Society
Author Reviews
Castle Keeper
The Mystic Castle's Highest Honor
The Serpent Prince
Elizabeth Hoyt
ISBN-10: 044640053X
ISBN-13: 978-0446400534
Warner Books, September 2006, 3384 pages
Little Battleford, England 1760
$6.50 US $9.50 Canada
Selected by Teresa
September 2007
While visiting the inhabitants of her town, Lucy Craddock-Hayes stumbles upon the body of a naked and badly beaten man. Assuming that he is dead and feeling a pang of sadness at the way his body is cruelly dumped, Lucy makes arrangements for the body to be taken care of. She soon discovers that the man is indeed alive and he is moved to the home that Lucy shares with her father.
Viscount Simon Iddesleigh awakens to an angel sitting beside his bed, knowing that he is far too sinful for heaven, he realizes that he has survived the brutal attempt on his life. What he doesn't expect is the immediate attraction he feels for the beautiful woman caring for him.
As Simon recovers he and Lucy are inexplicably drawn to each other. Just as things start to heat up between the two, another attempt is made on Simon's life, this time with Lucy in tow. Simon does not want Lucy to get hurt because of him and soon departs.
Simon is a man on a mission; To avenge the death of his brother, by manipulating his murderers into a duel and killing them. That has been his sole purpose since his brother's death and the reason for the threat to his life. He tries to go back to tracking down the culprits, but finds that he cannot forget his angel.
Lucy accepts that although she feels something for Simon, their lives are too different and she goes about her usual routine. Moving on, and endeavoring to move on are two completely different things. When she is faced with making a decision that will affect the rest of her life, a decision that would have been easy to make prior to meeting Simon, she finds that she cannot settle.
I absolutely adored both Simon and Lucy. They were extremely likable, intelligent, and caring people. Underneath his flippant facade, Simon was an extraordinarily complicated man. Although he felt killing those men was justifiable, his guilt would manifest in nightmares. Lucy was a wonderfully understanding and kind heroine and stuck by Simon even though she wasn't pleased with his dueling. Love really does conquer all in THE SERPENT PRINCE. As with each novel in the Prince trilogy there is a story within a story. In this case a fairy tale about a serpent Prince and a beautiful goat herder.
The sexuality in this book should satisfy any reader, explicit and delicious Simon's inability to keep his hands off of his wife was very endearing. There are also some rather gruesome descriptions of death by dueling, so squeamish readers may want to skip through those parts.