This is a Quickie Review. For the full review, please visit The Romanceaholic.Expected Release Date: June 28, 2011 (Available Now!)
Publisher: Harlequin
Imprint: Mira
Author’s Website: http://www.anne-stuart.com/
My Source for This Book: Netgalley
Part of a Series: Yes, Book 4, House of Rohan
Series Best Read In Order: Works well as a standalone
Steam Level: Steamy
I should probably preface this with a disclaimer: I adore Anne Stuart. She has the incredibly tendency to write the most delicious heroes, and this book was no exception.
Having an absolutely horrible history with love, Viscount Benedick Rohan comes to London with two main goals — to find a wife that he can impregnate and then promptly forget, and to find some willing women and participate in the debauchery and lechery that he knows a noble wife would be horrified by.
Upon his return, he discovers that his favored brothel has closed, and is given the new address of a former mistress by his brother, Brandon, who had been grievously wounded in the war and who has changed for the worse since Benedick last saw him.
Lady Melisande Carlisle, a wealthy widow also known as “Charity” for her crusade to reform soiled doves and find them more respectable work as housemaids and dress-makers. However, not all fallen women prefer a life of drudgery to a life on their backs, and she’s soon chasing after one of her wards who has made off to the notorious Viscount Rohan’s residence. Bursting into his home to discover her charge on her knees ready to service Rohan, she tells her in no uncertain terms that she can either return to the house, or continue her current actions, but cannot have both. Distraught, the girl returns to Melisande’s safehouse, but in the meantime, Benedick mistakes Melisande for a madam, and propositions her. Flustered and outraged, she flees, yet cannot get the wicked Rohan out of her mind — nor the fact that Violet insists that she enjoys acts that Melisande considers to be uncomfortable at best and horrifically degrading at worse.
Confused and more than a little aroused, Melisande vows to avoid Benedick, but he is unable to forget her as well, and makes it his mission to annoy her as revenge for his unwanted attraction.
When Melisande approaches him in a frenzy because it’s come to her attention that the wicked Heavenly Host — a secret society of bored and licentious nobles intent on gorging themselves on all sorts of sexual depravity — has not only been reestablished but also has graduated from consensual acts to those of violence and rape, Benedick is reluctantly drawn into an investigation to find a missing girl, as well as possibly protect his own brother, Brandon, whose behavior of late has been secretive and possibly dangerous.
Despite the unquestionable attraction between them, Melisande and Benedick continue to dance around each other, engaging in a game of advance and retreat, until the incredible tension between them must explode. However, neither is prepared for the forbidden feelings that arise from their encounters, and their reckless actions as a result may very well lead to their mutual downfall.
Ms. Stuart has such an incredible talent for creating tortured heroes with a tendency towards cruelty but who are irresistible anyway. Benedick is a perfect example, though I admit that even when he was cruel, he was much sweeter than some of Ms. Stuart’s previous heroes. In many of her stories, when her heroes are cruel or negligent towards the heroine, it’s because they truly have a measure of indifference towards the heroine. In contrast, Benedick is merely protecting himself because he knows very well that there is no way he can survive if he loses yet another woman he loves, and as such, is determined to both drive Melisande away to protect himself and also to satisfy his own possessiveness by destroying her self-esteem to the point that she will never again engage in an affair with anyone else. He recognizes his own cruelty and yet is helpless to stop himself, even as he drowns in self-loathing for his own actions.
I loved getting updates on Benedick’s sister Miranda from the previous novel, Reckless, (good Lord, six children? Really??), as well as the part she and her husband played in the resolution. There was also a very intriguing secondary romance, and while that romance was never fully resolved, it was incredibly well done (and dare I hope that it will be the subject of, or at least fullfilled in, a forthcoming novel?)
While Benedick was not as truly hardened as many Anne Stuart heroes, he was still deliciously tortured and wonderfully malicious at the most inopportune time, and Melisande’s newly found confidence is completely shattered in the wake of his cruelty.
Overall, I of course adored it. I admit, Ms. Stuart is one of the few authors on my “auto-buy” list, and very rarely disappoints me, so it’s almost a bit of a gimme to receive a favorable rating. Fans of Ms. Stuart will rejoice in Benedick’s cruelty, but will likely also recognize that he’s a bit softer at heart than many of her other heroes.
The epilogue was wonderful as well, though I admit, I was so sad when it ended, because I really wanted to see what would’ve happened next. As it is, I can only hope that Melisande and Benedick will in some way be featured in the next installment of the House of Rohan, and will have to satisfy myself by simply rereading this book until the next one is published.
Recommended for fans of tortured heroes resisting their destiny, of passionate heroines convinced of their frigidity, and wicked villains whose depravity knows no bounds.
4.5/5 Stars
