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Breathless by Anne Stuart

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Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books – The Home of the Romance Novel!

Welcome also to Series Sunday!  Today is the third of the House of Rohan series! Anne Stuart writes pretty powerful books that are totally engrossing.  They aren’t light and airy, they are dark and somewhat disturbing at times.  Absolutely worth a read!

Breathless by Anne Stuart
ISBN: 978-0-7783-2850-6
Release: Oct 1, 2010
Publisher: MIRA
Source: I purchased this book to read and review

Ruined beyond repair and shunned by London society, lovely Miranda Rohan rebeliously embraces the freedom that comes from having nothing left to lose.  however, this dangerous course throws her under the ower of the darly enigmatic Lucien de Malheur – known to many as the Scorpion

Seeking to destroy the Rohans, Lucien traps Miranda in a marriage she thinks is based on friendship but instead is rooted in vengence.  yet even when she realizes the truth, their enmity fuels a shocking passion – and perhaps even more.

Such a man might drive anyone to murder…

Breathless is the third in Anne Stuart’s The House of Rohan series. This series is based on the aristocratic Rohan family.  This book focuses on Miranda Rohan and Lucien de Malheur – arch enemy of the Rohan family.  This story starts with the rebellious Miranda deciding to meet Mr. Christopher St. John at a party.  She wants one night of fun before she settles down to marry one of the “boring” young men her family wants to settle her with.  What results is her being kidnapped and essentially raped repeatedly until she is able to escape.  Although her family manages to hush up the details, she is still seen as ruined by London society and settles down to live a quiet life with her cousin Louisa as a companion.  What she doesn’t know is that Lucien De Malheur paid to have her spoiled in hopes of causing problems in the Rohan family.  It doesn’t work out quite like he’d planned, however and sets out to take Miranda from her family.  It seems that Lucien is determined to get revenge against the Rohan family for driving his half-sister to suicide many years ago.

This is a beautifully dark and complex story.  The relationship that develops between Miranda and Lucien is engrossing to read.  Lucien is really not a nice person.  He arranged for the rape of Miranda and then he marries her all to hurt her and her family.  He doesn’t count on what a strong person Miranda is!  the chemistry between them sizzles!  Their physical relationship is outstanding, but neither of them allow that fact to get in the way of their agendas.  Lucien wants to hurt, and Miranda wants to win the battle of wills!

The secondary romance between Jacob Donnelly, friend of Lucien’s and Jane Pagett, Miranda’s best friend is a delight to read.  It is the opposite to Lucien and Miranda’s.  It is light and airy and full of demonstrative affection.  It is a delight to see plain Jane, who is destined to a life of drudgery make a U turn and take up with the love of her life, regardless of what society might think.

This book is completely engrossing.  Once started it is difficult to put down.  At times I was disgusted by the story line, but I kept reading to find out what would happen next.  I think this is the darkest book that I have read by Anne Stuart.  Lucien has no apparent redeeming qualities and makes an unlikely hero.  One would say that he is a tortured hero in the extreme.  Miranda is an unlikely heroine.  She makes quite a few bad choices.  Her stubbornness repeatedly gets her into one scrape after another.  That being said, this book is outstanding!  What might fail in other hands, succeeds in the hands of Anne Stuart.

To date, there are four books in this series, so it looks like I have another book to read!  The books that I have read of Ms. Stuart’s are not the light and sparkly romances typical to the genre but they are very well written and grab the reader for a rough road of reading.  There is always a happily ever after at the end, but some pretty dark writing is what gets you there.

Amazon Purchase Link for Breathless (The House of Rohan)

Reckless by Anne Stuart

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Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books – The Home of the Romance Novel!

Today is Series Sunday again and  we started last week with the first book of Anne Stuart’s House of Rohan series.  Today is book 2 – Reckless.  I hope you are enjoying this series as much as I have been.

Reckless by Anne Stuart The House of Rohan Trilogy book 2
ISBN: 978-0-7783-2849-0
Release: Sept 2010
Source: I purchased this book to read and review

 Adrian Alistair Rohan lost his faith, and now, a dedicated member of the depraved Heavenly Host, he loses himself in his only pleasure: the seduction and debauchery of ?beautiful women. Rich, charming and devastatingly skilled in the arts of love, he never fails in his conquests…until Charlotte Spenser.
Charlotte is facing a desolate, passionless future, none of which matters to Adrian, who imagines her a toy until better prey arrives. But beneath her drab exterior, Charlotte is a woman as enchanting as she is brilliant and, lured into Adrian’s world, soon she becomes the seducer, and he the seduced.…

Reckless is the second book in the House of Rohan Trilogy.  I was waiting in great anticipation for this one to arrive in the mail!  I guess I enjoyed the first book so much that I didn’t even bother to read the blurb on the back,  I just made the assumption that book 2 would talk about the life (and potential love) of someone else who was a member of the Heavenly Host or some other character from book 1.  I found myself a stretch of time, my comfy chair and settled in to read.  I spent the first few chapters trying to place Adrian from the cast of characters from the first book.  Either I read too much or my memory is going 🙂

It seems that Book 2 of The House of Rohan is the next generation of characters – so we go ahead a couple of decades in time.  Adrian in the son of the hero, Lord Haverstock,  from the first book and the woman he married (not to give away details).  The character in common from book one is Etienne de Giverney – the cousin of Lord Haverstock who felt he was duped out of a title by Haverstock.  He becomes the villain of this book.

In Reckless, we are focused on Adrian Rohan, a dissolute young man, not unlike his father was in the first book.  Adrian seems to be the companion of Etienne in all things outrageous, and seems to take great pleasure in offending his parents with his behaviour.  The shoe doesn’t fall far, I think.  Adrian becomes focused on Charlotte Spenser.  Charlotte is the poor relation of Lina, the widow Lady Whitmore and serves as her companion.  Lady Whitmore was married to a brutal older man, and has no intentions of ever marrying again, but spends her time in outrageous pleasures, such as the activities of the Heavenly Host.  The Heavenly Host are a group of people that get together for carnal house parties.  There is exclusive membership and rituals associated with the group, but ultimately, it is  a group where anything goes.  This is the group that Adrian’s father formed in the first book, but he has since disassciated himself from.  The head of the Heavenly Host is now Montague, a friend of both Adrian and Lady Whitmore.

Charlotte has decided that she is going to be a spinster, but she wants to be educated in carnal relations.  Lina has offered to bring Charlotte to a Heavenly Host party where she can be an observer.  She dresses up in a monk’s costume and heads out to observe.  At this point the action starts between Adrian and Charlotte.

It seems like a long an convoluted introduction to this book!  Reckless, like Ruthless is a  complicated book.  Both of these stories are dark, seemingly filled with despair, but both are outstanding books!
Anne Stuart does an outstanding job of weaving together outstanding characters that she creates with the intrigue aspect of the story.  Reading one of her books is almost like running down a long and dark tunnel bouncing from one tension filled moment to another, from one incredibly sensual encounter to another, finally bursting out into the light at the end.  Time passes and still the reader is engrossed with the story being told.

Anne Stuart novels are not to missed.  I’ve now read two of this trilogy and the third is waiting for me on my TBR pile.  I can’t wait!

 

Amazon purchase link for Reckless (The House of Rohan)

Review of Ruthless by Anne Stuart

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Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books – The Home of the Romance Novel!

It’s Sunday again, and it is time for Series Sunday and time to celebrate my love of books written in series!

Last week we finished with Kat Martin’s Bride series, and this week we start a recent series by Anne Stuart.  This series is called “The House of Rohan” and focuses on various members of the Rohan family.  Anne Stuart’s books are quite dark and compelling;  difficult to put down once you start. At times the story shocks and offends, but always encourages the reader to finish as quickly as possible.

This week we start with Ruthless which is book on in the series.

ISBN: 978-0-7783-2848-3
Publisher: MIRA Historical Romance

Release: Aug 2010
Source: I bought this book to read and review

Few outsiders will ever witness the dark misdeeds of the Heavenly Host. And among this secret society, where exiled Georgian aristocrats gather to indulge their carnal
desires, fewer still can match the insatiable appetite of their chief provocateur, the mysterious Viscount Rohan.

Pursuit of physical pleasure is both his preferred pastime and his most pressing urge, until he encounters the fascination of a woman who won’t be swayed. And while
his dark seduction appalls the pure and impoverished Elinor Harriman, she finds herself intrigued…and secretly drawn to the man behind the desire.

Ruthless by Anne Stuart is the first book in a trilogy. It was released in August of last year and already has received quite a bit of talk in the book blogs! Although I’d never read any of Anne Stuart’s work, I decided to buy this book and check it out.

Ruthless is set in 1768 in Paris. Viscount Rohan is a very wealthy man who holds several titles, both English and French and is the leader of “The Heavenly Host” – called The Prince of Peace or The King of Hell. The Heavenly Host revels are a group of friends and acquaintances, who hold carnal parties. As Rohan says as he starts a party: “ Welcome to the Revels of the Heavenly Host. You will partake of the holy wafer, you will take you’re fill, with no one to judge. For the next three nights the paltry rules of society are forfeit. Our motto stands…”Do what thou will.” Rohan, we find out later in the book, survived the massacre of Culloden after witnessing his father and older brother killed. He then escaped to Paris to avoid arrest by the authorities. Rohan is at the point in his life where is bored. “He’d witnessed almost every deprivation known to man, participated in a great many of them, and he’d yet to find anything to pierce his terrible ennui.”

Elinor Harriman was the oldest child of a woman who left her husband many years before and has made her way in life serving as a mistress to a variety of men. She (Caroline) is now dying of syphilis and Elinor, her sister Lydia, their old nanny, Nanny Maude and Jacobs, their coachman are scrambling to stay warm, find something to eat, and prevent Caroline from running off to gamble. As this story starts, Caroline has escaped and is headed to the latest part of the Heavenly Host, with the last of their money. Jacobs steals a carriage and Elinor heads off to bring her mother home before she loses the last of their money. Upon arrival at the party, she is introduced to Rohan and the romance begins!

Elinor attracts Rohan in a way that he hasn’t experienced in many years. He wants to take care of her. He wants her carnally, but he is challenged by her mind. Both Rohan and Elinor are very stubborn characters. Elinor is determined to find a way to take care of her motley family without involving Rohan and Rohan is determined to take care of Elinor and her family as well as get Elinor in his bed.

Although on the surface, this is a predictable, formula romance; Wealthy lord saves poor struggling girl. It in no way comes across as predictable. The mood of the book is dark and carnal, but it isn’t really written as an erotic novel. The setting is a difficult one to write about, as Pre-Revolutionary France is not a happy time! The characters are skillfully written. They are multi-layered people who are well developed and have a with a whole host of secondary characters to compliment the story line. I love it when the author creates characters that you can either cheer for, or boo at. This story has a selection of both and the passion to engross the reader in the success or failure of the characters. The story, although it is dark, it is written is an engrossing way; sweeping the reader along through page after page without being aware of the passage of time. The descriptive writing allows the writer to picture the settings, relate to the period of history and feel like an onlooker to the story as it is happening.

I thought two things stood out for this book. The first was Elinor. She was a great heroine! Her mother is dying of syphilis, her little sister is being eyed by every lecher in the neighborhood and she has two retainers to feed. There’s hardly any furniture left as it has been broken up and the wood burned for heat, there’s really no food left and her mother heads off with the last of the jewels for a weekend of whoring. Elinor keeps this family together and functioning. Even when it would be easy to give in to Rohan and allow him to take care of her, she continually rebels. She wants to be independent and provide for her little family.

The second thing that stood out was the complete dissolution of Rohan. I’ve read stories with morally corrupt characters before, but they haven’t been the hero! I think that the only way this story works is because Ms Stuart has Rohan remain true to character throughout the story. I think that if he had caved and become an upstanding member of society, the story would have lacked believability.

I thoroughly, and surprisingly (to me) really enjoyed this book. It was dark, carnal, bordering on erotic – a big step away from the glittering Regency romances that I’m frequently drawn to, but one of the best books I have read in a long time. I look forward to the next book in the trilogy!

Come back next Sunday for the second book in this series.

Amazon Purchase Link for Ruthless (The House of Rohan)