Review: HISTORICAL ROMANCE BOX SET
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 3, 2013
prince Rolfe has travelled from Ruthenia to the Deep South of America on the trail of his dead brothers mistress. Max had been heir to the throne, but had been murdered, and Rolfe suspected that Claire de Buys was either involved, or knew what had happened. But so far Claire had proven elusive. This evening Prince Rolfe is due to attend a party, upon arrival he sees a young woman, whom he believes to be Claire. She fits the description. But she informs him that Claire is her cousin, she is Angeline de Buys. Of course Rolfe doesn't believe her, and some short while later he kidnaps her.ROYAL PASSIONMara is being blackmailed, one of her family owes money. So the person who is owed wants Mara to seduce Roderic prince of Ruthenia. Mara has never seduced any man before, and feels at a loss how to go about this. But once she gets close to Roderic, the idea of lying to him, let alone causing him harm becomes more and more difficult.First read for me by this author. On the whole both stories were quite well written. They were both overlong IMO. Which made both stories at times rather hard going. I am given to understand that both books were originally published in the early eighties. Apart from the leading characters in both stories, the side characters were not very well fleshed out. But my biggest objection lies in the first of the two tales. When Prince Rolfe kidnaps Angeline, he forces himself on her believing that she is her more experienced cousin Claire. Quite frankly whether he thought she was Claire or not didn't make it right. Then rather than being remorseful after discovering his error, as Angeline was a virgin. He has sex with her at every opportunity. While still insisting to hold her a prisoner. Angeline for her part barely made the slightest objection as to what was happening. But later in the story when another male character attempts to rape her. It's shock horror, even from Rolfe. And why was this other mans behaviour considered different? Because unlike Rolfe who was tall virile and handsome. The other guy was overweight and unpleasant. I thought that was just too much.That certainly affected my rating. Overall quite well written, the dialogue was a little pompous at times.Not sure i would recommend these.