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Hoyt, Elizabeth - Wicked Intentions
This is the first of a new series from Elizabeth Hoyt, and let me tell you, I am so glad it is not Tortured by Indians!
Lazarus Huntington, Lord Caire, is looking for the man who killed his mistress in the slums of St. Giles. In order to get more information out of its untrusting denizens, he asks widow Temperance Dews for help in return for helping her find a new sponsor for the foundling home she and her brother run.
As expected, the serial killer plot is a boring one—if you can't tell, I'm not much for thriller plots in romance novels—but it serves to get the hero and heroine together.
Temperance is a woman afraid of her own sexuality for reasons that some romance readers may not like. I'm not a complete fan of the reason because I think I wanted over-the-top darkness and angst, but despite the whole serial killer and slums thing, there's a surprisingly small amount of angsty reasons in the book. Don't get me wrong... Caire is plagued by pain any time someone touches him and cannot love, but to my surprise, there's no horrifying background involving rotting corpses in India (Anna Campbell, I am looking at you!), and overall, he hovers and menaces and waves his cape around more than he actually is tortured.
I am of two minds for the setting. I like that Temperance is not one of the nobility and isn't all about the Season, that she thinks about things like the cost of sugar and feeding and clothing orphaned children, but I wish a titled lord didn't have to swoop in to the rescue. On the other hand, I feel there's still that class divide that's so common in romance novels, where the heroine may be common, but god forbid she speak with a "lower class" accent or be uneducated or the like. There's still a fairly large divide between Temperance and her family and the other denizens of St. Giles.
As for the romance, I'm not a huge fan of Caire, and I wasn't enamored of Temperance either, but I did like that despite Temperance's fears about her own sexuality, Hoyt lets her take control during sex more than once. The sex, as in most of Hoyt's books, is fairly explicit for romances, though definitely not up to erotic romance standards. Still, heroine on top! Tied down hero! I approve (and note that Hoyt's had several other books with the heroine in charge in at least one sex scene, which is more than most authors!).
The part that actually interested me most was the side story regarding Temperance's sister Silence, who I am sure will get her own book. That said, I'm not sure it was smart putting so much of Silence's story in this book, because it may not leave enough for Silence's own book. I am thinking mostly of Eloisa James' Desperate Duchesses series and how the penultimate book suffered from basically having the conflict resolved in previous books.
Also, I feel Hoyt tends to resolve her conflicts too easily, although it's not nearly as bad as some other authors. And while the fairy tale bits worked in her Princes trilogy, they weren't nearly as good in the Tortured by Indians quartet, and in this book, it feels entirely extraneous.
Anyway, not great, but not bad, will be interested to see how the rest of the series pans out.
Lazarus Huntington, Lord Caire, is looking for the man who killed his mistress in the slums of St. Giles. In order to get more information out of its untrusting denizens, he asks widow Temperance Dews for help in return for helping her find a new sponsor for the foundling home she and her brother run.
As expected, the serial killer plot is a boring one—if you can't tell, I'm not much for thriller plots in romance novels—but it serves to get the hero and heroine together.
Temperance is a woman afraid of her own sexuality for reasons that some romance readers may not like. I'm not a complete fan of the reason because I think I wanted over-the-top darkness and angst, but despite the whole serial killer and slums thing, there's a surprisingly small amount of angsty reasons in the book. Don't get me wrong... Caire is plagued by pain any time someone touches him and cannot love, but to my surprise, there's no horrifying background involving rotting corpses in India (Anna Campbell, I am looking at you!), and overall, he hovers and menaces and waves his cape around more than he actually is tortured.
I am of two minds for the setting. I like that Temperance is not one of the nobility and isn't all about the Season, that she thinks about things like the cost of sugar and feeding and clothing orphaned children, but I wish a titled lord didn't have to swoop in to the rescue. On the other hand, I feel there's still that class divide that's so common in romance novels, where the heroine may be common, but god forbid she speak with a "lower class" accent or be uneducated or the like. There's still a fairly large divide between Temperance and her family and the other denizens of St. Giles.
As for the romance, I'm not a huge fan of Caire, and I wasn't enamored of Temperance either, but I did like that despite Temperance's fears about her own sexuality, Hoyt lets her take control during sex more than once. The sex, as in most of Hoyt's books, is fairly explicit for romances, though definitely not up to erotic romance standards. Still, heroine on top! Tied down hero! I approve (and note that Hoyt's had several other books with the heroine in charge in at least one sex scene, which is more than most authors!).
The part that actually interested me most was the side story regarding Temperance's sister Silence, who I am sure will get her own book. That said, I'm not sure it was smart putting so much of Silence's story in this book, because it may not leave enough for Silence's own book. I am thinking mostly of Eloisa James' Desperate Duchesses series and how the penultimate book suffered from basically having the conflict resolved in previous books.
Also, I feel Hoyt tends to resolve her conflicts too easily, although it's not nearly as bad as some other authors. And while the fairy tale bits worked in her Princes trilogy, they weren't nearly as good in the Tortured by Indians quartet, and in this book, it feels entirely extraneous.
Anyway, not great, but not bad, will be interested to see how the rest of the series pans out.
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I didn't find Caire's issues terribly believable. I think every romance author needs to read rachelmanija's PTSD series.
I admit, I'm kind of hopeful about Silence's book, which may be interesting depending on what Hoyt tries to do with it.
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I was actually ok with Caire's issues because I thought the point was that he had the touch issues and no specific trauma to cause them, which I thought was a nice change from the usual WOE and ANGST.
I am really interested in Silence's book! Especially since hints seem to be that the hero is Charming Mickey, which... non-standard, to say the least! I feel it will be very interesting if she can pull it off, but potentially very fail-y if not.
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I am v. curious about Silence and with you on the entertained but not in love thing.
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