Whole other issue. It will take all of Eleanor's strength and courage, plus a magical axe and cleavage not that kind to set them free, and foil the man behind the kidnapping. Edging: Will a mistake about meaning make a mess for Tommy and Vince?
One: She wasn't unhappy Tommy got paid to take her to the eighth grade dance. Two: Her mom made her older brother take her to the dance. The Raven Prince: Sixteen-year-old Mike hopes he can blend in at his new school. Except he's short, slender, goth-looking with the shiny black hair, black eyes and thick lashes, wears an elegant suit and tie, and drives a Mercedes convertible. He's also gay, a raven shifter in a human school and eventually he has to be the Raven Prince.
If Johnny is hurt, will it take the Raven Prince to get justice? Raven justice? Score: 2. But an innocent walk home after an evening with friends changes her life forever. When she intervenes in the senseless beating of a homeless man, his attackers turn on her, dragging her into an alley. Mercifully, she blacks out, but not before catching a glimpse of a shadowy figure who whispers to her.
Cassita vulneratus. When Raven awakes, she is inexplicably changed. Upon returning to the Uffizi, no one recognizes her. With no recollection of her disappearance, Raven learns that her absence coincides with one of the largest robberies in Uffizi history—the theft of a set of priceless Botticelli illustrations.
When the police identify her as their prime suspect, Raven is desperate to clear her name. Their encounter leads Raven to a dark underworld whose inhabitants kill to keep their secrets. Score: 3. A bastard aching to belong. Fate brought them together, now destiny will tear them apart Don't miss this prequel novella to The Raven and the Dove, an avian-inspired fantasy retelling of Tristan and Isolde perfect for fans of Sarah J.
Maas, Sabaa Tahir, and Leigh Bardugo! Taking place the day before book one of the series begins, The Princess and the Pawn follows two of the four main characters—Lyana, the dove princess, and Rafe, the bastard born raven—as they prepare for the upcoming courtship trials, in which the royal heirs of all the avian houses compete for mates.
His wife Julia attended a convent school and wants to pass on her learning to her children. One day the baron orders Willibald and his family to leave his estate. Rudolph is a patron of the arts and sciences, and a lover of magic and alchemy. At 16, Rudy studies at the Prague Technical Institute of the Unnatural Sciences, where he hopes to be certified as a wizard.
A bright and eager student, he is often plagued by fits of bad luck when his spells go awry. While other students manage to summon a spirit, Rudy can only summon a bad smell. Thus, he earns the nickname Rudy the Wizard of Fumbles. Yet Casselli and the Prince have other plans for Notch and the mysterious bracers he bears, sending along an Inquisitor to watch his every move. And before he knows it, the power of the bracers begins to change him Across the sea, Flir finds herself prisoner and servant to the White Witch, where she must protect her friends and keep the witch from finding the bones of the last sea god — yet it is easier said than done.
Some of the techniques listed in The Raven Prince may require a sound knowledge of Hypnosis, users are advised to either leave those sections or must have a basic understanding of the subject before practicing them. DMCA and Copyright : The book is not hosted on our servers, to remove the file please contact the source url.
If you see a Google Drive link instead of source url, means that the file witch you will get after approval is just a summary of original book or the file has been already removed. Loved each and every part of this book. I will definitely recommend this book to romance, historical romance lovers. Your Rating:. Perhaps I'd have been less disappointed if I hadn't pinned so many hopes on Anna, who was smart and sarcastic in the beginning, but sadly I've spent the remaining pages cursing, where did Sigh.
Perhaps I'd have been less disappointed if I hadn't pinned so many hopes on Anna, who was smart and sarcastic in the beginning, but sadly I've spent the remaining pages cursing, where did you go Anna where the fuck did you go would you give me back my heroine! Unfortunately the plot was so long-winded and convoluted when really, Edward and Anna could have prevented my sanity if they, you know, actually did something about their attraction, got it over with and added some much-needed layers to their relationship.
Stop right there with your "it was improper then! I don't have any problem with that, of course, but miss me with the "that's unrealistic! Everything in this book is unrealistic. She might as well have gone all the way.
I realize that I might not be really clear about what bothered me, and I don't want people thinking that I have a problem with an heroine recognizing and acting on her sexual needs. God, no. I am all for women to take pleasure in any way they want. But a romance novel needs tension, sexual and sentimental, in order to work. I loved Edward and Anna's banter in the beginning, and I genuinely thought that I would adore seeing them slowly falling for each other.
I didn't, though. From the time Anna had sex with him in the brothel, everything was about sexual attraction and along the way, Elizabeth Hoyt forgot to make her characters develop a real connection and love each other for who they really were.
The tension wrinkled and my boredom increased exponentially until the end. I just didn't care. I did appreciate the reflection about double standards, but her take on this issue would have been stronger if it hadn't been accompanied by the regular sexism that keeps rotting most romance novels, in sentences like these : "She was a woman, and where her body went, her emotions followed willy-nilly.
The act had somehow bound her to him, whether he knew it or not. Is there something I do not know about the woman body or? I don't know, it just rubs me the wrong way every time, and by the time the heroine says yes - they always say yes, because of course - my exasperation is often unwavering.
And as much as I loved the fact that Edward was scarred and not some perrrrfect man, my excitation towards him fell along with the endless descriptions of his magic dick. Yes, he has one of those. Isn't Anna lucky. Finally, there were several villains??? I think?? But they were so fucking ridiculous that I couldn't take them seriously for one second, and actually Anna never did either. Why bother then?
In one word : disappointing. For more of my reviews, please visit View all 8 comments. I vividly remember how I was blown away by the authenticity and genuineness of the protagonists at that time.
Both MCs are neither astonishingly beautiful nor impeccably perfect. But those two imperfect characters tugged my heart many times when I read the story at the time. And now, let me say that Moira Quirk did one heck of a job narrating this story. The distinction of voices for different characters were just beautifully done. I totally fell in love again with Anna and Edward.
And bonus points for Mr. It was just too funny. I listened to this audio just in two days and I listened 7 hours straight yesterday. So you can see how attractive and compelling this audio was!
The following is the original review that I left years ago when I read the paperback! I read this book in one day so my face was practically glued to it. I discovered this book under an article about the hottest, dirtiest romance novels and the title caught my attention as well as the blurb of this book.
I've always been fascinated by the historical romance novels and it's a bit rare to see nicely-constructed romance novels with equal romance and smut in this era. When I first read a few pages, I was a bit disappointed by how mundane and ordinary the characters seemed to be. But Alas! I was wrong. The story is so pure yet so dirty. It truly makes you hot and bothered but in a very fascinating and interesting way.
And the way the author maneuvered the plots and twists are amazingly brilliant. Literally makes you hot and panting! She does have a gift of enticing and charming her readers while making them wanting and yearning more. View all 38 comments. Feb 22, Jilly rated it liked it Shelves: historical-fiction , cool-dog-bro , romance. It was cute and had some funny moments. The monkey is right. It was fine. Not life-changing or anything, but okay. But, sheesh, talk about unrealistic, "out there", not-in-a-million-years would this happen stuff.
There was a lot of crazy things going on in this story. Even so, I could give it points for never getting boring. Okay, maybe it wasn't THAT crazy, but still. View all 5 comments. This is another incredible historical romance book that I had the pleasure of reading. And I devoured it happily at one sitting.
Anna is a spirited young widow who lives with her mother in law and their orphan poor maid at their humble home. Their financial situation is getting worse. So, Anna decides to get a job. They will not start on the best terms. Because of her, the Earl, Edw This is another incredible historical romance book that I had the pleasure of reading. Because of her, the Earl, Edward fell off his horse. And he never actually wanted a woman as a secretary.
But gradually, he will like Anna and he will start developing feelings for her. Anna will not pay attention to his scarred face and body smallpox scars or his anger management issues and she will really really like him. Unfortunately they can never be together. Edward needs a wife that can produce a heir.
Anna cannot have children. Anna was not happy in her marriage. Besides the fact that they did not have children, her husband was also a cheater. Anna never felt loved and wanted. So, when she learns that Edward will visit soon a brothel that he visits frequently, she decides to be naughty for the first time in her life.
She will wear a mask and wait for him in a dark room. And Edward will have her. For two nights. And then she will disappear and she will become his secretary again. Edward was alone since he was a child.
His siblings and parents died from the smallpox. Later on when he got married, his wife died during childbirth. He has just got engaged again but during his latest visit in the brothel that he frequents he will meet a working girl that will make him crazy.
He will only have two nights with her and then he will be back to the other woman who cannot stop thinking i. When Edward realises that his secretary and the prostitute are the same person, he will not react reasonably. Out of the characters, Anna was definitely the most interesting one. A lovable woman capable of unlimited passion and tenderness. She will not hesitate to stand again the judgemental village, when she looks after a dying prostitute or when she gets a job that only men usually have.
Awesome book! View all 12 comments. Elizabeth Hoyt knows how to tell a story! I loved every enchanting word of this one. In a genre chocked with redundancy, Ms. Hoyt has written a RomanceLandia fairy tale and distinguished it with strong, compelling characters; the fascinating main protagonists, a devoted hound, an insightful mother-in-law, the average villagers, the lowest servants, the devoted friends, and last, but not least, the disgust-worthy villains — they all leap off the page.
She has peppered her first in the Princes Trilogy with witty banter and a moving, well-paced storyline. The sensual scenes? They are a combination of sizzling, combustible heat and aching, heartfelt emotions. View all 34 comments. Apr 20, Princess under cover rated it really liked it Shelves: historical-romance. This might be my 3rd reread of the book since that first time I discovered the author over a decade ago.
Some of the plot is not very believable, a bit too contrived, but the story tugged on my emotions, and that's always a sign of a well-written story. Anna is the perfect mix of ladylike forebearance and patience and wit while also a woman who goes after what she wants. Edward is a great "large, brooding, man's man" trope of a character, rather blunt and hard but with a soft heart and tender feel This might be my 3rd reread of the book since that first time I discovered the author over a decade ago.
Edward is a great "large, brooding, man's man" trope of a character, rather blunt and hard but with a soft heart and tender feelings. The best combo for his stereotype. I liked both of them right off the bat. What prevents this from being 5 stars is the contrived plot bit, and also the fact that the Hero techinically doesn't stray from the heroine, but given that he doesn't know it's her at one point, he definitely does, bc both their emotions had already been engaged by that point and he's purposely trying to deal with it in this way.
Since it IS her, it's not cheating, per se, but still. I know men and women get sexually frustrated and want an outlet, and men tend to do it with a lot more freedom in that time period and in any time period well, maybe not today in developed cultures. This is a romance novel. I'm reading it to escape, not to face aspects of reality I don't particularly like, so in this sense, despite that there's no technical cheating, I didn't like it.
Otherwise, a very good read. And given that I've read pretty much everything EH has written since first discovering this book, it's obvious the issues above did not deter me from this author! What refreshing leads!! Really love both Anna and Edward. Absolutely fabulous - probably one of my all-time favorite romances 5 stars I cannot believe that I have spent so long avoiding Elizabeth Hoyt! I tested whether I had been right in thinking she wasn't the romance author for me when I read Wicked Intentions a week and a half ago I loved that both the hero and heroine didn't really think much of the other at first - Anna thought Edward was ugly, not very thoughtful of others, and grumpy lol, he is that last , while he thought she was plain and a goody-two-shoes widow.
The romance between Anna and Edward is so sweet and they have both been through so much and are so in need of love that you can't help but be completely overjoyed when they finally get their HEA. Anna has always done as she should and felt quite alone since the death of her husband, who did not treat her as she deserved; Edward lost his whole family to smallpox when he was young and is in many ways a very tragic figure at the beginning!
The dialogue between them is fun and witty, their relationship development is strong, and the chemistry between the two of them is fabulous. If anything I think Hoyt's summaries almost do her books a disservice. For this book, the summary makes their relationship out to be a little seedy and the plot twist of Anna going to London to stand-in for the prostitute Edward would sleep with is made to sound I don't know, just all lust-based, when by this point, the reason Anna is upset that he's going to a whorehouse is because she has feelings for him and thinks he may be attracted to her - but won't act on it - and the reason Edward is going to the whorehouse is to try and get his mind off of his lovely secretary whom he knows he can't do anything with.
The secondary characters were an absolute delight! Hopple and his ridiculous clothes, "Jock" the dog was so cute and created some very funny moments in the book, Coral was super interesting and well-written, and I utterly adored Mother Wren - how wonderful that Anna had a mother-in-law who was not evil and actually ended up supporting her and siding with her over her now-dead son.
The only thing I realized later was that the subplot which was very minor and really only takes place during the second half of the book kind of sizzles off. One part is "resolved," if you can call it that, but I still don't know what happened to the letter that was in the locket? Obviously didn't bother me much because I didn't even remember that till later! Bottom Line All in all, an utterly fabulous book - terrific cast of characters, great romance, and several scenes that had me literally laughing out loud, which I realized I hadn't done in some time with an HR.
Cannot wait to read the rest of the series! Lord Iddesleigh was hysterical and I'm especially excited for his story. View all 41 comments. Sep 19, NMmomof4 rated it really liked it Shelves: famous-wealthy-popular , freebie-or-loan , safe , unlikely-couple , disordered-mc , hr , star , friends-to-lovers. I liked the characters and the overall storyline. The fact that we focus on her POV a few times bugged me.
I loved the dog and the valet was hilarious! Widowed Anna is having troubles financially and decides to get a job and finds one being a secretary to the local mysterious and grumpy earl. Edward has lost his family being the sole survivor to a smallpox outbreak when he was younger as well as his wife and baby in childbirth, so he has a lot to be grumpy about.
When Anna discovers that Edward uses a brothel to meet his manly needs, she decides that she needs her womanly needs met too and concocts a plan. There is some side character drama, some hot sexy times, and some sweet moments Overall Pace of Story: Good. I never skimmed and I thought it flowed well. Instalove: No, they take a while to develop stronger feelings. H Hero rating: 4 stars. I liked him. I liked his hard exterior and sweet insides.
I liked her. I appreciated how she pushed against the expected and did what made her happy and what was right. They have some hot tension, chemistry, and scenes -- but not so much it takes away from the story. Hotter than the usual HR! View all 4 comments. But I did scrape by, and am proud of it! Here's the thing about Elizabeth Hoyt - she's really hit and miss. When she's on her game, she hits balls out of the court left and right.
But man, when she's not on her game, the results are - in keeping with the sports metaphors - foul. Most of the members in our buddy read really liked the book, and I did, too.
But it isn't a prime example of Hoyt's works by any means and suffers from some major problems which I'm going to discuss. Anna Wren is a widow who is living in poverty with her mother-in-law, Mother Wren, and a loyal servant named Fanny.
They're running out of money and on the cusp of making the terrible decision that no lady should make: starve in dignity like a lady or work like one of the peons? When he gets back, he admires her work before he learns of her sex again, very luckily , and he decides to keep her on as a lark, and because she makes his naughty bits feel funny.
There's a bit of a Beauty and the Beast element to this book, because the Earl is terribly scarred all over because of small pox.
Anna is attracted to the Earl but her late husband cheated on her, so she doesn't want to jump into anything with another man because she is so damaged emotionally. Anna decides to go to this brothel named Aphrodite's Grotto because she knows that the Earl plans to go there and she wants to sleep with him incognito, by means of a mask.
There's also another sideplot involving blackmail and the woman who cheated with Anna's husband , and the Earl finds out who Anna is and offers her marriage in anger, at first - except he's engaged to another woman so first he has to call that off, and while he is, Anna is contacted by the blackmailer and runs away, and there's drama, but then everyone winds up happy, the end.
There were several reasons I didn't like this book as much as I should have. I don't generally like stories where the characters have sex with each other not knowing who the other is. It feels icky. There was only one book that I didn't mind that trope in, and that was a bodice-ripper; I expect those kinds of shenanigans from bodice rippers.
The way Anna reacted afterwards just felt so convoluted, too. She was very emotionally vulnerable, but that disappeared whenever it was convenient to the plot, so she came across as undeveloped.
Same with the Earl. Sometimes you read about characters who feel fully fleshed out and human, and you feel invested with them. These characters felt like little puppets moving around on a stage. I didn't feel invested in them at all. Another trope this book employs that I don't like is the "I was barren until I ended up with the right man" trope.
I tried to tell myself that maybe Anna wasn't barren, but her husband was - but then I remembered that her husband was cheating on her with another woman, and it's heavily implied got said OW with child. Of course Anna is only able to have children when she ends up with her true love. I did like the fact that Anna wasn't another virginal widow another trope I hate , and her relationship with her mother-in-law was genuinely touching.
All the secondary characters in this book are also excellent, like Hopple and his bumblebee and frog waistcoats, the cranky and mutinous Davis, Cora and Pearl of course , and Mother Wren. They actually stole the show from the main characters, which is a problem. Shelves: desert-island-keepers , historical-romance , read Reviewed for THC Reviews "4.
As I read the first chapter or so of the book, I was reminded of one of my all-time favorite romances, Loretta Chase's Lord of Scoundrels. While The Raven Prince does bear some resemblance to Lord of Scoundrels , it is still very much it's own distinctive story. Much like their counterparts in Lord of Scoundrels , Edward can be rather temperamental and boorish, while Anna is very plucky and unconventional.
They share a few moments of sharp, witty bantering, but I wouldn't have minded seeing them go toe-to-toe a few more times than they did. I can certainly appreciate attractive people, but the ratio of impossibly beautiful characters in romance novels to those found in the real world, is so disproportionately inflated, I can't help getting bored with them sometimes. I have only come across a couple of authors I can think of who have a tendency to write more mature characters, so having Edward and Anna be a little older was a very pleasant change as well.
She was 31, and I initially had the impression that he was nearer 40 until it was revealed late in the story that he was 34, although I had to do the math to figure out his age. Elizabeth Hoyt has a slightly different writing style in that she doesn't seem to reveal all of her character's insecurities, vulnerabilities and motivations right away.
Most authors have a tendency to let the reader in on these things up front, and then the story centers around them making peace with those things and finding healing if the pain is deep. With Edward and Anna, Ms. Hoyt leaves the reader with the sense that there are mysterious things lurking beneath the surface that can't be seen, but she takes her time, revealing them one-by-one when the situation seems ripe for it.
This does give the story a more languid feel which may not work well for readers who prefer a faster pace, but I thought that it was an interesting approach. The story also has a very angsty quality to it, I think, in large part, because of Edward's intensity.
I found a certain beauty to it though, an emotional depth that was somehow different from other stories I've read. Edward and Anna have both suffered emotional pain in their lives, yet both seem to be fairly comfortable in their own skin and not harboring major neuroses. Once again, I thought this was a unique blend which made the characters very complex and multi-dimensional. Edward had his moments of intensity, but I don't think that I would quite classify him as tortured.
He had times of what I would characterize as personal reflection that would sometimes reach an emotional high, but he always came back down rather quickly. Edward was quite temperamental though, having scared away several male secretaries, before hiring Anna.
He could occasionally be prone to throwing things in a fit of anger, but was probably equally likely to express himself with sarcasm. Some people don't want to be around him, not just because of his temper, but also because he is badly scarred from the smallpox, so he always respects anyone who doesn't mind his scars and can hold their own against his boorish behavior.
It becomes readily apparent as the story progresses that Edward's bark is really worse that his bite. I really liked Edward's complexity of thinking, how he fell hard for Anna, but was conflicted both in his feelings for her, especially after he discovered her deception, and his sense of duty to his family line. Watching him try to figure things out and understanding what he was feeling and thinking made him a very interesting character to read.
Another thing that made him quite appealing to me was his combination of erudition and earthiness. He was obviously a very intelligent man, but one who wasn't afraid to go out in his fields and come back covered in muck. Edward also made my geek list because he seemed more comfortable alone or out on the land with his tenants than in social settings, and he was extremely knowledgeable about agriculture, having written a number of scholarly papers on the topic, as well as lecturing at the Agrarian Society.
In fact, he could sometimes get so wrapped up in his work that he would become oblivious to the time and what was happening around him.
I've always loved smart men, but that, in addition to all of his other qualities made him positively irresistible. Anna was a very spirited heroine that I liked very much too. I loved how she was never afraid of Edward's temper, and always handled him quite deftly. She was strong and fairly confident, but the few times she allowed her insecurities to get the best of her, she realized her mistake pretty quickly and came back fighting.
She is also very kind and caring, doing what she must to make sure her elderly mother-in-law and their orphan maid are provided for, and she even takes in an injured prostitute when no one else would have, even though her actions set tongues to wagging. What I think I liked most about Anna and the whole story though, is how she discovers her attraction for Edward, and boldly decides to be naughty just once in her life to get what she think she wants.
She seduces him in disguise at the brothel he frequents, because she simply can't bear the thought of him bedding anyone else. Yet even though she thoroughly enjoys the experience, she is terribly conflicted afterward. She feels a bit of guilt for having deceived Edward, but most of all she realizes that the physical pleasure wasn't all that she truly desired.
I loved that the author brought out these feelings in Anna. It was exactly what I was thinking and feeling at that moment in the story, and I would have been quite disappointed if Anna hadn't felt that way too. Everything worked together to make her a very relatable character for me. There were a number of great secondary characters in The Raven Prince as well.
Edward's estate manager, Felix Hopple, was a hoot with his flamboyant clothes, but we find out later that he is also a rather shy, sweet man. Edward's valet, Davis, is another fun character. He's a feisty old man who rarely works and constantly goads Edward into threatening to fire him.
Their interactions were quite amusing. I also enjoyed Edward's initially nameless dog, and the little rabbit trail of Anna trying to help him think of a suitable name. Anna's mother-in-law is a sweet old lady who is always very supportive of her. I also liked Pearl, the prostitute Anna rescued, and her sister Coral. They became the catalyst for and the confidantes of her naughty exploits. There are a couple of ne'er-do-well characters who try to stir up a bit of trouble for Edward and Anna after they discover what Anna did.
Last but not least there were Edward's two friends, Harry and Simon, who become the heroes of the next two books in the series, The Leopard Prince and The Serpent Prince respectively. There were a couple of other elements of The Raven Prince that I particularly savored. Each chapter begins with a snippet of a fairy tale with the same title, which Anna had found in Edward's library. I'm sorry to say that I'm not up on my Greek mythology, but I discovered through other reviewers that this is apparently a re-telling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche.
I liked it every bit as much as the main novel and found myself eagerly waiting to get to the next chapter to discover what would happen next in that story too. Hoyt also has a talent for writing deeply sensuous love scenes that are like a sweet treat for the imagination.
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