I’m not sure if it was because the Rohan in this book was a daughter, Miranda, and not a son (and therefore not quite as dreadful), or if it was perhaps the revenge theme, but I was not quite as enamored of BREATHLESS as I was of RUTHLESS and RECKLESS. There was also the squick factor that the hero engineered the heroine’s ravishment by another man as part of his revenge plan–years before they even met, but still. And he didn’t really ever show remorse about it–in fact more than once he reveled in the fact that she was no … Read More »

Not as dark as RUTHLESS, but a whole lot sexier, RECKLESS tells the story of Adrian, the son of the couple from the first book in this series. The heroine, Charlotte, is a tall, gawky spinster who follows her widowed cousin to a Hellfire Club-like gathering and is swept off her feet by Adrian, Viscount Rohan, whom she has worshiped from afar for years. The dynamic between Adrian and Charlotte is similar to that of his parents in the earlier book: Mad, bad rake convinces innocent spinster to walk on the wild side and is then tamed by love. If … Read More »

The only other Anne Stuart I’ve read was her dark Regency THE DEVIL’S WALTZ that came out several years ago, which I really enjoyed. She writes dowdy, spinster-ish heroines paired with baaaaaaaaad boys quite well. This one is quite dark, and the backstory of the heroine, Elinor, is particularly bleak. And the hero, Rohan, aka The King of Hell, is not just a rake in name only. He’s jaded for a reason. But because of his genuine badassness, his affection for Elinor seems stronger, more powerful. Even when he’s trying his darndest to resist it. Coupled with a sweet secondary … Read More »