The Romanceaholic

Expected Release Date: September 20, 2011
Publisher: Harlequin
Imprint: Nocturne
Author’s Website: http://jillmonroe.com/
My Source for This Book: Netgalley
Part of a Series: Book 2, Royal House of Shadows Continuation
Series Best Read In Order: Works well as a standalone
Steam Level: Steamy

Official Blurb:

Once upon a time…the Blood Sorcerer vanquished the kingdom of Elden. 

The golden-haired beauty had eaten his food and slept in his bed when Osborn found her. Though he wanted to awaken his virgin princess to carnal pleasures, Breena wanted more—including his warrior skills. Skills the once-legendary mercenary had long buried. Now Osborn had a choice—risk his life or deny his princess her fairy-tale ending.

Book 2 of the Royal House of Shadows Continuation, which began with Lord of the Vampires by Gena Showalter, and will be followed with Lord of the Wolfyn by Jessica Andersen and Lord of the Abyss by Nalini Singh, this installment follows Princess Breena after her parents’ magic thrust her far away from the Kingdom of Elden with only the compulsion to survive and avenge planted deep within her mind.

Reinterpreting the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Breena stumbels upon an abandoned cottage, her survival instinct kicks in and she partakes of the food she finds there, and crawls in to bed to get some very much needed rest.  Her slumber is interrupted, however, when the three inhabitants of the cabin return to discover that someone has eaten their porridge, broken one of their chairs, and is now sleeping in one of their beds!

Osborn is a berserker, a man who can channel the ferocious spirit of the bear to become a warrior without equal in his rage.  When his entire clan is wiped out with the exception of his two younger brothers by a band of vampires from the empire of Elden, he turns his back on the teachings of his childhood and hires out his sword in order to earn a living that will feed, clothe, and protect his brothers, all while planning to someday avenge his clan by destroying the people of Elden.

When the golden-haired princess is discovered in his house, Osborn is stunned — this is the very maiden who has long captivated him in his dreams.  Breena’s ability to dreamwalk has long been a diversion from her very proper (and very boring) life as a princess, and when she awakens in the cabin to discover her dream lover in the flesh, she’s ecstatic.  Her joy soon turns to disappointment, however, when she realizes her Prince Charming is not so charming after all, and that he wants absolutely nothing to do with her quest to avenge her parents’ murder.

Determined to resist aiding the princess, he cannot help but be drawn in by her beautiful innocence and her determination, and yet Breena is hiding something — the very fact that she is the princess of the people who destroyed Osborn’s clan.

What Worked For Me:

• I loved the twist on Goldilocks. The parallels were pretty blatant — Osborn and his brothers being men who bonded with the spirit of a bear, and her eating their oatmeal, breaking a chair, and falling asleep in his bed.   However, that didn’t take away from the fun of it all.
• I was so glad that Ms. Monroe didn’t choose to make Osborn a shape shifter. The mythology behind the berserker clan as well as the limitations of Osborn’s powers were so much more interesting, and the parallel to the fairy tale still worked wonderfully.
• The ending was incredibly satisfying, both from a romantic angle and from my own bloodthirsty tendencies.
• I also liked Osborn’s brothers, and how Breena helped Osborn recognize the disservice he’d been doing his brothers in treating them as though they were still the small children he had saved from the vampires who slaughtered the rest of their family.
• The love scenes were tasty, and there were just enough “false starts” to ramp up the tension without making Ms. Monroe feel like a total tease.

What Didn’t Work For Me:

• While I appreciated the extra kick it gave to the pacing of the story, I wasn’t too keen on the fact that Breena had visited Osborn’s dreams. I think it would’ve been much more satisfying had they been complete strangers, though as I said, with a limited number of pages within which to move along a physical relationship without making Breena seem easy, I do understand the reasoning behind it.

Osborn was so deliciously alpha male while still being wonderfully frustrated by Breena, and the princess herself was tough while still maintaining an air of vulnerability and uncertainty that played off of Osborn’s strength wonderfully.

While a few elements of Breena’s magic didn’t really appeal to me as much as I’d hoped, I did enjoy the fact both Breena and Osborn were looking for vengeance of their own.  Breena’s transformation from pampered princess to fierce leader was gradual enough to be believable, but was also fast enough that readers weren’t bogged down with the tedious nature of training, which I appreciated.

Overall, this was a great installment in the Royal House of Shadows Continuation.   Recommended for fans of fairy tales revisited, fearsome heroes learning to temper their ferocity, and of heroines realizing their own strength.

4/5 Stars.

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