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The second novel in Elizabeth Hoyt’s Legend of the Four Soldiers series is even better than the first. To Seduce a Sinner is funny and heartbreaking, sexy and poignant.
A hung-over Jasper Renshaw, Viscount Vale, has just been left at the altar by his fiancée when he is offered a replacement – by the prospective bride herself. She looks vaguely familiar, but he cannot remember her name. Melisande Fleming is a friend to a different ex-fiancée of Jasper’s (Emeline, heroine of To Taste Temptation) and has loved him from afar, ever since she saw him comfort a crying man at a ball, a fellow veteran from the French and Indian Wars in the colonies. Now she sees her chance to have Jasper and she takes it. Jasper needs to get on with the begetting an heir thing and, as he obviously isn’t very good at choosing his own bride, accepts Melisande’s offer. Besides, as he tells his valet, “…when she stood there, looking at me as if I’d spat in front of her … Well, I was rather charmed, I think. Unless it was the lingering after-effects of the whiskey from last night.”
Jasper is witty, always joking, always the life of any party, with a reputation as a skilled lover and, after a less than satisfying wedding night, Jasper and Melisande’s lovemaking is blistering and very satisfying. However, Jasper immediately leaves his wife and returns to sleep on a thin pallet in his small dressing room, his back against the wall, his knapsack of food, water and weapon nearby, a single candle lit against the darkness. Merry Jasper has deep psychological scars from the war.
His regiment was betrayed to the French and the remnants of his company captured and tortured by the Indians. He is dogged in searching for the traitor and keeping his weaknesses from his wife, who is becoming more fascinating by the day – and night. Melisande has her secrets as well and is determined to keep a part of herself aloof from Jasper. She’d been in love and was engaged years before and doesn’t ever want to suffer from heartbreak as she did before. However, while each wishes to keep their own secrets, they nibble away at the other’s with sweet and moving results.
Jasper and Melisande are full, vibrant characters with layers just begging to be mined – by each other and the reader. Jasper’s bon vivant demeanor hides his traumatized soul and when he finally bares it to Melisande’s view, it is wrenching and riveting reading. Likewise, Jasper’s reaction to Melisande’s secrets is equally moving.
I enjoyed the secondary characters of Melisande’s lady’s maid and Jasper’s valet, but my only real complaint is that I felt the use of other secondary characters to be a bit clunky and obviously a set up for the next book. However, I’m looking forward to that book very much, so it didn’t bother too much.
I loved the unusual setting, the intriguing and complex characters, the emotional struggles and connections, the lush love scenes, the mystery, the snippets of “Laughing Jack’s” fairy tale which prefaces each chapter – all in all, a remarkable book.
Grade: A-
Book Type: European Historical Romance
Sensuality: Hot
Review Date: 28/10/08
Publication Date: 2008
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.
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This is my favourite Hoyt, and one of my favourite romances in general. I particularly love that Hoyt allows a shy and plain woman to be an uninhibited goddess of sex purely because that is her nature, rather than it being something a man brought out in her. You almost never see that in romance novels (I can’t even think of any other examples now, although there must be others). I identify with Melisande so hard, and I wish there were more heroines like her.
I really enjoyed this series and the Four Princes series by Elizabeth Hoyt. I still am making my way through the Maiden Lane series.
Having read several Hoyt books by now, I feel this is the worst so far. With the main female character (I can’t call her a “heroine” in any way), there is no “there” there. Not only is she described as completely plain, she dresses in drab clothing and lacks all wit at social functions, like a potted plant. What on earth would make the lively Jasper accept the marriage proposal of this dry stick? Once she’s inexplicably gotten him to marry her, she’s close-mouthed and BORING when she does speak to him. Their first sexual encounter is equally dismal. However, this colorless old maid suddenly and unrealistically turns into an aggressively sexual bed partner.
Hoyt likes to stray far from the standard golden couple of typical romances where one or both are beautiful and witty. Then she sometimes succeeds in bringing the reader to root for a frump or ugly man because of their inner charm e.g. The Raven Prince. However, this time she set herself too stiff a challenge. The supposedly witty banter is anything but. Melisande remains a complete dud and her bed skills are unbelievable as is her attractive husband’s growing devotion to her. I skimmed the last 1/3 of the book when I realized no butterfly was emerging and the relationship would remain irrational and imbalanced. The plot is hardly worth mentioning.
That’s interesting. I remember loving this book because Melisande and Jasper both found their true content selves via their love. I also loved the secondary romance. #differentstrokes