Renee's Book Addiction

To Seduce a Sinner (Legend of the Four Soldiers series, book 2) by Elizabeth Hoyt

The excerpt from this book sucked me in so much, that I broke my “must read series in order” rule, and bought the ebook from Fictionwise. (Book 1, To Taste Temptation is waiting for me at the library, which I’ll get when I’m over this cold.)

Here is the book description:

Jasper Renshaw, Viscount Vale, has a problem: he needs to marry and produce an heir to the title. All Jasper wants is to find a lady who will put up with him long enough to wed so he can retreat to his life of debauchery–a life that keeps the haunting memories of his past at bay. Knowing that Jasper is under pressure to marry, Melisande Flemming grasps her fate with both hands and volunteers to wed him.

Although Jasper is initially only interested in producing an heir, he soon becomes entranced by his wife–prim and proper by day, wanton by night–and vows to learn her secrets. Melissande, however, is determined to keep her husband at a distance. She has loved, and lost, before, and will do anything to keep him from learning her terrible weakness: she’s secretly been in love with him for years. But to her chagrin, her husband pursues her, wooing her as if she were a paramour, not his lady wife. As Melissande and Jasper embark on a passionate game of cat and mouse, secrets from the past begin to resurface … threatening to tear them asunder.

Jasper and Mellisande were great. I loved Melisande’s restrained demeanor which belied her years long unrequited love for Jasper. I really felt for Jasper and cheered for him as he worked thru his horrific history.

Awesome quote 1:

And at that moment, he knew he was lost. Lost and blind and going down for the third time without any hope of salvation, and he didn’t give a damn. He would give anything to unravel this woman. He wanted to search out her innermost secrets and bare her soul. And when he knew her secrets, knew what she kept hidden away in her heart, he would guard it and her with his life.

Awesome quote 2:

He prowled toward her, the snuffbox still in his long, bony fingers. His curling mahogany hair was pulled back in a queue that was coming undone; his face was lined and sad, pouches beneath his eyes testament to his sleepless nights. His wide shoulders were covered in a brown and red coat with a stain on the elbow, and his shoes were scuffed. She had never felt so angry at another person and at the same time been aware of how beautiful he was to her.

How perfect in all his imperfections.

Wow.

Elizabeth Hoyt really knows how to write a scene, and get to the heart of the matter. A couple of times (like after I read these two passages), I just had to stop and take it in.

Both Jasper and Melisande are very complex characters. Jasper appears to be a lighthearted man-about-town, always ready with the mot juste or willing to participate in witty repartée. Yet at night, he is still haunted by his war experiences. He even sleeps in his dressing room, on a pallet, with his back to the wall and his pack beside him.

Melisande, is a restrained, unassuming woman, who goes out of her way not to be noticed. Her heart was broken badly in the past, and eventhough she has loved Jasper from afar for years, cannot allow herself to be emotionally vulnerable to him.

Of course, most of the story is about Melisande and Jasper working through these obstacles and allowing the other person to see them for who they really are.

I didn’t feel I missed too much, by reading this, the second in the series, prior to the first book. There was enough backstory included, without feeling like an info dump. There is a mystery pertaining to the massacre and imprisonment that Jasper experienced in the war that was really interesting, and is the big story arc for the series.

This is the second in a series, and I can’t wait for book 3, To Beguile a Beast to come out in May 2009, and To Desire a Devil out November 2009.

• Elizabeth Hoyt’s site.
• To Seduce a Sinner ebook at Fictionwise.
• To Seduce a Sinner excerpt at author’s site.
• Awesome review of To Seduce a Sinner on Rip My Bodice.