🍎🍎🍎🍎
After finishing Donna Fletcher's Sinclare Brothers series, I was still in the mood for historical romances. I spent most of the day at work debating on what I wanted to read next. I was thinking of more Donna Fletcher or finally getting to some new releases (that aren't as new at this point) on my bookshelf. However, when I opened instagram in the afternoon, I saw that Jen is hosting a live show about the Maiden Lane series on May 8th. She and Crystal had been reading the series the past month or so, and several other booktubers and bookstagrammers had joined in. I've had Elizabeth Hoyt on my tbr for quite a while now, so I decided now the time to binge it! I don't know if I'll get through all 12 books in time for the live show, but I'll definitely try! It helps that I don't have any book club books at this point to get to first. The first book of the series is Wicked Intentions.
So first off, this book and series is set in the 1700s. I usually read more 1800s or 1500/1600s set books. I did feel the time difference, as there were a lot more people wearing wigs and other details like that. They were little things, but I did notice them being that it's different for me. We meet Temperance, our heroine, the caretaker with her brother Winter for a charity house for abandoned infants and foundling children that their father started. Things aren't going well as their previous sponsor has passed away and they weren't left anything in the will. This is also set in an area known as St. Giles and is very run down and on the grittier side of things. This was definitely a change for me as well since if I'm not in the wilds of Scotland, I'm usually in the higher society settings. Temperance runs across Lord Caire, Lazarus. He is in St. Giles to solve the murder of his mistress and so starts the mystery of the novel. I found Lazarus very interesting. He feels emotional pain when touched by anyone but it felt different than other heroes with a similar trope. He also "doesn't feel emotions." He makes a deal with Temperance for guidance and connections in St. Giles and in return he'll help introduce her to a new sponsor for the foundling house.
I was torn on how to rate this book. I feel like if I were to extrapolate out on my rating it'd be more like a 3.5 instead of 4-stars, but I rounded up. While I enjoyed the connection between Lazarus and Temperance, there were times where it felt like they were moving too slow and other times they were moving too fast. I feel like once they finally were fully intimate with each other and both opened up, I enjoyed their relationship a lot more. I did feel torn with the whole mystery. While it was fine, I either wanted it to be fleshed out more or less of a plot point compared to the romance. I also didn't like how much religion played a role in Temperance and her family's affairs. I understand that religion was a big deal during that time, but it's just not something I enjoy reading about as much, especially when it's in historicals. It just bothers me that if a woman feels desire, even for her husband that she's seen as a horrible person and it's a grave sin. I know it's woven in to a lot of historicals, it's hard not to be. I just don't like it when it's made super obvious. It could also have a part in the time frame this book is set as. I also wanted more insight into Lazarus's background and why he has issues being touched, especially since we only kind-of dealt with his abandonment issues.
I know that a lot of favorites of the series are the later books, so I'll definitely keep reading the series. I've heard mixed reviews about book two, so I'll start that with a grain of salt. I enjoyed Lady Hero in this book and it has my favorite trope, the wrong sibling. I'm hoping it'll at least be a 3-star read, especially since I enjoy Elizabeth Hoyt's writing style. I'm definitely excited to get to some of the later books though.
Have you read Wicked Intentions?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: Wicked Intentions, Elizabeth Hoyt, 4-stars, eBook, 1 day, 382 pages, published in 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment