Helpful Score: 2
I am so tired of the conventions of current historical romances, and the studmuffin cover with the ahistoric costuming, not to mention the chest waxing, was such a turnoff -- that I almost passed this book up, but I liked Hunter's first historical regencies so much that I gave it a shot. I still like her earlier books better, but this one did hold my interest enough to finish it, and not even skim it.
Madeline Hunter writes excellent prose and she knows her history, though she seldom makes much use of it in her tales lately. The sex is, of course, fantastic, with a hero who is of course an incredibly good looking master of the erotic arts, but it's to the author's credit that after a while I saw him as an individual as well. Still it is hard for me to get past the heroine's eagerness for an affair in an age when disease and pregnancy would have meant total, utter ruin, and a woman might be left with no friends, no money and no alternative eventually but a (short) life as a street whore. Yet the possibility of pregnancy is not even mentioned until p. 397 - by the hero's mother!
However, if you like fairy tales, this is a lot better written than most. Have a glass of wine at hand and settle in.
Madeline Hunter writes excellent prose and she knows her history, though she seldom makes much use of it in her tales lately. The sex is, of course, fantastic, with a hero who is of course an incredibly good looking master of the erotic arts, but it's to the author's credit that after a while I saw him as an individual as well. Still it is hard for me to get past the heroine's eagerness for an affair in an age when disease and pregnancy would have meant total, utter ruin, and a woman might be left with no friends, no money and no alternative eventually but a (short) life as a street whore. Yet the possibility of pregnancy is not even mentioned until p. 397 - by the hero's mother!
However, if you like fairy tales, this is a lot better written than most. Have a glass of wine at hand and settle in.