The Raven Prince
by Elizabeth Hoyt
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Book Reviews of The Raven Prince
Book Review: Just a really good book
Summary: 4 Stars
Having just finished this book, I feel totally satisfied. Although it is not among my "WOW WOW WOW" 5 star picks, it was super enjoyable and kept me enthralled all day. I would recomend it and here's why.
Anna was perfect; I don't usually like the widows, but her character was likable, understandable, and honest about her feelings (and she did something about them). Edward was great in that he wasn't completley obsessive about his scars and he recognized his attraction to Anna and also did something about it instead of hemming and hawing for the whole book.
I liked how Edward didn't find out what Anna had done until relatively late in the novel because that prevented some stupid reason from keeping them apart for the rest of the novel (something that would have been annoying and clearly a plot device to add more pages). Their problem was legitamate, he was engaged to someone else and Anna didn't want him to marry her out of duty.
Overall this romance moved quickly, kept me interested and was enjoyable. The only thing it lacked was a really strong feeling of love between Anna and Edward. I believed they loved each other, but I didn't feel it until the very end. I am still excited, though, to read the other novels by Hoyt
Book Review: The Shrek of romance novels
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this book because I am a frequenter of AAR and this book made the "Top 100 ever" list. I can plainly see why!
Anna Wren is a woman far beyond the times and goes to work for The Earl of Swarthington as his secretary. She really is a prize of a woman! Fiercely loyal to her deceased husbands mother, compassionate to animals, honest and forthright...kind of!, smart, and sensitive, it doesn't take long for the reader to fall in love with her.
Edward de Raaf is a little tougher.....he is somewhat moody, tempermental, "unattractive"....(but not to Anna), and tortured....all his family died from smallpox and his wife and son died in childbirth. However, by the end the reader is cheering for him wholeheartedly.
I really liked the romance between these two. It starts out slow and then builds until the heat between these two is almost unbearable. The love scenes in this novel are not for the faint or easily offended. I felt at times that this novel rides the lines very closely to erotica. Depending on your taste, this could prove too much.
The dog and the beginning of each chapter...exerpts from the fairy tale "The Raven Prince" are really sweet and make this story all the more endearing. I recommend this book.
Book Review: terrific Georgian romance
Summary: 5 Stars
In 1760 the Earl de Raaf, Edward, returns home for the first time in two decades; he has avoided this place he loved as a child because the deaths of his beloved family members made Ravenhill haunted. Still he knows it is time to move on.
Widow Anna Wren needs employment to support her mother-in-law, their "servant" and herself. She learns from Edward's estate manager Felix Hopple that he needs a new secretary as none stay very long out of fear of his bark. She applies and accepts the job though a female is normally considered unsuited. As she performs her duties exemplary, Anna falls in love with her employer, but he seems not to notice her except as his drudge. Instead he turns to Aphrodite's Grotto for his pleasure; Anna vows to make him take notice that she is a woman in love even if it means meeting him at the brothel he seems to frequent.
THE RAVEN PRINCE is a terrific Georgian romance starring a fascinating heroine who defies the era to bring bread on the table for her and the two females who depend on her. Edward is interesting also as his childhood tragedy still traumatizes his thinking until he falls in love with his secretary. Readers will enjoy their brothel courting.
Harriet Klausner
Book Review: Wonderfully entertaining and original
Summary: 5 Stars
I had perused the back cover of the Raven Prince several times before finally picking it up, and I have to say that I wish I'd given in months ago!
Edward de Raaf, Earl of Swartingham, is in need of a secretary. Anna Wren is in need of a job. Used to getting his way by growling and intimidating people with his smallpox-ravaged face, Edward is impressed and reluctantly admiring of his new secretary's pluck. Anna sees behind the scarred visage to a man she desires very much, and his overly abrupt personality is in no way a deterrent to her. However, knowing that he could never ask Anna for what he truly desires, Edward seeks out Aphrodite's Grotto, a London house of Venus. Little does he know the woman he meets there is none other than his beguiling secretary, who has set her own seduction into motion. After returning home, Edward is dismayed to find that his vastly fulfilling trip to the city has done little to sate his lust for the widow Wren. I won't spoil the rest of the story, because Ms. Hoyt tells it far more beautifully than I could in 300 words.
Do yourself a favor and read this book! It's by far the best I've picked up in the last few months, and will leave you sighing over the emotion and panting over the heat.
Book Review: I didn't like this book.
Summary: 2 Stars
I think the reviews on this book hugely exaggerated. I didn't think it was witty and I didn't like the characters. Mostly, though, I thought the story humdrum and thin.
A poor widow finds employment as a sort of scribe to a wealthy nobleman. He doesn't really notice her and she spends most of the time copying his notes. While spending long hours at her desk in his office, the widow falls in love with the grumpy but rather quiet nobleman. She finds out that every so often he frequents a brothel for sex and decides to masquerade herself and become his one-night partner. This leads to an anonymous sexual encounter. At this point I lost track of what happened next. SOMEHOW they fell in love. I must have missed it. Then he becomes a jerk OR the story becomes unbelievable. One or the other. Because - without spoiling the book to others - the "big misunderstanding" introduced at the end of this rather short book felt like a huge effort on the author's part to give us a forced ACT III. The end was uncomfortably stupid.
Perhaps much better books by superb authors I have recently read and reviewed have ruined this book for me. I thought it was very mediocre, especially the writing. No brilliance here. Not a memorable book.