil to the book and it was handled fairly and as realistically as possible.

Rating: A good book with some fun characters, but it really didn't have any spice or anything super exceptional- just a fast read.