Saturday, June 21, 2008

Elizabeth Hoyt 'The Raven King'

I know this will send Stewart into another tizzy, to see me violating my 'only current books' rule, but I've been meaning to read Elizabeth Hoyt's first book in the fairytale trilogy. Anna Wren is a widow who lives in a small English town. She finally decides that she must find some sort of employment if she and her mother in law are going to continue to make ends meet.

The Earl of Swartingham has recently returned to his childhood home, and after scaring away two secretaries he sends his land steward out to find a replacement immediately. Anna bumps into him in town and accepts the job before he can gainsay her.

While some of the plot could be called far fetched, I really enjoyed these two characters. It might have helped that Edward has a large dog and Anna liked to garden, but of the three Prince trilogy books I liked this one best of all. Smart and funny and (mostly) believable characters with some raunchy sex thrown in. What more could you want.

Historical Romance 2006: 5 of 5 agrarian societies.

4 comments:

Kate said...

Ok, I don't know yet if I've mentioned this, but your rating system is the - best - ever. 5 out of 5 agrarian societies? You kill me. I love it.

What time period is this? I've never read any Hoyt - does she focus in one era?

Heloise said...

Thanks Kate, but this one I'll credit to the author, this trilogy involves three men who know each other through an agrarian society. I love that.

To answer your question this book is set in 1760 as is the rest of the trilogy, roughly. She has some new books out that I'm not sure about.

Shannon said...

Oh! Great book. I absolutely loved it. I just read her contemp romance (published under the name Julia Harper.) It was pretty good, too. Not quite at the level of Raven Prince, but still very entertaining.

Heloise said...

Hey Shannon, thanks for the head's up. Didn't realize she was writing under another name. I'll have to keep an eye out.