My Top 10 Romance Novels list is getting modified - there is a new arrival, and that arrival is Elizabeth Hoyt's The Serpent Prince.
I've enjoyed all of Hoyt's books that I've read, but none came close to the sheer obsession I entered into with TSP. I loved the characters, the intensity, the prose and the fact that this book hit every single one of my kinks. I've just finished it and I already want a reread. I can't remember the last time I loved the characters so desperately.
The book is set in the 1730s (I think) and the set-up is as follows - Lucy Craddock-Hayes was returning from various visits in her small village when she came across an almost dead man in the lane. The man is Simon Iddesleigh, and has almost been murdered as a result of his single-minded pursuit of vengeance against his brother's killers. Lucy takes him in and nurses him back to health, but can even their newly-developing feelings stop Simon from his course?
Written up like this, it sounds entertaining enough, but it doesn't convey in the least the awesomeness of this novel. I love love love Lucy, who is composed (even a little grave), strong and sane. And I love Simon, who has been driven into desperation and borderline insanity by the exigencies of revenge and who sees Lucy as his sole hope of salvation and redemption. (It's pretty clear that if he loses Lucy, he will not be able to bear living, not in a melodramatic but a matter-of-fact way). There are no love rivals, no misunderstandings, no evil families - just two complicated, strong-willed people trying to make things work and fight off darkness the best they can.
There are a lot of sequences I love (the one where she discovers him coming home after the duel with Quincy is just - wow) and a lot of quotes, but I will just leave you with this one:
"You won't speak, won't tell me," he said huskily. "Are you taunting me? You taunt me in my dreams sometimes, sweet angel, when I am not dreaming of..." He sank to his knees before her. "You don't know me, don't know what I am. Save yourself. Throw me from your house. Now. While you still can, because I've lost my determination, my will, my very honor - what little of it I had left. I cannot remove myself from your presence."
Well, I'd like to quote that whole section, but it's a few pages long...
So basically, go read it!
I've enjoyed all of Hoyt's books that I've read, but none came close to the sheer obsession I entered into with TSP. I loved the characters, the intensity, the prose and the fact that this book hit every single one of my kinks. I've just finished it and I already want a reread. I can't remember the last time I loved the characters so desperately.
The book is set in the 1730s (I think) and the set-up is as follows - Lucy Craddock-Hayes was returning from various visits in her small village when she came across an almost dead man in the lane. The man is Simon Iddesleigh, and has almost been murdered as a result of his single-minded pursuit of vengeance against his brother's killers. Lucy takes him in and nurses him back to health, but can even their newly-developing feelings stop Simon from his course?
Written up like this, it sounds entertaining enough, but it doesn't convey in the least the awesomeness of this novel. I love love love Lucy, who is composed (even a little grave), strong and sane. And I love Simon, who has been driven into desperation and borderline insanity by the exigencies of revenge and who sees Lucy as his sole hope of salvation and redemption. (It's pretty clear that if he loses Lucy, he will not be able to bear living, not in a melodramatic but a matter-of-fact way). There are no love rivals, no misunderstandings, no evil families - just two complicated, strong-willed people trying to make things work and fight off darkness the best they can.
There are a lot of sequences I love (the one where she discovers him coming home after the duel with Quincy is just - wow) and a lot of quotes, but I will just leave you with this one:
"You won't speak, won't tell me," he said huskily. "Are you taunting me? You taunt me in my dreams sometimes, sweet angel, when I am not dreaming of..." He sank to his knees before her. "You don't know me, don't know what I am. Save yourself. Throw me from your house. Now. While you still can, because I've lost my determination, my will, my very honor - what little of it I had left. I cannot remove myself from your presence."
Well, I'd like to quote that whole section, but it's a few pages long...
So basically, go read it!