TEST
The premise of Lorraine Heath’s Lost Lords of Pembrook hooked me. Three boys flee their home because they’re in danger of being killed by their uncle, who is after the family title. Ten years later, they return to society, but the time they’ve spent on the run, struggling for survival, has changed them. Lorraine Heath does excellent tortured heroes, so I was eager to give this one a try.
Lord of Temptation begins with Lady Anne Hayworth in need of a passage on a ship, so she goes to Tristan Easton, a ship’s captain. He’s immediately attracted to her. However, Anne wants to go to Scutari to meet her fiancé, whom she hasn’t seen for years. Tristan tells her that if she’s traveling on his ship, she’ll barter something other than money for the trip. Indignant, she leaves, but he’s bored and she’s more of a challenge than all the women who fall at his feet, so he decides to get her into bed.
I wouldn’t mind this in a historical if both parties are on board, but here the heroine misses her fiancé and the hero just wants to lift her skirts. Anne tries to find another ship, but Tristan pays every other ship’s captain to refuse her and then sneaks into her bedroom at night. For some reason, even this fails to move her, so he says he’ll take her to Scutari in exchange for a kiss, and she agrees.
On the journey, Anne discovers there’s more to Tristan than his off-putting first (and second, and third) impressions, and the fiancé turns out to be deceased – which is for the best, since Tristan had considered killing the man. By the time they return to England, Tristan is obsessed with Anne, but he’s a commitment-phobe, and what Anne wants most is a husband and family.
He didn’t want her for any longer than the voyage. As with all things in his life, the constancy of something bored him. He needed new adventures, new women, new challenges.
Other than the fact that he doesn’t rape her, Tristan is a throwback to the old-skool romance hero. He addresses her as “Princess” before she can even introduce herself, so at least you know right away what you’re in for. He has a few moments of empathy and thoughtfulness, but soon reverts to being a jerk who reacts to his confusing new feelings by doubling down on his I Will Never Marry conviction, although he’s happy to have sex with Anne anytime and anywhere.
As for Anne, she’s a mass of contradictions. She’s supposed to be intelligent, but in a storm at sea, she runs up to the open deck to watch. She’s determined to have a husband and children, until the plot requires her to give in to whatever Tristan wants. There’s also a hilarious moment where he’s set upon by four ruffians, and naturally he thrashes them, then compliments Anne on her bravery for watching this without screaming or crying like most women would do.
So these two engage in a back-and-forth where he tries to persuade her to join him in his nomadic lifestyle (and I don’t recall reading what he does with his ship other than sail wherever he likes), and she reiterates that she wants security. Then she meets a gentleman who wants to marry her, but he’s courteous and kind, which is equated to timid and boring. Meanwhile, Tristan keeps insisting – between bouts of unprotected sex – that he’ll never marry, but when he realizes he has competition, he decides to cause enough gossip to ruin Anne’s reputation, reasoning that he’ll be doing both her and the other man a favor. It got to the point where, when her brothers finally have enough of this and beat him up, I was wishing they’d done a great deal more.
A story with an incredibly selfish, entitled hero could work if it showed him realizing he’d been wrong and becoming a better person. Unfortunately, about ninety per cent of Lord of Temptation seemed to be dedicated to making me loathe the hero, and the single scene at the end where he confronts his past is not enough to redeem him, nor were the book’s few good moments enough to salvage the rest of it. All I could think was that this particular Lord of Pembrook should have stayed lost.
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Grade: D+
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 29/04/21
Publication Date: 09/2012
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
I'm Marian, originally from Sri Lanka but grew up in the United Arab Emirates, studied in Georgia and Texas, ended up in Toronto. When I'm not at my job as a medical laboratory technologist, I read, write, do calligraphy, and grow vegetables in the back yard.
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Wow, this is unusually awful for Heath’s oeuvre.
Is the publication date (09/2012) given on this review correct? And no matter what date this sounds pretty dreadful.
Yes – the book was first published in 2012.
… but Tristan pays every other ship’s captain to refuse her and then sneaks into her bedroom at night. For some reason, even this fails to move her,
Hehe, I enjoyed your sarcasm.
Then she meets a gentleman who wants to marry her, but he’s courteous and kind, which is equated to timid and boring.
I’m having a flashback to the movie The Notebook. In the movie, Allie’s fiancé, Lon, is shown as a really stand-up guy–mature, hard-working, and with a string of other virtues. And Allie seems to be in love with him. Until she meets Noah, a rather immature and impulsive young guy with whom she argues all the time and with whom she has nothing in common except a great deal of sexual chemistry. I still remember when Noah manipulates Allie into lying in the middle of a street intersection–because for some reason he can’t fathom, she’s hesitant to put her life at risk in this way–by telling her “Your problem is you just don’t let your self have any fun.” God, I hated that movie.
Thank you for the review, Marian. It’s about as close as I want to come to this book.
I think the “hero shows the heroine how to have fun” plot is what Lorraine Heath was going for as well. It’s clear early on that the heroine knows her fiance is dead (although she keeps this a secret), and her visiting his grave is both a means of getting closure and a way to start overcoming her depression. So I could understand pairing her up with someone who gave her new experiences and a different perspective.
But the problem is the same as what you mentioned – the supposed hero is immature and manipulative, and they have nothing in common except for sexual chemistry. Plus, every time the other man appeared, I had to brace myself for him to be disparaged or embarrassed. In any event, the love triangle where the heroine has to choose between an unpredictable sexy man who won’t marry her, and an unadventurous but considerate man who does want to marry her has been done to death. Thanks for the heads-up about The Notebook; doesn’t sound like something I’d enjoy either.
I thought I was alone in hating the shit out of “the Notebook” and finding it anti-romantic to the maximum.
I really have no interest in reading a story about a psychotic sociopath and his TSTL doormat. How did this one sneak past the editors?? Sounds like complete BS and a D+ seems overly generous.
It probably was overly generous. I could have gone on and on about the cliches – as well as the boring other man, we have the heroine’s best friend who keeps praising the hero to her, the disabled character who the hero befriends, and the I Will Never Love hero of the next book.
That said, a few scenes were so well-written and moving that they made me wish there was a meaningful conflict and a hero whom I cared about. I miss the Lorraine Heath who wrote Always to Remember and Texas Glory.