Helpful Score: 2
When I get hold of a new book by Elizabeth Hoyt, everything else on my TBR list gets pushed aside. I liked the first two books in the Maiden Lane series, but I LOVED this one and the previous one(Scandalous Desires).
This is NOT a book with cliches like the rakish hero/virginal heroine. The heroine is older than average(over 30) and both the hero & heroine are fully functioning responsible adults. It takes place almost 100 years earlier than the Regency, which seem to be the most popular time period for romances, so we're in unknown historical territory. There's lots of action(climbing over the rooftops of London, swordfights), lots of emotion, and even a bit of humor, although dry and subtle. There are also a number of quite erotic yet tender love scenes, in Hoyt's very earthy, realistic style, but don't expect anybody to jump in bed in chapter 1; it takes a couple of hundred pages and by then the hero and heroine have formed a deep connection.
The hero, Winter Makepeace, was a cipher in the earlier books of the series, but here he really comes into his own as a highly moral and courageous man. Lady Isabel was also a little hard to fathom at the beginning, I didn't know why she would rescue a total stranger, & it seemed as though the attraction was all physical on her side. Later on she opens up and we find out what she's really thinking, and she had some deep hurts and feelings of inferiority. Naturally, the hero sees past her hard shell.
I really recommend that you read the series in order or you'll be missing a lot. Many of the characters from the other books make appearances, plus the mystery of the Ghost of St. Giles and the situation with the orphanage are running themes.
This is NOT a book with cliches like the rakish hero/virginal heroine. The heroine is older than average(over 30) and both the hero & heroine are fully functioning responsible adults. It takes place almost 100 years earlier than the Regency, which seem to be the most popular time period for romances, so we're in unknown historical territory. There's lots of action(climbing over the rooftops of London, swordfights), lots of emotion, and even a bit of humor, although dry and subtle. There are also a number of quite erotic yet tender love scenes, in Hoyt's very earthy, realistic style, but don't expect anybody to jump in bed in chapter 1; it takes a couple of hundred pages and by then the hero and heroine have formed a deep connection.
The hero, Winter Makepeace, was a cipher in the earlier books of the series, but here he really comes into his own as a highly moral and courageous man. Lady Isabel was also a little hard to fathom at the beginning, I didn't know why she would rescue a total stranger, & it seemed as though the attraction was all physical on her side. Later on she opens up and we find out what she's really thinking, and she had some deep hurts and feelings of inferiority. Naturally, the hero sees past her hard shell.
I really recommend that you read the series in order or you'll be missing a lot. Many of the characters from the other books make appearances, plus the mystery of the Ghost of St. Giles and the situation with the orphanage are running themes.
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