Helpful Score: 3
Luckily I got this book in the mail just as I was suffering from Regency romance burnout. There are a lot of books by great authors on my TBR list, but so many historicals use the same familiar scenes: Almacks, Vauxhall Gardens, carriage rides in the park, Prinny, the Battle of Waterloo, etc. etc. This book was refreshing because it takes place in 1738. London is a different city in a totally different era, and even more unusual, the characters are not lords and ladies and heirs and heiresses enjoying "the Season". The main setting is St. Giles, a poverty stricken and crime ridden part of the city.
For those who haven't been reading the Maiden Lane series, this is Book 3, and in my opinion the best so far. Maybe even the best thing Hoyt's ever written.(I do strongly recommend reading the series in order, so you understand the history of all the characters.) The heroine, Silence Hollingbrook, is a widow and the younger sister of the heroine of Book 1. Her and her brother are just scraping by, running an orphanage for abandoned children. The hero is Mickey O'Connor, a river pirate, and very wealthy due to ill-gotten gains. He is the king of thieves in that part of town, a sort of Mack the Knife character. Truthfully I did not care that much for either of them in the earlier books, and I was surprised how much they grew on me in this story. But Elizabeth Hoyt is a wonderful writer, and an automatic must-read for me. She could have made it easier for herself by making Mickey a Robin Hood type, but no, he's actually a pretty bad guy. Although I could see why the heroine found him sexually attractive, in no way did he seem like a candidate for her HEA. Also, he doesn't suddenly reform as soon as he meets the heroine. Silence seemed a bit dull at first, a little brown wren to his flamboyant peacock. But somehow the story grabbed me and got better and better as it went along, until I just couldn't put it down. The plot is gripping, and the physical (and emotional) relationship between them builds slowly, and wasn't consummated until a good two-thirds into the book, but is well worth the wait. From that point on, the love scenes are frequent, erotic, earthy, and on the hotness scale, right up there at habanero level. The heroine comes out of her shell, and the bad guy turns into a hero who would literally give his life for his beloved, but it's a cliff hanger almost to the end.
Conclusion: 5 stars, and sorry wishlisters, I'm keeping it to reread!
Bonus: in the epilogue we find out the identity of the mysterious Ghost of St. Giles, but I'm not going to be a spoiler here.
For those who haven't been reading the Maiden Lane series, this is Book 3, and in my opinion the best so far. Maybe even the best thing Hoyt's ever written.(I do strongly recommend reading the series in order, so you understand the history of all the characters.) The heroine, Silence Hollingbrook, is a widow and the younger sister of the heroine of Book 1. Her and her brother are just scraping by, running an orphanage for abandoned children. The hero is Mickey O'Connor, a river pirate, and very wealthy due to ill-gotten gains. He is the king of thieves in that part of town, a sort of Mack the Knife character. Truthfully I did not care that much for either of them in the earlier books, and I was surprised how much they grew on me in this story. But Elizabeth Hoyt is a wonderful writer, and an automatic must-read for me. She could have made it easier for herself by making Mickey a Robin Hood type, but no, he's actually a pretty bad guy. Although I could see why the heroine found him sexually attractive, in no way did he seem like a candidate for her HEA. Also, he doesn't suddenly reform as soon as he meets the heroine. Silence seemed a bit dull at first, a little brown wren to his flamboyant peacock. But somehow the story grabbed me and got better and better as it went along, until I just couldn't put it down. The plot is gripping, and the physical (and emotional) relationship between them builds slowly, and wasn't consummated until a good two-thirds into the book, but is well worth the wait. From that point on, the love scenes are frequent, erotic, earthy, and on the hotness scale, right up there at habanero level. The heroine comes out of her shell, and the bad guy turns into a hero who would literally give his life for his beloved, but it's a cliff hanger almost to the end.
Conclusion: 5 stars, and sorry wishlisters, I'm keeping it to reread!
Bonus: in the epilogue we find out the identity of the mysterious Ghost of St. Giles, but I'm not going to be a spoiler here.
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