The Romanceaholic

Expected Release Date: October 18, 2011 (Available Now!)
Publisher: Hachette Book Group
Imprint: Forever
Author’s Website: http://elizabethhoyt.com/
My Source for This Book: ARC Gift from the Publisher
Part of a Series: Yes, Book 3, Maiden Lane series
Series Best Read In Order: Yes
Steam Level: Steamy

*SPOILER WARNING* Official Blurb and Review both contain spoilers for previous novels in the series. 

Official Blurb:

Can a pirate learn that the only true treasure lies in a woman’s heart?

Widowed Silence Hollingbrook is impoverished, lovely, and kind–and nine months ago she made a horrible mistake. She went to a river pirate for help in saving her husband and in the process made a bargain that cost her her marriage. That night wounded her so terribly that she hides in the foundling home she helps run with her brother. Except now that same river pirate is back…and he’s asking for her help.

“Charming” Mickey O’Connor is the most ruthless river pirate in London. Devastatingly handsome and fearsomely intelligent, he clawed his way up through London’s criminal underworld. Mickey has no use for tender emotions like compassion and love, and he sees people as pawns to be manipulated. And yet he’s never been able to forget the naive captain’s wife who came to him for help and spent one memorable night in his bed…talking. 

When his bastard baby girl was dumped in his lap–her mother having died–Mickey couldn’t resist the Machiavellian urge to leave the baby on Silence’s doorstep. The baby would be hidden from his enemies and he’d also bind Silence to him by her love for his daughter.

Silence Hollingbrook is a virtuous woman with a sterling reputation. That is, she was, until nine months ago she made a deal with the devil to save her husband from gaol for a crime he didn’t commit. Naively convinced that those who knew and loved her would believe her when she told them the truth about what really happened, she was shattered to discover that no one, not even her beloved husband William, believed she had not sold herself to Charming Mickey O’Connor, the notorious river pirate.   Now (two books later), William is dead, lost at sea, and Silence finds solace working in her family’s Home for Unfortunate Infants and Foundling Children, and the love of her adopted infant daughter, Mary Darling.

Charming Mickey has been fascinated with Silence ever since she stormed into his urban fortress demanding that he help her husband escape the gaoler. At the time, he merely offered his assistance in exchange for Silence spending the night in his bed — yet he never once so much as touched her.  Then sending her home with her gown half undone and her hair in disarray, intentionally ruining the shining reputation of a virtuous woman, he insisted that if her husband really loved her, he’d believe her when she told him that nothing had happened.    When of course her reputation was destroyed, and no one, not even her family or husband believed in her innocence, he thought to take satisfaction of knocking the stars out of her eyes.   He couldn’t understand, however, why it actually almost bothered him that he’d ruined her life — after all, he was a hedonist of the first rank, and took great pleasure in many a people’s pain.

When an infant bastard daughter he neither wanted nor cared about is dumped on his doorstep, her prostitute mother having died, Mickey sees an opportunity to ensnare Silence even further into his web by depositing the child on the doorstep of the foundling home where Silence had sought solace after that chaste night in his bed.

Now his greatest enemy,  the Vicar of Whitechapel, has discovered the existence of Mary Darling, and sees her as a pawn to use against Mickey.  Snatching Mary Darling from the foundling home, Mickey whisks her away to his “palace” in Whitechapel, and waits for Silence to follow, which she soon does.

Trapping Silence with her love for Mary, Mickey coerces her to stay with him by playing on her guilt and fears for the child’s safety. But finally having Silence under his power once more doesn’t bring about the sense of triumph Mickey first expected, and soon, he finds that he is the one in danger — of losing the very heart he claimed he didn’t even have.

What Worked For Me:

• Silence is a strong, honorable character, and I loved her devotion to her adopted daughter, Mary Darling, even when it led to her downfall. I also admired her strength, and the scene where she finally admitted that her “perfect” marriage wasn’t so perfect after all, and that maybe, just maybe, Mickey didn’t really ruin her life, was heartbreaking and beautiful.
• In the famous words of Toni Basil, “Hey, Mickey, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind!”  Pardon the cheese, but I tell you, this man is the entire reason I wanted to read this book. Sure, I liked Silence, and I was hoping to get confirmation on the identity of the Ghost of St. Giles (more on that later), but mmmmmmm Charming Micky. *swoons*  I so would have been one of the tarts falling all over herself for him had I been a character in this novel, no joke. Delightfully wicked, Mickey is a true hedonist. Having quite literally pulled himself out of the gutters as a child, he revels in his power and his riches, and has absolutely no shame, morals, or conscience. Until, of course, he intentionally hurt Silence in the first novel of the series, Wicked Intentions, and can’t understand why on earth her pain should bother him.  I just adore a reformed rake, and Mikey is truly the epitome of that trope.
• I also enjoyed the twist about Mickey’s archnemesis, the Vicar of Whitechapel, though I admit, I saw it coming quite far off.
• I normally don’t care for children in romance novels, but I admit, Mary Darling, as well as Mickey’s warming to her, was absolutely precious, and greatly enhanced the book rather than distracted from it.
• The sexual tension in this book was to die for, and the chemistry between Silence and Mickey was absolutely scorching.
• The actual love scenes were highly erotic, and while they never actually crossed the line into “romantica”, the steam factor was a definite plus.
• There was also a lot of delicious angst created by Mickey’s very real belief that he had no heart and therefore had nothing to really offer to Silence, combined with his deeply-ingrained acquisitiveness that went against everything Silence believed in.
• I swear I aged about 10 years while reading the climax of this novel.  No, really, it was that intense, and I absolutely loved it!  I swear my heart actually stopped for a moment, when Ms. Hoyt took a particular storyline further than I’d actually expected, and the conclusion was probably one of the most satisfying ones I’ve ever read in a modern historical romance novel.
• I am SO excited for the next book! (!!!)

What Didn’t Work For Me:

• Very small pet peeve of mine, but I prefer my slutty heroes to keep it in their pants after they’ve brought the heroine into their circle.  This is a minor point in this novel for two reasons: first, because Mickey sleeping with other women only happened very early on, and two, because it was only mentioned in passing, such as noting the presence of “his tarts”, and him waking up and not being able to sleep because of the heat and scents from the females in his bed.
• I admit, there was a bit of a dichotomy in the sensual terms.  One moment there is prose so purple as to almost make you wince, the next moment terms such as “titties” and “penis” are being thrown around.  I personally prefer my prose on the purple side, and while I understood some of the language was intended to illustrate Mickey’s “roughness” as a character (just as one of his favorite words seemed to be the f-bomb), having the very juvenile term, “titties”, thrown out in the middle of a love scene greatly diminished the building eroticism.
• I really didn’t care for the fact that Silence suddenly decided to call Mickey “Michael” about halfway through the novel. While I was under the impression that this was done to signify a turning point in his life and to emphasize the difference between the ruthless pirate persona we’d previously been introduced to, and the tortured, loving man he was turning into, I still would have preferred for my Charming Mickey to have remained, as he was the biggest reason I wanted to read this book in the first place.

I have been anxiously awaiting this book since the first moment that Mickey stepped onto the pages and agreed to help Silence in exchange for her reputation. Mickey is the ultimate bad boy — a complete hedonist and utterly ruthless — and I was dying to see Silence get under his skin.  I just knew from the very first time we met him that his redemption would be both very hard won and incredibly satisfying, and I was right on both accounts.

Silence was also a much stronger heroine than I’d originally anticipated — she seemed so weak and naive in the previous novels, but her steadfast loyalty and her devotion to Mary Darling brought out quite a bit of ferocity in her when needed, and it served her very well when paired with Mickey.

While there were a few moments where some of the language choices pulled me out of the action, and I didn’t particularly care for the name change halfway through the novel, the relationship between Mickey and Silence, as well as the intrigue and adventure made this book an easy favorite of mine.  The climax of this novel was by far one of the most nail-biting of any historical romance I can recall, and the HEA was also by far one of the most satisfying.

The next book in the series, Thief of Shadows, is due out in summer of 2012, and I tell you, I’m already chomping at the bit for it.  It will star the ever-elusive Ghost of St. Giles, whose identity was finally revealed in the epilogue of Scandalous Desires, and I, for one, am dying to read it (and quite happy that I was right as to his identity!).

Recommended for fans of ruthlessly alpha bad boy heroes, fiercely loyal and protective heroines, and of an intoxicating blend of romance, intrigue, betrayal, and suspense.

A deliciously solid 5/5 Stars

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