Review: THE PRINCESS IN HIS BED by Lila DiPasqua
The author of the "luscious, sexy" (New York Times bestselling author Cheryl Holt) Awakened by a Kiss returns with a new collection of erotic fairy tales that would make even the Grimm Brothers blush, inspired by "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Ugly Duckling," and "The Princess and the Pea."
The Marquis' New Clothes: To search his wardrobe for a missing ring, Aimee will have to get very close to the seductive Marquis de Nattes, and soon finds that his clothes-and hers-are utterly forgotten...
The Lovely Duckling: Joseph d'Alumbert will stop at nothing to peel away the inhibitions of Emilie de Sarron and reveal the beautiful swan inside...
The Princess and the Diamonds: Princess Gabrielle can't sleep. There is something hard in her bed. Not just the stolen diamonds tucked under her mattress- but the handsome marquis on it.
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Historical Romance
Single Title/Series: THE PRINCESS IN HIS BED is book two in the Fiery Tales Collection but can easily be read as a stand alone.
Cover Thoughts: I'm absolutely IN LOVE with this cover. The close up on the couple kissing just has me enraptured and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that DiPasqua's covers continue to emulate this beautiful pose and theme for future releases.
Why I Read It: I received an Advanced Review Copy from the author.
My Review:
Novella #1: THE MARQUIS' NEW CLOTHES
Aimee de Miran has the worst luck with her misguided heart's attraction to gorgeous but disreputable men. Her husband, a man whom she foolishly gave everything to, heart and body, scandalously died in a duel over his paramour. While her heart may be mended, Aimee's now armed to the teeth with new defenses against the male sex most especially on guard against the sinfully scrumptious but renowned rake, the Marquis de Nattes. But when her love-tormented cousin, Louise, hopes to make her ex-lover pay for his dismissal, she unwittingly succeeds in forcing Aimee into the Marquis' dastardly company or else risk a life-long incarceration.
Adam de Vey has hungered for Aimee for six long tortured years. Once enduring his deceased friend's blatant descriptions of his wife, Adam never could understand the man's desire to seek the warmth of another's bed when he possessed the delectable Aimee. While it's now more a case of
when rather than
if Adam will pursue Aimee, he's yet to sense that the time is right. In the meantime, he's kept a steady ear to the gossips for her state and direction as well as making himself available at any event she attends despite her continued and obvious attempts at ignoring him. But while re-designing the King's fountains at the Palace, a strange turn of events has Adam watching in wide-eyed shock as his Aimee waltzes straight up to him looking more than ready for the lustful affair that's haunted his fantasies for years.
The last person Aimee wants to get close to is Adam. Knowing that she's ensnared his attention only makes him more dangerous and Aimee once did her best to ignore him and the unwanted lust he annoyingly inspires within her traitorous body. He's a womanizer, a disreputable rake that uses women then discards them. He's everything that reminds Aimee of her deceased husband. Unfortunately, the man unknowingly has in his possession Louise's ex-lover's ring in the pocket of one of his justacorps. To retrieve it, Aimee must get very, very close to Adam. Using his need to her advantage, Aimee gambles with her untried seduction skills but ends up the seduced rather than the seducer. Now, with the ring still missing and love taking root deep within her soul, Aimee starts to feel guilt over her original deceitful intentions. If Adam were to ever discover the real reason why she first walked into his arms, the fact that she's in love him now may be met with complete and utter disbelief.
My Thoughts:
THE MARQUIS' NEW CLOTHES is the perfect appetizer in this three course meal cooked up by the lovely Lila DiPasqua. Tormented love from afar, especially from the hero's perspective, is a particularly favorite plot device of this reader, one that sadly is sparsely used in today's romance world. Why is that? Perhaps that is a question for the cosmos... In any event, this novella is quite the delight.
Adam's engrossing interest with Aimee is immediately endearing, however, his emotional reaction is a tad redundant. Why is that historical heroes always act as though they're eternally immune to love? Oh well, it is fun to watch them fall much to their amusing shock - amusement on the reader's end that is. And while Aimee is the previously injured party where love is concerned, there is much that she offers to Adam simply naturally. She catches him completely off guard, shining light on what he's unknowingly lacked for so long in his relationships and that's friendship and the reciprocating need to care for another.
B
My Review:
Novella #2: THE LOVELY DUCKLING
After spending ten years in self-imposed exile, Emilie de Sarron seizes the chance to experience passion since sadly, marriage will truly never be an option for her. Horribly scarred as an infant in the fire that killed her parents, Emilie has withstood the ostracizing for years before one evening the taunts and ridicule finally forced her into shunning all society. One man in particular stands at the forefront of her nightmares and that's Joseph d'Alumbert. Emilie lives for nothing, well in addition to her carnal cravings, but to give Joseph the cut direct and she's determined conquer both objectives at her decadent aunt's Masquerade party where anonymous sex is the soup du jour.
Joseph has been haunted by his memories of Emilie for ten years. Her pained face resulting from his cruel laughter is forever at the forefront of his conscience. After glimpsing Emilie at random a year ago, her developed beauty astounded him thus reigniting his guilt for aiding in her decision to remain in hiding. Wanting to rectify the past in some way but fearful that she'll reject any and all contact, Joseph writes to Emilie but signs his letters as his twin brother Vincent. For the last year, the two have corresponded planting the seed of a deep friendship. When Emilie reveals her intentions to attend her aunt's party, Joseph is furious both with himself and Emilie. For one, she thinks he's Vincent and the thought of her seeking out his twin leaves him with an irrational desire to brutalize his brother. And two, Joseph can't stand the idea of Emilie looking for passion in a man's arms that isn't him! Although, he'd rather not think too deeply as to why...
Emboldened by her arrival at the Masquerade and her decision to finally experience the passion she's dreamed about, Emilie immediately seeks out Vincent finding him to be as beautiful as she imagined although there's a distinct niggling at her conscience that he's Joseph. Shaking away the thought as her inability to tell the two apart, Emilie implores Vincent to find her a suitable lover. However, her request is met with his determination to convince her to leave the party! She's even more shocked when her resistance has Vincent declaring that he'll be her lover for the remainder of her stay.
Unable to share Emilie with a single soul, Joseph falls headfirst into a passionate affair where one night with his beautiful swan will never be enough. Gently he strips away the layers of Emilie's guarded protection revealing the smooth and glorious beauty that lies beneath. But as each layer is peeled away, Joseph despairs of her finding out the truth of his identity and the surety that he'll succeed once again at breaking her heart.
My Thoughts:
Oh how this reader wishes that THE LOVELY DUCKLING was a full length novel!! The disfigured hero is not an altogether uncommon plot device but the disfigured heroine is most uncommon and DiPasqua now has me searching for more romances that enable this heart-pulling theme.
While the redundancy of the hero feeling himself impervious to love can be too tired, too boring, DiPasqua leaps to whole new stratosphere of talent with her guilt-torn hero and the emotional turmoil he experiences during his fall for his heroine. Joseph is wonderfully tortured and his despair and guilt for his past actions against Emilie plummets the reader down into love with both him and his plight. Emilie is equally endearing with her compelling dichotomy of being both innocent and vivacious explorer. While she suffered greatly at the cruel expense of others, she's wonderfully unburdened by a deep-seeded anger. Rather she's spunky with a bold tongue and intelligence that leaves Joseph drop-jawed and burning with lust. Emilie is a woman that Joseph has never met before. She befuddles him while simultaneously lightening his soul and swiftly making his heart beat for no one but her.
A
My Review:
Novella #3: THE PRINCESS AND THE DIAMONDS
Princess Gabrielle trusts only three people in her life: her two ladies in waiting and her half brother. Left utterly alone and unguarded after the death of her mother and the subsequent removal of her younger brother from the Palace, Gabrielle was left to defend herself from the cruelties and political intrigues of court life. To survive, Gabrielle developed strong defense mechanisms that led to an emotional barrier fortified against the actions of others. Even her beloved two ladies in waiting are kept at arm's length. Yet no matter the emotional distance, Gabrielle would die for any of them so when her half brother finds himself in a world of debt while playing Basset, Gabrielle makes arrangements to win back his money with the help of the King's diamonds.
Haunted by his friend's suicide after loosing all that he owns to Basset, Mathias, Marquis de Montfort, has agreed to help the King enforce his ban of the game that has succeeded in ruining so many lives. Pledging to work to reveal the names of the masked Basset players that disregard the King's law, Mathias thrusts himself back into the game that he so thoroughly abhors. But when a slender "youth" sits beside him at the table and tosses out diamonds as his gambling funds, Mathias experiences a disturbing sexual awareness for the boy. On closer inspection and much to his relief, Mathias discerns that youth is not a boy at all but an unusually tall woman. Suddenly overtaken by an ill-timed desire to know everything about this intriguing woman, what motivates her, why she's disguised as a boy and most importantly her name, Mathias follows her home and promptly proceeds to burst into her life.
Never has Gabrielle been so unsettled whilst playing Basset, a game she knows expertly well. Instead, the gorgeous man beside her weighted his focused regard heavily upon her person, destroying her confidence and causing her to loose two of the King's diamonds. Helplessly, Gabrielle is assailed by both irritation and lust. Willing to do anything to recoup the diamonds that she lost to Mathias, Gabrielle grants him use of her body as an exchange but by dawn she awakens to find that she's forfeited her heart.
My Thoughts:
THE PRINCESS AND THE DIAMONDS is a fun, entertaining novella with a passionate hero and guarded heroine. While as wonderfully written as the previous two, it lacked a certain believability in the love department. A novella by nature constricts the time frame with which the two protagonists have to fall in love. In this reader's experience, when there is already a love connection on one or both character's part, the novella flows much more favorably.
That being said, this novella is still a wonderful addition to the collection. I particularly enjoyed the fact that both Mathias and Gabrielle were doing all that they could to help someone they care deeply about. Even in Mathias's case, while his friend is deceased, he's still working to help make sure that no one has to suffer the same pain. It shows the genuine love these two characters are capable of making there love for each not too far out of the ordinary.
B
My Final Thoughts:
For romance readers looking for more of an erotic bite to their historical fare, look no further than this three course feast served up by the talented Lila DiPasqua. Truly, the novella has never been written so well this many times over. The woman has a gift I tell you! Each one is a scrumptious delight that leaves you salivating for more. And I can't wait for August 2011 and the full length novel dish of romance soon to be served up by this remarkable author who has just landed herself as one of my favorite historical romance writers. Enjoy!
Overall Grade: B+
More Reviews:
The Romance Dish: 5/5
C+ Review:
