Larissa Lyons: Ensnared By Innocence
February 3, 2008
Ensnared By Innocence by Larissa Lyons
From: Ellora’s Cave
“That has no consequence. I only want the appearance of a betrothal for the remainder of the Season.”
“And why is that?”
“My reasons are my own.”
Stubborn chit. He half wished he couldn’t see her so clearly in the candlelit ballroom. Damn but something about her drew him. “If you won’t explain yourself, why should I even consider your ridiculous proposal?”
That willful chin lifted again. “Because I will pay you.”
Props go to Bev(QB) and her review at The Good, The Bad & The Unread for directing my attention to this one.
I almost passed it by thinking Regency and Shifters? Huh? Well boy, was I wrong, in fact this was damn close to the level of enjoyment I get out of reading Samantha Kane. Yes my friends it was that good.
Anyway, the setup is, as I showed you above, our strong independent heroine Lady Francine Montfort is desperate to make sure her meddlesome aunt does not wed her off to some nasty ass Regency Rogue dude. So at a party she sees the No.. no.. notorious! You own the money, you control the witness… Erasmus Hammond, Marquis of Blakely across the room and launches her not so well thought out plan into action. Girls will keep the secrets, so long as boys make the noise…
Um so… I loved this. I mean, it could have been bad with a setup straight out of the Regency For Dummies Handbook, but it ain’t! In fact it’s hot, damn hot, hot enough where you could cook things in it. A little crotch pot cookin. These guys must have had sex in every public place in Regency London. A Ton of sex you might say. They were really in season.
So was there any draw backs to all this? Well, yeah I sorta felt the whole shifter thing was tacked on when maybe it did not need to be. It really only comes into play at the end. And fast… Damn Larissa, were you like trying to end the book (It’s only 100 pages) before I was done reading or what?
Just too fast girl, slow it down when you got characters like this. I had a hard time believing the end because it all came on too fast with far too little explanation really given to Francine. The writer could have paced the end of this book a little better and given them all time. I mean, we meet the brother once and even then there is a sex scene involved. Who was that furry man?
I was like huh? Wow, where did all that come from?
I will be picking up the next Raunchy Regency since this was fun and enjoyable, even with it’s not so great parts. I can’t say that about most of the new Ellora’s Cave books I have read lately.
No..no.. notorious
Yeeeehh! thats why I’ll do it again
Grade B
Tags: Ellora's Cave, Grade B, Larissa Lyons, Ménage à Trois, Regency Romance, Straight, Weresomething Romance
Teddypig - thanks for reading & sharing your quality comments! “too fast girl, slow it down” - point taken. :) Have been working on the second of my Roaring Rogues shifters and not only does Nash (ironically, considering how I completed the first draft before learning of your name) pay sufficient homage to swine, his story is twice as long as his brother’s. Now if I could just stop reading your thought-provoking blog entries and get back to writing…
>^..^< Larissa
Yay! Review by the Pig! Love those. Uh. Why does the cover look like the Serengeti?
Regency shifters having wild willing sex all around the town sounds right up my alley.
that’s one gorgeous cover too! I may be mental but I love the idea of regency shifters and now, sigh, thanks to you, I have yet another book in my burgeoning TBR file.
Lauren Dane’s last blog post..Monday Check In
I have to disagree with you there, Teddy. Erasmus thinks about it throughout the book. That’s how we know that him and Nash wear women out every July-August (or is that Aug-Sept– whichever one is Leo) And why he doesn’t want to marry and have children. Now, how those issues are handled at the end DOES feel a bit rushed, but I think the shifter aspect gave a neat little twist to the standard faux engagement Regency plot.
Read the book, grasshopper, and all will be made clear.
Bev(QB)’s last blog post..Amazon is Scaring Me
Dueling reviewers? Hmmm, could get interesting…
About the cover - I must say the cover artists (combined efforts by Seneca & Les Byerley) stunningly depicted what I asked for, including the sexy sideburns!
>^..^< Larissa
I don’t know Bev,
I was not so convinced this could not have just been a really sexy fun Regency. Sometimes a story catches me and I wonder if it really benefits from paranormal elements because there is so much paranormal out there.
Sometimes I get the feeling the writer could have bowled me over with the same story but kept it simply historical.
I think Larissa strikes me as the type of writer that stodgy prudish Sunday school Regency needs to kick it into another place.
Erotic regency is not something I have seen a lot of or at least not this much fun to read and I think Larissa and Samantha Kane could pull it off if they wanted to.
As far as historical accuracy, and I hate that term myself, but I love the fact these writers bring a balance to the era with the whole underlying sexual hotbed approach that feels more realistic or at least balanced.
Anyway, you know I am just a pig right? I’ve never seen any type of pornography collection from this era owned by some local deviant. Gorgeous stuff from France actually.
Kind words indeed - thank you very much! In fact, I do have a non-paranormal “Raunchy Regency” in the works that I set aside to complete my Roaring Rogues. I intend to get back to it as soon as I can, but your fabulous comments have lit a fire under my bum, indeed!
>^..^< Larissa