My Ruthless Prince

My Ruthless Prince by Gaelen Foley

Emily Harper was the woodsman's daughter on the Westwood estate and had been in love with the son of the house, Drake, since she was little and though he returned her feelings it was made clear by both their family's that nothing could come of their relationship. So Drake went to fulfill his familial duty by becoming an Knight of the Order of St. Michael and studying to defeat the evil Promethean Council while Emily learned how to live without the man she loved. Drake was kidnapped by the Prometheans and after undergoing torture and refusing to break he lost his memory before being released by the Council President, James Falkirk, and now he feels he owes his loyalty to James. Even when he is brought back to England he cannot comprehend his old life and that his savior is evil, but he does understand that he has a special connection with his nurse, the beautiful Emily, and begins to regain his old memory. However, he cannot let his old Order friends kill James and he helps James escape and together they go to the Promethean stronghold in the Bavarian alps with Emily tagging along behind them.

Drake finds her and manages to convince the Prometheans that Emily is his mistress in order to save her life but Emily is still not entirely sure that Drake has truly returned from the dark side and worries that he may truly believe in the Promethean Plot to take over the world. Drake hatches a plan to burn the top 100 Prometheans during the eclipse when they all get together to sacrifice and innocent but his first duty is in protecting Emily and he still has qualms about putting James in harms way. But when the Prometheans discover the Emily is an innocent they decide that she would make the perfect sacrifice and Drake's plans are once again thrown to the wind. He and Emily realize they would sacrifice anything for each other, including their lives, and risk everything for one night together. However, there is also a Promethean civil war going on and a big battle between James and his enemy draws Drake back into the fray just as it looked as if and Emily were going to escape. Drake's fellow agents from the order show up just in time for the eclipse ceremony and they have one last chance to destroy the Prometheans and give Emily and Drake a chance for a happily ever after free from evil.

The first thing I quickly noticed was the Emily and Drake were going to take a backseat to the Promethean plot. This has been the case in most of this series, but in this book it was particularly bothersome to me because it was far more prevalent here than in the other books and because I felt like the author was really relying on the fact that they had fallen in love previously. They spent very little time alone together, probably 50 pages in the entire book if not less, and much of that was spent worrying about the Prometheans and what little was about their relationship was about their past and not who they were now. They had a strong connection from when they were little and they were destined for each other but I did not really get a sense for this at all and felt like it easily could have been two people in a desperate situation turning to each other for comfort which doesn't equal love to me unless they can be out of the stressful situation and still have that strong connection. The promethean plot finally came to a close in the only way it could have but I think it was a mistake for Foley to leave so much to be resolved in this book because there was so little room for the romance.

Emily was flat out impossible to like because her following him to Bavaria was so incredibly stupid that everything she did from that point on was just tinged with my knowledge of how dumb she was. I know we were supposed to see it as a sign of her love that she was willing to sacrifice so much for him, but since the plot that created those problems was so impossible to like in this book, I couldn't like anything that sprang from it, including her "noble" actions. Drake was teetering on the edge of complete destruction after being tortured and losing his memory and we are supposed to see how the love of a good woman can save any man but there were so many problems with this because it didn't really seem to make a difference. There were so many times it seemed like they could have gotten away but Drake's duty got in the way or even his loyalty to James prevented him from securing her safety. He claimed she was the most important thing to him but his actions really proved otherwise and it seriously annoyed me and made it impossible for me to like him. And last but not least the writing was horrible and purply and flowery and every other page there was something ridiculous that made me want to laugh, for example this gem, "she was not prepared to take the chance of leaving this life without having poured out the fullness of her love upon him." Seriously, wtf?

Rating: Two awful characters, overly awful flower writing, a overwhelming "side" plot, and a complete lack of romance leads to a terrible romance novel.

The Bride Wore Scarlet

The Bride Wore Scarlet by Liz Carlyle 1225

Anais de Rohan learned at an early age that she was destined for a life as a Guardian, protecting those who were blessed with "the Gift" and she spent her life training under a master for her future. Geoffrey, Lord Bassett, is one of the leaders of the St. James Society, a society where Guardians are trained, and he is not at all pleased that Anais is seeking entry into this completely male society but he admires that she refuses to give up. St. James society has recently learned that there is a little girl, Giselle Moreau who has the gift and since she has recently been taken in by her uncle, whose political motives and plans for the girls' future are suspect, Bassett has been called in to help get the girl and her mother Charlotte to England as quickly and quietly as possible. Anais knows she will have to prove herself to the society and she agrees to pose as Bassett's wife as the travel to Belgium to save the girl and living in such close quarters with Geoff poses its' own set of problems for Anais who believes that she is destined to marry an Italian because of her grandmother's predictions.

The situation in Belgium is even more dire than they had imagined as Giselle is kept in relative imprisonment inside her uncle's home and her mother, Charlotte, is almost constantly watched and has very little freedom. Anais and Bassett pretend to be harmless and a tad ridiculous Englishmen, befriend Charlotte, and hope that her uncle will regard them as harmless. Anais is surprised to discover that Bassett himself has the gift and that it haunted his childhood until he learned to control it. This startling confession brings them closer together and unites them as they work together to get everyone to safety. Training and living in such close confines brings the sexual tension that boils between them to a head and even while refusing to believe that Bassett could be the one for her she has no problem thinking of him as Mr. Right Now. Bassett knows they have a job to do but cannot help but think about the future and how he will convince Anais that he is the one she has been waiting for  and that together they can accomplish anything.

Anais is strong and confident and very independent but she was also realistic enough to realize when she needed to work with others, prove herself to others, and I like that she did not complain about her what she went through and just did it. She was in charge of herself and her body and I liked that she didn't apologize or have regrets about not being a virgin and went after what she wanted even if society wouldn't appreciate it without believing that she was going to get a marriage proposal out of it. She was accepting of help and worked well with others and looked after her own safety and wasn't scared of compromising and doing things purely to keep the peace. Geoff was strong but also not scared of compromising with Anais and recognized that she was just as strong and capable as him, but still felt like as the man he was responsible for her well being. They worked incredibly well together as they tried to save the women and the sex between them was really hot because they were both very physical and confident and not scared of physical intimacy outside of a relationship.

They obviously spent a lot of time together and while they did get to know each other very well, I felt like their knowledge of each other was in the context of the St. James society. Sure, they shared secrets about their pasts, but I would have liked to see how they interacted in the real world and how they would get along without the threat of danger or intrigue. While I felt like their relationship was predicated on the plot of the Society and the Gift I did not feel like the romance was overwhelmed; I felt like it was an equal part of the book and felt like Carlyle was very skilled at balancing two very strong plots. However that other plot just did not do it for me. I am not a fan of large intrigue and mystery plots in general and I really am not a fan of supernatural things like "the Gift" and I really don't like secret societies of men who have very important duties. I wish it could have just been about rescuing the girl and her mother from an admittedly very well written and interesting villain. I found myself confused by the names of other people in the story and did not like so many references to Carlyle's previous books.

Rating: A strong romance with two characters I really liked but I did not enjoy the background of the entire book.