historical

Princess Charming by Nicole Jordan

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Princess Charming (Legendary Lovers, #1)
Grade-C
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-none
Series-Legendary Lovers #1
Reviewed by Kay

Okay, here goes. The premise is Cinderella. This is a given considering the hero’s sister has devised a plan to set this in motion.

Ashton Wilde, Marquis of Beaufort, is part of a family that is considered scandalous. He, his siblings and his cousins are all orphans that were raised by his scholarly uncle until Ash came of age and took over.

Maura Collyer is no stranger to scandal either. Her father was involved with one prior to his death. She is also an orphan of sorts. She lives with her stepmother and stepsisters. She is treated shabbily by the stepmother but embraced by her stepsisters. She is a horse breeder and loves her stallion.

There is the sale of her horse and her subsequent theft of the horse that’s the backdrop of this story.  I am a big fan of Nicole Jordan’s work but this was not the best example of it. I found the whole horse part of the story to be kind of ridiculous but I am hoping that book two is much better. It’s Nicole Jordan so I’m willing to take another chance.

The Jezebel by Saskia Walker

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

The Jezebel
Grade: B+
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: Low Kink
Genre: Historical set Paranormal
Series: Taskill Witches #3
Reviewed by Anne

Maisie is a witch.  After being forced to watch her mother burned at the stake, Maisie is taken in (actually, nearly kidnapped) by a very rich couple who keep her safe and raise her.  Unfortunately, her adoptive “father” Cyrus is also grooming her to be his possession and tool.  He raises her to be afraid of witch hunters and hide her powers, all while guiding her to use them for his benefit.  Once Maisie realizes what is going on, she runs away and talks ship captain Roderick Cameron into taking her aboard his ship, which is on its way to her homeland of Scotland.  In exchange for the trip she agrees give him her virginity.  He doesn’t believe she’s a virgin, but agrees to take her on in exchange for sex.

One of the most delightful things about this book is how this setup is quickly turned upside down.  Just reading the summary above or the back of the book blurb sets you up to think Maisie is sacrificing her virginity in order to escape a horrible situation.  In actuality, you find out quickly that losing her virginity will bring her into her full witchy powers.  She knows this, and is using Roderick for her own means.  This makes it so they come into this relationship on pretty equal grounds, and that was refreshing!
Maisie also turns out to really enjoy sex, and isn’t shy about that.  Roderick, in turn, really enjoys the fact that Maisie enjoys sex.  There’s no slut shaming and no “sex=evil” in this story which was great!  
 
Maisie is also a strong character.  She finds herself in a tough situation and devises a plan to get herself out of it.  I found myself rooting for her, and as much as I liked Roderick, I really wanted Maisie to be her own hero and save herself.  I want you to enjoy this book without me spoiling it for you, so I won’t detail how things worked out, but I was really happy with the resolution of things.
 
One final note: This is the third book in the Taskill Witches series. However, I had no problems following along without having read the first two. It stand alone very well – the only problem is you’ll want to go back and read the first two, because this one was so good!

Highlander Most Wanted by Maya Banks

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Highlander Most Wanted (The Montgomerys and Armstrongs, #2)
Grade-A+
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-None
Series-The Montgomerys and Armstrongs
Reviewed by Kay

Genevieve McInnis is a Lowland Laird’s daughter on her way to meet her betrothed. Her traveling party is intercepted and massacred. She is taken prisoner by Ian McHugh, who repeatedly rapes her, which leaves her emotionally and physically scarred.

Bowen Montogomery is a second son to a Highland Laird. His brother is the heir to this title and Bowen is his second-in-command. Bowen leads a war party to the McHugh Keep to take out Patrick McHugh, Ian’s father and Laird to that clan. Ian was killed by Bowen’s brother in the previous book because he kidnapped his wife and terrorized her.

That’s the backdrop to this story. Bowen meets Genevieve and is awestruck by her beauty, until she turns her head and he sees the puckered scar on her cheek. He learns she got this scar from Ian McHugh so no one would want to look at his prize possession that he treated worse than an animal.
He made her his whore and passed her around to his cohorts. This was her existence for a year until Ian’s death and Patrick’s desertion of his clan.

Bowen admires Genevieve’s spirit which seems unbroken most of the time. As they get to know one another, he comes to view her , even with the scar, as the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. Through clan uprisings, attacks against the Keep, injuries from said attacks and idiocy from the McHugh clan, we see a beautiful love story emerge. The chemistry between the two main characters is sweet and combustible.

There were a few confusing situations for me, such as: Ian slashing Genevieve’s face so no one would look at her but he passed her around to his cronies? Doesn’t make sense to me. And her demand that her family not know she was alive due to her shame being projected on to them but her family welcomed her back with open arms. I like the idea of the later but I don’t know if I buy into it, not in a time period where image was everything.

All-in-all, this was a five star or A+ read for me. Maya Banks is fast becoming one of my favorite historical authors. I love the heroine! She was an innocent who had that innocence shattered but still managed to never truly lose hope, even as she was terrorized by clans people for things that she never asked for and never should’ve experienced. She was pitiable but never pitiful. I can’t wait for Teague’s book! In a word, this book was precious. My best read of 2013 so far.