6th: Gentle Rogue
It seems almost weird for the same author to occupy more positions in a top, but a good plot is a good plots. Compared to her previous books, Johanna Lindsey`s previous books that made it in this top, this time we have a more bulky one and it might make you feel like you`re going to barely drag your feet along.
However the story has potential. We`ve seen gentlemen and ladies, barbaric lords of strongholds and royal affairs. It`s time for something different, but this time we`re not going to go on land. On an apparently total different topic, we all know, instinctually, that a good first impression is the most important into a relationship of any type. Why exactly? The next book will show us.
Up for a Sea Voyage?
We`re dealing with Georgiana Anderson, the only daughter of a quite successful sea merchant family. Now when we`re talking only daughters in romance books, there will be naturally overprotective brothers that she will try to bypass in order to achieve what she believes is the love story of her life. So she packs up her bags and sails to America in search for love. However, when she confronts her long lost fiancé, she gets the cold bucket of reality thrown into her face.
What`s left to do when you`re humiliated and your dreams crush, than run home and wish to never have anything to do with the cause of this unfortunate event? Now on her way home, she disguises herself as a young boy and embarks on captain James Mallory`s ship, as his personal helper.
What`s really unfortunate for her, but amusing for us, is that her new boss proves to be the man she had hit the night previous to the ship`s departure.
Put yourself in her shoes for a brief moment and think, wouldn`t you have liked to have made a whole better impression on the man who turned out to be your boss the second day after you had bruised him?
Are You Ready to Sail?
The book might seem not so interesting at first but haven`t we all had, at some point, a pirate fantasy? The female character doesn`t offer us too much. She has had a bad day, she`s not in the mood to entertain us or her obnoxious boss. However, it`s not her we`re going to focus on, but our captain, who is not a pirate, true, but his behavior is not far from one`s either.
He plays a seductive game of cat and mouse, and there`s no doubt who the weak link is. You`ll see romance and passion, a pinch of mystery – although not so much, but one thing this book simply doesn`t lack is amusement. We don`t like to admit to ourselves, but we enjoy reading about people who just fall out of the pan straight into the fire, over and over.
5th: Scandalous Desires
We have previously seen a ship captain that might or might have not teased our imagination a little. It`s probably time to jump on the other side of the fence and meet up with a real pirate. Breaking the strike of the previous author, Elizabeth Hoyt is a writer that some might enjoy more than others.
She really likes to do a more detailed representation of the facts than others have done before her. She has a talent of picking certain situations and then embedding more and more elements.
A Deal With the Sea Devil
Since not all good things come in small packages, here we have another book that`s part of a miniseries, but in this case it`s good to know what happened previously. The main characters won`t be suffering from love at first sight this time.
Silence Hollingbrook used to be married to a sailor who, when all the cargo of his ship went missing, was made escape goat. Who better to fix this situation than his loving wife?
She goes and makes a deal with the man responsible for the deed: if she can spend the night with him, he will return all the stolen goods. Since romance books don`t promote infidelity, you can probably imagine that what happened in that room that night, isn`t anything we`d be interesting to read about. However it`s obvious what effect it had on her marriage.
With this background established, we move on to our real story. Having become a widow, Silence dedicates herself to an abandoned child that miraculously showed up at her doorstep the moment she needed it the most.
But when her adoptive daughter is taken from her, she knows exactly just who is responsible for all the troubles in her life and this time she`s more determined to fight her fate.
Pros and Cons
If you`re looking to read something more spiced up, then this author is one of the best choices you could make. This story might seem a bit simple but she knew how to inspire life into it. Her pirate is arrogant, but hiding a soft side, rich, but also generous and devilishly handsome, haunted by a bitter past that will melt our hearts.
Hoyt links all the stories together – this might be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on whether you are willing to read them as a whole or just this one. What you might dislike is that the ending might seem a bit far-fetched and unrealistic but sometimes it`s not the end that`s important, but the journey.
4th: Prisoner of my Desire
Now here`s a book that will make you devour it. You`ll start and consider it just like any normal story, but you`ll find it really hard to put it down. What you`ll have right under your eyes is a 12th century version of the famous 50 Shades of Gray.
It`s more mild, but given the time period it`s almost barbaric. In case that didn`t pick your interest enough, I’ll throw in another teaser. You probably consider that men cannot be forced into intercourse, but if you read this book, you`ll find out a different story.
Plot
From the start we`re going to know who`s the good guy and who`s the villain, but that`s alright since the book doesn`t focus on the epic boring battle between those two forces. The narrator throws in Rowena Belleme and her malefic brother Gilbert. We`re centuries before our age so you can imagine what rights women had – none.
The evil brother forces his sister to marry a decrepit old man – but don`t worry that you`ll be reading something sick, since the groom conveniently dies before he gets to know his young bride better.
Now the problem is that her brother wants to keep the fortune earned from this marriage so the girl has to prove that her marriage happened. Since she cannot rely on her rightful husband anymore, she will be helped – unwillingly, by Warrick, a man who should`ve thought twice before walking alone outside shady pubs.
Tempting Enough Yet?
When you read this, please do not expect a mini spin off of 50 Shades series, because it’s not. Johanna Lindsey gives us yet another book that doesn`t give you the time to get bored of it.
She won`t bore us with details and cuts straight into the subject. Both the characters have their own ways to entertain you. On one side we have a strong warrior and leader easily taken advantage of by a feebly and frail girl. You can imagine what his revenge will look like. We have action, we have amusement and we have love. This is one book you should not pass.