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The Leopard Prince
written by Elizabeth Hoyt
Studio : Forever
by Forever
Publisher : Forever
Released : 2007-04-01
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780446618489
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 42 reviews)
List Price : $6.99
Our Price : $3.26
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Product Description |
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Wealthy Lady Georgina Maitland doesn't want a husband, though she could use a good steward to run her estates. One look at Harry Pye, and Georgina knows she's not just dealing with a servant, but a man. Harry has known many aristocrats-including one particular nobleman who is his sworn enemy. But Harry has never met a beautiful lady so independent, uninhibited, and eager to be in his arms. Still, it's impossible to conduct a discreet liaison when poisoned sheep, murdered villagers, and an enraged magistrate have the county in an uproar. |
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Dreamboat Harry |
Men with green eyes will do it for me every time! Harry Pye--I'll take slice, thank you very much! Aghhh, did I just say that?? Hmmm....his name takes some getting used to!?
The heroine was a darling too, just slightly eccentric and so enamored of Harry that she was ready to cross some major societal boundaries to get to him. I loved the repeated handling of the whittled figurines over the mantle. Touching each one of them, then placing them in paired up arrangements--don't tell me that wasn't Freudian!
I relished the authors romantic/sensual delivery; seemed fresh and new; not re-hashed, been-there-done-that routine! It's pretty yummy stuff really.
I also thought that this was more of a 'hero' driven story. We spend more time in Harry's pate then George's(that's our girl)and its mainly because he's trying to figure out what she just said. His thoughts when she'd ask something to the effect 'what are you thinking?" He'd shudder, or say 'rats', there was no trying to glaze him with sugar, he does think like man.
Elizabeth Hoyt is a wonderful writer and definitely worth the read. |
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so glad that the hero is an alpha, the very best kind |
I was reluctant to read THE LEOPARD PRINCE. I tend to avoid romance novels about poor and low-ranked heroes who fall in love with wealthy and aristocratic heroines. I like my men alpha, and it's hard for a man to be alpha when the woman he loves has all the advantages. Even worse, I thought, when the hero is actually in the heroine's employ.
Luckily, THE RAVEN PRINCE gave me some faith in Elizabeth Hoyt and I'm grateful because THE LEOPARD PRINCE is a wonderful book and its hero, Harry Pye, is delicious. He is absolutely an alpha male, and it takes a whole lot of inner alpha to close the gap that separates a talented land steward from his aristocratic employer.
I was reminded more than once while reading of Lady Chatterley's Lover - Harry Pye's father was a gamekeeper, after all, and Harry's pure, unvarnished masculinity is what makes him so desirable to Georgina Maitland (George). He's manly in the best of ways - disciplined, intelligent, earthy and resolute. He's the kind of man who you'd say is like a rock - he is a hard man, but also reliable.
If Harry is masculinity personified, George is femininity personified. That's why they're such a perfect match. She's soft but not weak, warm but not cloying, charming and good at putting others at ease. She's incredibly likable, and I rooted for her from the start.
Once George decides to support Harry against nearly the entire local populace and believe that he is not responsible for a recent spate of sheep-poisonings, it's them against the world. Harry knows the region and it's people, while George is a city girl, and that gives him a measure of authority as they work together to find out who's really behind the killings.
There are many barriers to a love match between George and Harry, and it's incredibly moving to see them tumble one by one as the two grow closer. It's a very sweet and heartwrenching romance, but meanwhile their physical relationship is raw and so sizzling hot that sparks practically fly off the page. It's this combination of tenderness and violence that Hoyt seems to excel at, and I enjoyed seeing it here in THE LEOPARD PRINCE.
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Hoyt does Heroes and Heroines Like No Other! |
I adore Hoyt's heroines, and it is Lady George, the heroine of The Leopard Prince, that made this book for me. She's eccentric, an original in looks and action, and easier to get ahold of then the hero of this tale.
The second thing Hoyt does well is out-of-the-box heroes. Despite his unfortunate name, Harry Pye is no exception. He's not titled, in fact he's George's Land Steward, but he's as strong and independent as George. For some reason though I had a more difficult time connecting with him and I felt I was watching him from the outside looking in, which always annoys me in a romance novel. Still, there was enough to make me truly like him, unlike other protags that have suffered from the same problem in novels I've read.
In TLP, George comes to live at her newlu willed estate- inherited from an equally eccentric Aunt-only to find herself tangled up in a coach accident with Harry Pye, her rather handsome servant.
When they finally arrive home, her sister informs her that Harry Pye is equally entangled in a messy affair involving murder most foul.
But George knows something about nobility and Harry Pye has it in spades, despite his less than exulted position in society, and she becomes his champion when all others have pegged him for the dastardly deeds floating around the county.
Although TLP is second in the series, it is perfectly fine as a stand alone read. It's one historical that shouldn't be missed! |
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lacking that spark |
A good story, but there never seemed to be that initial spark between the two characters that leads to great chemistry and a "can't put the book down" love story. The murder mystery plot seems a little labored.
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Enchanting Reviews: The Leopard Prince |
THE LEOPARD PRINCE
ELIZABETH HOYT
Rating: 3.5 Enchantments
Lady Georgina Maitland, Mistress and Owner of Woldsly Manor, has often been considered flighty and quite irksome. It is simply not proper for a woman to not only own such a large estate but to run it by herself.
Harry Pye, her Steward, has been fighting and clawing his way back to Yorkshire for many years, and though he would like to get revenge on Lord Grayville, he cannot afford to throw away everything he has.
England, 1760. Someone is poisoning the local farmers' sheep and causing trouble for Lord Grayville, and everyone is blaming Harry of the crimes. Lord Grayville had treated Harry and his father wrongly in the past, while Harry's return to the countryside marked the beginning of the assault and is causing everyone to believe he is responsible.
Is Harry responsible? How does the leopard prince play into the tale? And will Georgina finally know what it means to be a woman? To find out the answers, you have read THE LEOPARD PRINCE.
Ms. Hoyt, also writing under Julia Harper, is a treasure when it comes to recreating the past and she does not fail in THE LEOPARD PRINCE. Though it is a well-told story, the beginning has a slow pace. The end is all you will expect it to be, and in the end, that is all that matters.
Dee
ENCHANTING REVIEWS
October 2007 |
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