Lord of Ice by Gaelen Foley

Book Description:
Damien Knight, the earl of Winterley, is proud, aloof, and tormented by memories of war. Though living in seclusion, he is named guardian to a fellow officer’s ward. Instead of the young homeless waif he was expecting, however, Miranda FitzHubert is a stunning, passionate beauty who invades his sanctuary and forces him back into society. Struggling to maintain honor and self-control, Damien now faces an even greater threat: desire. 

A bold, free spirit, Miranda has witnessed the darkest depths of Damien’s soul–and has seen his desperate need for love. But before she can thaw his unyielding heart, she must endure a terrifying nightmare of her own. . .

I really enjoyed this third installment in the Knight Miscellany Series.  Damien Knight, newly awarded the title of Earl of Winterley due to his heroics on the battlefield, is suffering from post-traumatic syndrome, fighting his inner demons and memories from the Napoleonic Wars.  His attacks occur when loud noises like fireworks occur and he imagines himself back on the battlefield, fighting amidst the cannons and gunshots.  He goes into a kind of trance and becomes Berserker-like, a human fighting machine, bent on killing his enemies, real or imaginary.

The last thing he needs while trying to find peace and quiet at his newly acquired country estate (a huge old rambling mansion in desperate need of repair and furniture - a real fixer upper) is to learn of the murder of one of his fellow soldiers.  Damien finds himself guardian to the soldier's niece, a beautiful young nineteen year old girl still in school.  Damien has no idea she's all grown up and upon visiting her to inform her that he will be her new guardian, the adventure begins.

Miranda dreams of being an actress.  The "school" where she has been living is horrible.  The head of it is a pedophile and treats the young girls abominably.  Miranda, the eldest, keeps watch for the younger girls, determined to save them from the lecherous headmaster.  But at night, she sneaks off to the local theatre and becomes a different person on the stage.  Thanks to her luscious curves and enchanting face and hair, she is a popular attraction, no one has any idea that she's really a virginal school girl.  Of course, who happens to catch her show?  Damien Knight.  Hoping to rest and relax and perhaps pick up a comely wench, he visits the theatre the night before he is due to visit his new ward.  He is mesmerized by the fair Miranda.  He wants her. Now.  Literally trapping her outside the stage door after the show, they have a few heady moments.  She takes his breath away.   Convinced she's a woman of the world, he tries his best to get her to spend the night with him.  Although she is sorely tempted, she runs away in the snow back to school.  Damien follows her in time to see her ambushed by thugs who try to kidnap her.  Berserker Damien takes over and he kills most of them, while the rest flee in terror of the monster with the ice blue eyes.  Miranda is a bit overwhelmed and frightened herself of how changed he became, running for her life back to school.

This first part of the book centers on how Miranda and Damien meet, for meet again they do the next morning at her school.  She has a lot of explaining to do.  He is determined to try and forget what happened the night before between them and treat her in the manner worthy of a guardian.  In other words - no more thoughts of jumping her bones.  Miranda, unfortunately has other ideas.  She's rapidly falling for her new guardian who is becoming more and more heroic in her eyes.  Handily dispatching the lecherous schoolmaster at her school (once he finds out the truth after Miranda tearfully tells him all about it) they head off to London so she can make her debut, which begins the 2nd part of the book.  While there, Miranda meets her cousin and despicable uncle.  The same uncle who killed his own brother (Miranda's former guardian) to get her fortune of fifty thousand pounds.  The same uncle who hired the thugs to kidnap her.  The same uncle who now wants her dead.

So, we've got a few things going on in this book.  Damien, afraid his bouts of madness will hurt her, tries to keep his distance, but their mutual attraction is much too hard to resist.   There's only so much a grown man can take when a young nubile female is constantly throwing herself at him.  Miranda is not willing to take no for an answer.  She wants him.  Now.  Meanwhile, he's trying to figure out who is trying to harm her, too many "accidents" have been happening to her to ignore.  As he starts to put two and two together can she help him during his dark periods?   Can he keep her safe from her ruthless uncle? There's a big finale with lots of blood and gore (reminded me of a movie from the '80's with Arnold Schwarzenegger) at his country estate, but all ends well.

This was an entertaining story.  It had it's sizzling moments and Miranda and Damien made a great couple, loved the chemistry between the two. But I felt the last twenty pages of the book were tacked on as an afterthought when Damien is recruited to the battlefield once again after Napoleon's escape from Elba.  Still, it served it's purpose for some angst and worry and a final resolution for his military career.

4/5

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Lord of Fire by Gaelen Foley

Book Description:
After years of preparation, he has baited his trap well, luring the depraved members of Society into his devil’s playground so he can earn their trust and uncover their secrets. Yet no one in London suspects that Lord Lucien Knight is England’s most cunning spy, an officer who has sacrificed his soul for his country. Now an unexpected intruder has invaded his fortress of sin, jeopardizing his carefully laid plans–and igniting his deepest desires.

Beautiful, innocent, Alice Montague finds herself at the mercy of scandalous Lord Lucien. But as he begins his slow seduction to corrupt her virtue, Alice glimpses a man tormented by his own choices, a man who promises her nothing except his undeniable passion. . . .

I'm afraid I just wasn't as bowled over by this second installment in the Knight Miscellany series as others before me.  It started out well when we are first introduced to Lucien Knight, who seems to be the leader of some sort of Hellfire Club, throwing orgies and wild parties in a cave beneath his house.   What makes him even more interesting is the idea he gets into his head to seduce his mistresses' oh so perfect and moral sister in law, Alice Montague.   But then we learn that Lucien is not all that he seems to be.  He's not a rogue at all.  It turns out he is a spy.  Oh no.  Another regency spy story... I'm growing so tired of these storylines, which must have been the thing back around 2002-2003 when many of these books were written.  All the romance authors seemed to have glommed onto the Regency spy bandwagon - or else their publishers insisted on it.  Whatever it was, this book lost all steam and credibility for me when the plot line turned toward the spy game direction.

Not only was I sick to death of this kind of scenario, (how many times do I have to read about how the hero is really good, but has to keep it a secret, so he acts the cad?) but as soon as I realized Lucien was a spy who was trying to gain secrets from all the debauched people that came to his parties, I was turned off in general.   The orgies in his grotto at his home?  I found it all a bit distasteful, no matter what his real reasons were for holding them.  

Alice's side of the story was slightly more refreshing.  She is an on the shelf spinster taking care of her adorable young nephew, Harry, whose father died.  Caro, her widowed sister-in-law (and mother to the boy) is a complete nympho who could care less about raising her son, remaining perfectly happy to have her sister-in-law do all the work in raising the boy.  When Harry comes down with the chicken pox, Alice tracks down Caro to bring her home to be with him (fat chance).  This is how Alice winds up in Lucien's grotto during one of his all night "parties." It was all extremely far-fetched and Alice was too naive to be believed.  Still, it threw Alice and Lucien together and of course, Lucien is bowled over by her innocence and incredible beauty as soon as he sees her.  But even more crazy, as innocent as she was, she comes mighty close to touching and holding his - ahem - staff of pleasure.  Huh?  I'd say the virginal Alice is one pretty fast learner.  Who knows what would of happened if her sister-in-law hadn't walked in when she did to interrupt their brief  interlude.

What gets me though is how Lucien, this highly clever spymaster, does the unthinkable as soon as he lays eyes on Alice for the first time.  Because he is so bowled over by her purity and beauty - he must have her?  He tricks Alice and a shameless Caro (who is now his ex-mistress) and manages to keep Alice with him for a week while her promiscuous sister-in-law goes off to be with her son (fat chance) while he's recuperating.  Did I mention the embarrassing spectacle Caro makes of herself over Lucien (in front of Alice)?  She resembled a cat in heat.  There were many WTF moments in this book, and in my opinion, Lucien lost all credence with me by the way he behaved over Alice, keeping her with him so he could seduce her in the privacy of his own home where she must remain for a week.  It was selfish and out of character for him. It just didn't seem to make sense to me.  If he really was a no good rake - then yes, I'd believe it.  But, he is just acting like one.  If he's really a good man and not a lecherous womanizer, why would he do such a thing?  Plus, I kept asking myself, "Why her? What did Alice have that made him ask her to marry him in a week?  Their special week together sure worked wonders!  They get to know one another and by the end Alice comes around to him and realizes, "Gee, he's really not that big a jerk after all - I think I'm in love with him!" - it boggles the mind!  Plus, all this time she's still unaware of his real persona as a spy.  Yet despite all this, she still thinks he's pretty neat, even though he's planning on holding another one of his orgies in his grotto in a few days! Warning bells would have been going off in my head non-stop! If I were Alice I wouldn't have had anything to do with him! 

Eventually, they all wind up back in London (surprise, surprise, Caro dragged sick little Harry with her because she wanted to be near all the fun!)  Alice goes after them and the plot turns to the hunt for the French spy, Bardou, who once tortured Lucien for five weeks.  Bardou is out to bomb London on Guy Fawkes night, which will kill hundreds of innocent people.  Lucien is busy looking for him, unaware that his slutty ex-mistress Caro has taken up with the evil Bardou, thinking he's some Prussian count!  Well, she rues that mistake before long.  Frankly, this plot-line was all over the place and ... believe it or not, I was kind of bored during some of it, despite the crazy, far fetched over the top melodrama!  It just didn't keep me interested.   As dashing and handsome as Lucien was, I really just don't like story lines with tortured misunderstood heroes who conveniently use their unhappy childhoods to behave like cads to try and prove something.  (Why is it then all wind up being spies?)  Lucien had an unhappy childhood because he had... asthma!  Heavens!  Alice started out as a strongish heroine and then turned into a puddle.  If only she hadn't turned into such a nitwit.  Her naivete and goodness added up to just plain stupidity!  I don't get it.  Before she met Lucien she seemed like a sensible, capable young women.  Then as soon as she meets him, she completely falls for him and believes she's in love with him and they're going to get married!  Of course, it didn't quite happen that way, she did give him a hard time at first - for about a day.  

I'm leaving tons of the book's plot line out and it really wasn't as bad as I'm making it out to be (pardon my sarcasm), but it was just so far-fetched!   I was disappointed in both hero and heroine as well, especially after being so revved up to read this book which I thought I was going to love!  And please don't get me started on all the talk she has with him about her "womanly courses" and his asking her about where she is in her cycle!?  As if they even knew about that sort of thing during Regency times, despite his excuse that he once studied to be a doctor! *another eye rolling moment*

Still, after all that, I like this author.  The writing itself was good as were the details and descriptions, but I had to roll my eyes several times throughout the novel.  On a final note, I found the teaser about his icy twin brother Damien an intriguing twist.  I like his type and the next book is about him - let's see if he's really going mad or not!

3.5/5

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The Duke by Gaelen Foley

Book Description:
Driven to uncover the truth about the mysterious death of his ladylove, the Duke of Hawkscliffe will go to any lengths to unmask a murderer. Even if it means jeopardizing his reputation by engaging in a scandalous affair with London's most provocative courtesan-the desirable but aloof Belinda Hamilton.

Bel has used her intelligence and wit to charm the city's titled gentlemen, while struggling to put the pieces of her life back together. She needs a protector, so she accepts Hawk's invitation to become his mistress in name only. He asks nothing of her body, but seeks her help in snaring the same man who shattered her virtue. Together they tempt the unforgiving wrath of society-until their risky charade turns into a dangerous attraction, and Bel must make a devastating decision that could ruin her last chance at love. . . .

I am somewhat of an historical romance snob.  One of the things I have a hard time with in romances is when the heroine is a courtesan.  Rarely have I come across a romance that had this scenario where I could live with it.  One exception is A Courtesan's Guide to Getting Your Man.  Another one is ... The Duke. 

The Duke is the first book of the Knight Miscellany Series.  I had a bit of trouble getting into it at first because of the depressing scenario.  Our hero, the Duke of Hawkscliffe is suffering due to the fact the woman he loved - the married woman he loved - has drowned.  Something is afoot, and Hawk is certain she was murdered.  It's an uncomfortable scenario, for her elderly husband (who's up to something) convinces Hawk to avenge her murder.  Her husband, Coldfell, sends Hawk on his way convincing him his nephew (and heir) may have been the murderer.  Hawk rushes off to avenge the death of his love, Lucy Coldfell (whom he never actually had relations with - their love was too pure for that).  The elderly Coldfell rubs his hands gleefully, certain that the duke will conveniently kill his nephew in a duel.

Before all of this, we meet Belinda Hamilton, an honorable young lady who is down on her luck.  Beautiful beyond compare, she has attracted the notice of an obnoxious young "gentleman", Sir Dolph.  Dolph wants to marry her and refuses to take no for an answer, going to extreme lengths to get her to capitulate.  Her absent minded father, a professor only interested in his illuminated manuscripts, forgets to pay their bills.  Dolph uses this as his chance to make her agree to marry him.  He has her father thrown into debtors prison.  But, Belinda fights to keep her head above water and does everything to earn her own money - except the unthinkable.  She will not sell herself or marry the creep.   Guess who the creep is?  The nephew that Hawk is out to kill!

Unfortunately for Belinda, the worst thing happens and she is raped by the warden of her father's prison.  It's horrible, especially after trying so hard to remain respectable.  Now what can she do?  Ruined and traumatized, she has no where else to turn to.  All she knows is she needs help and a protector - someone that will make her feel safe.  Out of choices and resources, she goes to the most exclusive and sought after courtesans in London.  She resigns herself to becoming a courtesan herself.  An independent woman who will be able to have her own home and money and never be hungry again.  She is taken in by the sisters who run the exclusive brothel and taught the ways of love - but only in theory.  Though no longer technically a virgin - Belinda has yet to try out her new talents. She realizes she'll need a protector, but she doesn't rush into anything - waiting for just the right man to come along.  She can now afford to be choosy.  She'll know who he is when she sees him.

And guess who comes along?

As you can guess, Hawk and Bel meet at a ball and he becomes enamored of her instantly, against his better judgment.  He believes she's an experienced courtesan, the newest sensation amidst the demimonde.  Yet he can't abide women who sell themselves that way.  Little does he know how his principles will be challenged!  Upon watching Bel that first evening, he soon realizes she has an axe to grind regarding Dolph.  He wastes no time in making a deal with her.  She will pose as his mistress so the two can work together to set up Dolph and get him to admit that he murdered Lucy Coldfell.  As Bel and Hawk "live" together, things heat up fast.  They're both dying for each other, but part of the bargain is they don't sleep together - it's all a ruse.  Fat chance.  Before long, they're in love and Belinda knows that there is no hope for her.  Once a respectable lady, she knows only too well a duke can never marry a notorious courtesan.  She can only keep up the facade of being happy with him for so long.  Inside her heart is breaking.  Meanwhile things are getting dangerous in regard to setting up the nephew.  This book was chock full of excitement, sensuality, surprises and danger.  Not to mention the absolute roller coaster ride leading up to the outlandishly romantic ending!  I loved it!!  (I'm deliberately leaving out a lot so as not to give away any clues or spoilers).

Despite the great ending, I had some trouble getting into this romance.  I'd have given this book five stars, if it weren't for the fact I couldn't shake the pall that hovered over the story line wondering how Bel was going to overcome society's condemnation towards her.  How was she going to live happily ever after with her duke?  I found her side of the story depressing, especially in the beginning, and my prudish sensibilities kicked in when she decided to become a courtesan.  

Still, by the end, as Hawk realizes he can't live without her, I got more into it and I was won over completely.  Their love for one another was heartbreaking and bittersweet but the ending more than made up for all my doubts.  I really didn't know how the author was going to make it right!  But... she did.  Wonderfully!  I highly recommend this book but keep in mind it has it's dark side to it and it's somewhat angsty.

Hawk has a couple of hunky brothers, so I'm definitely continuing with this series!

4/5

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