Devil's Prize

Title: Devil's Prize (1995)
Author: Kat Martin (St. Martin's)
Period: European Historical-Georgian (1809 England/France)
Grade: C-

Kat Martin has long been one of my favorites. Her European Historicals have a gritty texture that is usually missing from most of the Regency ballroom fare. Devil's Prize had the darkness one expects from Kat Martin, but with cardboard cutout characters.

Damien (his title and his last name incorrectly the same) has decided to exact revenge upon the woman his younger half brother loved and killed himself over. He will make her fall in love with him and then ruin her. The plan works quickly and Alexa is soon on her way to ruin. Circumstances force them to marry, but Damien quickly discovers that Alexa is not the manipulative socialite he anticipated. She has been suffering with the guilt of her friend Peter's death. The two work towards a good marriage despite it not beginning on good footing. Had this been a book about two people working out personal conflict and grief it could have been well done.

Instead, Martin offers a spy plot involving the Napoleonic War. Damien is a double agent who's cover is only partially unveiled when Alexa overhears his plotting with the French. Rather than confront her husband, she turns him in to English authorities. Only one person in the English military knows Damien is a double agent so disaster unfolds. The two wind up escaping to France where Alexa spends the bulk of the book jumping to conclusions based on jealousy and a failure to have conversations. She almost gets them both killed on several occasions because she fails to believe him or trusts the wrong person over him. Damien is not a perfect hero, but he is certainly smarter and more committed to an open and honest relationship than she.

An interesting non-Regency European setting is spoiled by a dreadful plot and a dim, impulsive heroine.

Lily

Title: Lily (2003)
Author: Lauren Royal (Signet)
Period: European Historical-Restoration (1677 England)
Grade: F

Holy Shit! Some one wrote romance novel with Snow White as the heroine. Lauren Royal should watch her back because I understand those Disney intellectual property claims are a real bitch.

Lord Rand Nesbitt is an Oxford scholar, disowned second son, and jogging enthusiast. During the Restoration! He has for four years been smitten with his friend's young sister-in-law, Lily. The two are asked to serve as godparents to the friend and sister's twins and meet again at a christening/extended visit. Rand is attracted to Lily and pleased to see she is no longer a child, but he has no desire to marry. Which he proceeds to tell his best friend and her brother-in-law. Surprisingly, this doesn't get him punched in the face.

Lily is basically Snow White crossed with a doormat. She loves animals. Every fox and bird in the forest obeys her commands. Her dream is to open an animal rescue. During the Restoration! Lily is interested in Rand, but her scheming older sister, Rose has also set her cap for him. Lily, in true doormat fashion, allows her sister to bully her into promising not to pursue Rand. Lily agrees despite it being obvious to everyone in the house that he is smitten with Lily. Rose continues to throw herself at him, but eventually Rand forces Lily to accept his proposal.

It appears there problems are solved early in the novel, but au contraire! To avoid scandal Rand must break his engagement to Lily and take up with pregnant and unmarried friend to thwart his evil family. The plot takes other stupid side trips as well. I eventually could take no more and quit the field around page 200. Perhaps, Rand was able to save the day by inventing an airplane or a telephone. During the Restoration! That would have been about on par for this dreck.

Hers Forever

Title: Hers Forever (1995)
Author: Wendy Garrett (Zebra)
Period: American-Jacksonian (1847 St. Louis)
Grade: D-

Hers Forever represents two things that used to be true about romances. Riverboat romances set along the Mississippi once held a place along side Native American and Antebellum/Civil War locales as the most common in the American genre. Also, romances novels used to have plots that resembled entire season of Melrose Place complete with amnesia, kidnappings, secret babies, and spouses back from the dead. Melodrama can be sweetly sentimental or hilarious campy. Hers Forever is neither of those. It is a giant cliché sandwich with a healthy side of trite.

Cari Fremont's late husband and brother-in-law have used her as a pawn in their (unexplained) power plays against each other. After her husband and son's (alleged) deaths her evil brother-in-law is determined to make her his mistress. Cari thwarts his plan by becoming the mistress to his arch business rival, Dominic Saxton. The brother-in-law schemes, an annoyingly plucky orphan girl is adopted, people rise from the dead, and it all ends happily in the end. At least it would if the reader gave a rat's ass about any of these people or their tired, predictable romance.

Yawn.

Lady Hellfire

Title: Lady Hellfire (1992)
Author: Suzanne Robinson (Bantam)
Period: European Historical-Victorian (1854 England)
Grade: B+

Lady Hellfire is a very good fish out of water European Historical. I love stories about brash Americans finding love and adventure in the stuffy Ton. The Victorian historical elements are strong, particularly when Robinson explores restricting female fashion with the growing popularity of bustles and crinolette.

Kate is a true bluestocking. She is a fanatical reader, as well as being responsible for her maintaining her family's fortune after her father's death. She is outspoken and informal with little regard for the conventions and hierarchy of British society. I adore Kate. She has agreed to take her English mother on a trans-Atlantic visit to lift her spirits after her father's death. Her forthright manner and unconventional beauty made her open to ridicule from her cousin's neighbor the Marquees of Richfield on her previous trip to England. Alex, the Marquees, is complex hero. He was a war hero in the Crimea and he feels tremendous loyalty to the wounded veterans he cares for at his Estate. After his father's death, he was raised by his despicable mother and his sermonizing women-hating uncle. He suspects most unmarried women of trying to catch him in marriage for his wealth and title. Alex has issues.

When he and Kate are caught in a compromising position they announce a fake betrothal to save face. He attempts to educate Kate as how she can be more "ladylike" (i.e. boring) during their engagement. Kate, young and in love, goes along with the plan hoping to win his affections. She later realizes that Alex isn't worth losing herself. Happily, in reverse My Fair Lady fashion, he understands that he's rather have Kate as she is. The mysterious deaths around the castle (!) protract there HEA and the reader isn’t automatically certain of the murder.

Lady Hellfire isn't a perfect romance. Kate falls victim to a romance heroine's traits of crying and running away. She is conveniently in position to overhear just enough to create a Big Misunderstanding, but not long enough to understand what is really afoot. The villains are cut a bit too black. And one wonders when Alex will stand-up to his crazy family not just for Kate, but for himself. Very nice work with strong character development and excellent historical detail. I'll look for more Suzanne Robinson in the future.

The Perfect Lover

Title: The Perfect Lover (2003)
Author: Stephanie Laurens (Avon)
Period: European Historical-Victorian (1835 England)
Grade: C

My new historical romance pet peeve is author's who write suspense/mystery novels marketed as romance. To be fair, I'm sure the fault lies with Avon rather than Laurens.

The romance, minimal as it is, occurs between Simon (a Cynster) and his brother-in-law's sister, Portia Ashford. For Laurens, and one presumes her readers, being a Cynster is a personality trait in and of itself. The reader is to presume Simon is all things brave, virile, honorable, and wise. They both claim a long standing dislike. Laurens writes as if every reader has committed On a Wicked Dawn and its record of Simon and Portia's relationship to memory. One of the weaknesses with romance plot is the author continues to reference the conflict between the hero and heroine. Despite that as soon as we meet them in The Perfect Lover they are practically simpatico. They've conveniently both decided to embark on marriage hunts at the same time (and at the same house party) so one sees no real evidence they aren’t compatible.

The Perfect Lover is part of Laurens' Cynster series that like cockroaches and Rasputin just won't die. The success of this series in particular is, in my opinion, the cause of the explosion of familial romance series we see today. I'm not sure if that is an accolade or a rebuke. The book takes place at country house party with a lengthy and monotonous cast of Ton characters that would do the Illiad proud. The vast majority of these tertiarry characters are superfluous. Most have no role in the central plot whatsoever. There is a lot of tea drinking and escorting ladies to dinner, so only a handful of characters serve to advance the plot. Meanwhile, the eventual murder victim is so loathsome that one is left wishing all the guests conspired to do her in Murder on the Orient Express style. Laurens offer vagaries about the hero and heroine's shared sense of justice that leads them to solve the murder. I couldn't muster any interest in the victim, the investigation, or the romance.