Header PromotionBy Royal Demand by Robyn Donald (HP 2559)
Back Cover:
For Gabe Considine, Grand Duke of Illyria and a ruthless billionaire businessman, it's payback time! He believes his ex-fiancée, Sara Milton, stole a priceless family heirloom and betrayed him with another man. Now Gabe wants his pride -- and his property -- returned!
He'll lure Sara to his remote castle -- and keep her there until she gives him everything he wants, even if he has to seduce her into submission.…
Spoiler Warning: All my reviews contain spoilers to some degree
Rant Warning: I ranted a bit on this one. It touched a personal beef of mine about double standards.
Favourite Scene: (I like how he kisses her injured palm)
The chafed area where the reins had sawed into her palm stood out red, he said something under his breath.
Sara froze listening to her heartbeat pick up speed.
The tips of Gabe's lean fingers touched the fragile blue veins at her wrist measuring that betraying pulse. He looked up sharply his eyes fiercely gleaming and tension crackled in the air between them so potent it drowned out the frantic urging of her brain to get the hell out of there.
As though compelled he lifted her hand and kissed the palm his lips lingering draining the soreness from the skin setting fire to the reckless craving she tried so hard to keep secret.
Another Fav Scene: (Tender, I like that. But grrr, he needs to make up for that horrible year. He's to blame in my less-than-forgiving eyes, I know I'm biased here.)
He bent and kissed her a light even tentative touch on her lips so keenly sweet that she shivered beneath it.
'Not tears ' he muttered in a thick impeded voice. 'Don't cry my darling, my dear heart, my treasure. I can't give you back this last year but I swear that from now on I'll make sure you never have cause to cry-' He groaned and sank down beside her and kissed her again and this time it wasn't light or tentative at all.
My Review:
The hero and heroine were engaged a year ago, but then two things happened within 24 hours: the heroine stayed over at another man's apartment (looked compromising) and the heroine supposedly "stole" a priceless family necklace of the hero's. The hero dumped her and destroyed her career. Now the hero has manipulated her into his remote home, so he can bully her into revealing where she's hidden the necklace. She's innocent, but it's a good mystery that keeps you guessing as to who actually stole it and why.
There was a great moment where the hero had to leave for a few days and gave her a passionate kiss goodbye, as if he would miss her.
Here's a SPOILER:
It turns out that the necklace's theft was a test of the hero's love for the heroine...
Here's my RANT about the spoiler: he was tested and he failed... and really, I just wanted to say "he didn't deserve her". Sure circumstances were shitty and looked bad, but his excuse was "I didn't want to love you so I let myself believe the worst"... well she didn't want to love him and be vulnerable to him either, but she did it, and she put up with all his crap, she went through pain, and loved him anyway and took him back after he spent a year hurting her career and hurting her emotionally. She told him she was innocent, she was an open book with him, it was entirely his failure of this "test" that screwed their relationship.
It wasn't her fault at all, and it would have been better if there was something she had done as well, some pride of hers that had made her partly responsible too, because it felt unfair to me. I understand Marya's intent was for the hero to prove his love and have a strong marriage based on love and trust, but she had no right to do it, and if she'd been a man who had lied to the hero and caused him to lose his heroine, the hero would have punched her.
Once he finds out she was innocent, he wants her to be his wife, again. But really, I hate it when a hero only takes a heroine back once she's been vindicated by third parties. I want the hero to take the heroine back because he has faith in her and trusts in her intrinsically despite circumstances. I mean, wasn't that the whole point of the original test which the hero failed? He was supposed to prove he had faith in her no matter what, and he did not then and he does not now. Personally I'm really bugged by the unfairness of this.
One other thing: there seemed to be a dangling plot line that didn't get finished... the heroine had a pregnancy scare and a dream where she woke up yelling "Get the baby!" .. I was waiting for this dream to mean something, to be explained. Maybe I missed something?
My Rating: 3/5 stars, I enjoyed the story right up until the hero made no sacrifices or leaps in trust at all. He never took any risks in believing her, he was only with her when she was vindicated. Grr. I'd have been more forgiving if he'd at least mourned their relationship more and found her hard to get over and not moved on to other women (after all: he gets the satisfaction of knowing the heroine didn't move on, how is it fair that she has to take him back after his lack of trust in her and knowing he'd been able to move on, that it hadn't affected him as it had her?)
I hope I gave fair warning
I hope I gave fair warning that this just touched a sore spot for me... because I totally went off on a rant for the majority of this review...
Hope no one minds too much. And if RD ever popped by: don't take offense, I read six of your books in the last two weeks. RD is someone who has a style I just really like: every scene comes out sensual and I feel like I've been navigated through an emotional roller coaster.
Anyhoo.... tonight I tried to make a dent in my backlog of July reviews... only got 14 or so done though. Eeek it takes forever to clean up the notes I wrote while I read each book, and make it understandable! I've got 40 more to go.
Thanks for this review!
Thanks for this review! These are hot button issues for me too and I love Robyn Donald so that sucks... Have you noticed issues in general with her current (imaginary royalty) books vs. her old school ones? I haven't read anything new by her but love her old stuff...I'm not a fan of imaginary royalty in general so I'm not sure what to do.
Elly... gosh I was thinking
Elly... gosh I was thinking the EXACT same thing, but I didn't know where or if I should bring it up... lol. I would like to see more non-royals from RD, because my personal preference is non-royals. I don't often read military/royal/sheikh stories unless there's something special to draw me in. In this case, I figured I'd turn to the royal RD books because I know RD books are good and my TBR feels a little lacking at the moment. (I do have some other OLD OLD RD books in TBR, but I saw one with horrifying adultery and jumped a mile away from it)
Personally, I'm not a MRS girl. Military, Royal, or Sheikh. They just aren't lifestyles that I find romantic. I was talking about MRS in another thread last month, and I think I decided that what turned me off the lifestyle was that no matter what, the hero's first duty was to a higher power and not his heroine. The M/R/S always has to be "restrained" in their passions and relationships and it never seems like you can get overwhelmed and whisked away with the story. If the M/R/S does decide to put a relationship first, that means they have to abdicate their responsibilities, which just doesn't seem in character because the whole book up to that point was proof for what a good leader the M/R/S made.
About Robyn Donald's royal books... I looked this up, and her last non-royal books was in 2004. She's had I think five or six books since then that were all royal. More often than not these days her books are royal stories. Personally I too miss her non-royal books because she's one of the author's who's style STANDS OUT for me. RD's style... in every page of one of her books, there is sensuality in even the non-sexual. She just makes life about the senses. There are some authors that tell stories as if they are regular fiction interspersed with moments of sexuality/passion. I don't feel like there's an interruption or on-off switch in an RD book, the sensuality and emotions kind of flow constantly.
FYI: look how horrible I
FYI: look how horrible I am. You make a three line post, i reply with a three paragraph one. I have no control over my ranting chatty ways.
I can't stop L, LOL
Janet:
I give it to you to come up with your last entry 'FYI'. LOL
I read this story too, I believe there were 2 others independent story about the brother & sister of the Duke, can't remember the titles. There were some explanations in the other 2 to some questionable incidents of this one. (Am I making any sense?)
I agree with you regarding the double-standard thing. But this time, I don't quite remember the details to give an honest 2 cents of this story. I only remember that this alpha male was 'not likable'.
Orchid
Orchid
Orchid, I won't ever expect
Orchid, I won't ever expect anyone to reply to every point I make in my response to them, because they'd never have a fun or easy time finding my points in the hay stack known as rant.
I read this story too, I believe there were 2 others independent story about the brother & sister of the Duke, can't remember the titles. There were some explanations in the other 2 to some questionable incidents of this one. (Am I making any sense?)
Yes ma'am. And I reviewed the sister's story over here yesterday: http://community.eharlequin.com/review/rich-mans-royal-mistress-robyn-donald-hp-2575
I can say... that there is a HUGE difference in the two heroes. HUGE. Gabe takes his heroine only when she's vindicated and refuses to explain his rejection of her and talk things out maturely. Hawke is completely mature emotionally and thinks his heroine is important enough to be worth explaining things and trying to find common ground so they can hang onto their relationship.
It's like Gabe's story stroked my buttons in a bad way that made me angry.... while Hawke's story hit me in such a positive emotionally mature and satisfying way. (there you go, you get your three paragraph answer)
I only remember that this alpha male was 'not likable'.
Exactly what I thought. Alpha male who doesn't make sacrifices, who doesn't take risks for his love, who asks for everything and gives nothing away of himself, who angrily asks if she slept with anyone since him but has other lovers himself, and punishes her "infidelity" while it's really his lack of trust to blame.... *gets incredibly frustrated and wants to give a good slap*
Orchid... and hey, I forgot
Orchid... and hey, I forgot for a sec that you're familiar with my ranting about plot points that rubbed me all kinds of wrong! Remember "The King's Convenient Bride" by Michelle Celmer? I gave that 3 or 3.5 and I still bitched non-stop about how it touched a sore spot.
Someone really needs to take a tranq dart to me when I start ranting. It's usually best for me to go read a book by one of my "safe authors" to distract myself. (Safe authors being people like Carole Mortimer who are high-fidelity, low-angst, non-ick. Or Michelle Reid who is high-fidelity, high-passion, high-angst but because there's fidelity the drama and pain are forgiveable and can be overcome happily. Some authors never hit my ick factors, and I just keep going back to them when I need a happy read to keep me from bitching!)
Chatty or Ranting ... :)
Well, I like to
rantchat too.Even my favourite authors would create a ‘not likable’ h or H once a while.
I cannot stand self-pity, selfishness, vindictive in the h’s character. For the H, fidelity (after they met), cruelty or hatred. I don’t like those who’s been around the block (many times) either, even before h & H met, but tolerable.
So after reading a few HP, I have to pick up a Betty Neels’ or a sweet HR just to balance those ‘alpha-ness’.
Orchid
Orchid
I agree completely with the
I agree completely with the H and h things that you said you disliked. Same here. (Seriously, the sexual histories of some of the HP heroes are scary... scream "stds" to me sometimes)
I don't turn to an HR or sweet book too often... though I have tried a few HRs this month. That was more because the plot appealed to me though, I wasn't trying to escape the angst of an HP.
When I need to get out of the angst cycle of some HPs... I either go to a safe author or I go to a paranormal romance.
My main problem is that I hate infidelity and angst over the other lovers, because it causes pain to the heroine and it's hypocritical of the hero to punish her for one lover while it's implied he's got lovers nearing the triple digit point.
I find that the paranormal romances I read have a "destined mates" kind of passion that is UNIQUE and once they set eyes on each other, there's no one else. There's also no angst or hypocrisy about who's been have what lovers, so it's like a clean slate.
Paranormal
I usually read the HP, HR & the Medical. I tried Intrigue a few times, okay reading to me, somewhat predictable.
Did I mention I got turn off very rough sex disguise as passionate?
Non-stop bickering on the borderline of hating each other is not fun either, but not a killer.
Haven't tried paranormal yet. Maybe read one on-line read. Not sure if that's my taste, maybe I should try one, what would you recommend? I read some kung-fu & mysteries, but those are in another language, romance also.
Orchid
I usually read the HP, HR &
I usually read the HP, HR & the Medical. I tried Intrigue a few times, okay reading to me, somewhat predictable.
I usually read HP and SDs. Then the next highest amount of books is paranormals by specific fav authors of mine: Nina Bangs, Angela Knight, JR Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon. I used to read HBs but lately not finding any really compelling unless they are friends-to-lovers, HRs occasionally but they aren't quite sensual enough.
Did I mention I got turn off very rough sex disguise as passionate?
*blushes* Well then....
If you read my review of "Shattered Dreams" by Sally Wentworth, you would see my breakdown of "what's a turn off, what's not" for me. I like rough passion, but I don't like it when it's humiliating, hurtful, or uses actual violence. There's a big difference between angry violence and all-consuming passion for me. Personal taste though! And really.... I do know that small acts of violence begets greater acts of violence so it may be an indication of a greater loss of control. Very sensitive issue. So I understand it's worrisome.
Non-stop bickering on the borderline of hating each other is not fun either, but not a killer.
I'm a lover of the "taming of the shrew" plotline... I don't like an utterly ridiculous shrew. But nothing beats an intelligent heroine who won't take crap and speaks up for herself. I love to see the H/h battling it out verbally, bantering, parrying with each other. To me it's a sign that they are equals.
Haven't tried paranormal yet. Maybe read one on-line read. Not sure if that's my taste, maybe I should try one, what would you recommend?
Ix-nay on the kung fu.... so not my thing.
Paranormal romance.... hmmmm. I don't know what I can recommend to you that doesn't have roughly passionate sex. I mean... my fav stories are vampire stories. With blood lust. The whole point is to get the blood lust and sexual tension driven to a point where there is loss of control. But then again, in the paranormal romance I have reviewed this year and recommended, the heroes are intensely protective of their mates and would never harm a hair on their head. And they may be "possessive" but they aren't jealous and I haven't seen one yet "punish" a heroine about another man (which has been the problem with alphas in HPs).
I'm not sure if you'd like the same paranormals I do, so I don't know what else to say atm. Maybe check out the "Paranormal Romance Recommendation" thread and tell people the kind of stories you like, and people will suggest things? That's why I started the thread and people told me about dozens of authors and I asked questions and narrowed down a few authors I wanted to try.
http://community.eharlequin.com/content/looking-paranormal-romance-recommendations
Just got back
Janet,
I went to that book review you mentioned, very interesting review.
I left my 2 cents there, please check.
Orchid
Orchid