Laura Kinsale - The Prince of Midnight

They called him the Prince of Midnight - a legendary highwayman, once dashing and dangerous...now a tarnished, forgotten hero, exiled and alone.
She sought his fabled skills in the ruins of a French castle - a proud and desperate English beauty, drawn to the myth...but bewildered by the man.
Across perilous mountains and tempestuous seas, together they pursued their separate dreams - of vengeance, of passion, a glory reborn...kindling the all-consuming fires of a bold and unexpected love that would set the midnight skies magnificently ablaze.

Comment: I was given this book for my birthday last year. This isn't the first book I had to read by the author, I've previously read Flowers From the Storm, which is an amazing story and one of my favorite romances ever. I has high expectations about another title by mrs Kinsale and how the story would develop...

 

In this story we follow the lives of ST Maitland, an exiled highwayman who left England in disgrace. Looking for him was Leigh Strachan, a young woman masquerading as man, trying to find The Prince du Midnuit, ST's known alias. She wants him to train her in fighting and guns so she can kill the man responsible for the death of her family.

At first ST is wary of Leigh, then lust for her and with time tries his best to help her and be the man she thought she would find. In the way there's lot to happen and ST has to realize what really matters not only to achieve his goal but also to convince Leigh he is the man for her. But nothing is ever easy and Leigh isn't some silly, innocent girl. Can they be happy after everything?

 

Well, this story is certainly different from the other one I've read by the author. I can see her trademark writing but let me tell you, this book has a tone and content that isn't always easy to go through. Not that is badly done, or too awful or hard to read about, but it's certainly different enough from the other title that I found it hard to go through at times. It took me quite a while to read and it's not such a long book, ut I've struggled here and there because I lost focus.

 

I think I can pinpoint my biggest trouble with the heroine. She's just not very likable. At least I couldn't find much to empathize with her, despite all the problems in her life and the unfairness she went through. I do applaud her wish to change things to get revenge and to ask for help, but in general, her attitude and behavior were too clinical and cold to makes feel more tuned to her plight and thoughts. I had a hard time reading through her behavior and although I can understand her need to be cold so she wouldn't get attached and suffer more, her vulnerable side wasn't exploited much and her relationship to ST felt very impersonal. I just couldn't understand where the romance was.

 

In fact, this isn't a very romantic plot. Even while reading the epilogue, where we see what happened to them, I wasn't very convinced of their feelings. Somehow, it seems we are supposed to accept much more easily ST's feelings and vulnerabilities' than Leigh's. This means we root more for him and his success... I just couldn't understand why he would fall in love with her, even when it said so on the page. When she does admit she's in love with him, I didn't believe because it felt so weird... I really didn't like this couple more, I thought ST suffered too much not knowing and feeling miserable and all in all, it felt disjointed.

 

ST is a great character, not perfect, he has many doubts, does very silly things but his heart is pure. He has a reputation from his younger years and now lives isolated, alone in fact, with only a wolf for company. I really felt for him, his problems and hardships, the fears and little things that made his life being so small and lonely... I liked he felt needed and with a goal but the action of him and Leigh traveling and looking for to destroy a man wasn't very thrilling. I feel his character was downplayed and treated badly... in the end, when he is happy at last, it still feels like he was given a favor, so I feel sorry for him and not very happy with his happiness... it's weird.

 

The plot was weird too. I get it, it has a purpose but there's a sort of cult playing people's minds in the story and the content is quite weird. This doesn't give credence to the dangers of brainwashing in cults and how people stop having a personality but I really didn't expect this from the author.

The story didn't have a romantic structure to balance the different things and the feel of weirdness given to the action scenes which, in opposition to the weak romance, didn't really improved the expectations one could have.

The tone of this story is quite dark. Not horror, not bad, but it's like even happiness and good things only came at a price or on the heels of other awful things and to be honest I wasn't very ager to know what would happen.

 

All in all, this did surprise me but not very positively. I think the author's talent and work are there to be seen, there are some interesting passages, but labeling this a romance isn't very correct to me. I mean, I didn't think this is a very romantic story despite the I love yous and the sweetness of one or two gestures and conversations.

I still think this had positive points but it's a very weak grade 7 all things considered.

Grade: 7/10

Laura Kinsale - Flowers From the Storm

He is London's most notorious rakehell - a charming, irresistible seducer possessing a brilliant mind and reckless passions. Until, in the wake of a shocking tragedy, he is condemned to a world of shadows...and madness.
An innocent beauty of modest birth and simple faith, once she feared the dashing nobleman who awakened within her feelings she had never known. Now she has come to free him from his solitary torment - never dreaming her warm, healing touch will eternally bind them together in need, in desire...and in love.

Comment: This was one of my favorite books of last year and the best historical without a doubt. The book is translated into Portuguese but I never paid much attention to what people here said about it. I also never went and read opinions in other places although I always had the idea it had difficult scenes to read.

I got this book as a Christmas gift..from two year ago....shame on me....but I thank my friend Hannah for her wonderful insight and idea lol

This year I've decided to read it as part of the challenge I participated in. It's the read of December, something offered.

The book tells us the story of the Duke of Jervelaux and how dashing and brilliant and a rake he is. One day he has a kind of stroke and his life changes. Before nowadays medicine and diagnostics when people changed like that they were considered mad and so was the duke.

However, Maddie decides to help him because he had been kind to her father, a blind mathematician who shared work with the duke. Maddie realizes the duke isn't mad, he's just changed and tries her best to help him and to make him regain what he is losing...

I liked this book a lot, to be honest and once again I asked myself why it took me so long to get to it...

The story is powerful, intense and makes you glued to its pages until the very last...I had much difficulty to put the book down because of real life demands, I wanted to read the book in my little cocoon and pretend there wasn't an outside world.

I thought the author was very clever in writing this story from the two main character's point of view. I liked seeing what the duke was thinking even in his worst days. It seems she's done quite the research on patients who had the same problem to make her story more plausible.

Interesting also was Maddie and her religious group, Friends. I've never read a book where one of the characters belonged to this religious group and I learned quite a lot.

By mixing the two we see the duke forced to understand his life won't be the same but if he surrounds himself with people who care about him, things will become easier. And Maddie sees the duke is only like that temporarily, she believes in him and has faith his sickness will be over one day.

I liked the romance of it all, the faith and the hope and the miracles that seem to happen. Maddie gives up a lot of her life to help and care for the duke and I loved, absolutely LOVED seeing them together and believed in their developing feelings for each other.

The book starts when the duke and Maddie's father are going to present a paper and we see Maddie isn't very fond of the duke, something that made me even eager to see them happy, I like it when they don't seem to connect at first. Some scenes were very strong, hard to read...to imagine..but I think the author did a good job in making the reader feel empathy towards them and even the harsher moments didn't seem so bad when we consider the HEA in the end.

This was the first book by the author I've tried but I think it won't be the last. I still have in my head after all these weeks, how the duke convinced Maddie she was the one for him and how perfect she is...*sighs*...

I feel like reading it all over again!

I really recommend it to everyone who likes historicals.