Lord of Temptation, by Lorraine Heath

Rating: 3.5/5
376 pages
2012
Publisher: Avon
Source: Library ebook

Description: Three young heirs, imprisoned by an unscrupulous uncle, escaped—to the sea, to the streets, to faraway battle—awaiting the day when they would return to reclaim their birthright.

Once upon a time, he was Lord Tristan Easton—now he is Crimson Jack, a notorious privateer beholden to none, whose only mistress is the sea. But all that will change when exquisite Lady Anne Hayworth hires his protection on a trip into danger and seduction. . .

Desperation brought Anne to the bronzed, blue-eyed buccaneer. But after the Captain demands a kiss as his payment, desire will keep her at his side. She has never known temptation like this—but to protect her heart, she knows she must leave him behind. Yet Tristan cannot easily forget the beauty—and when they meet again in a London ballroom, he vows he won't lose her a second time, as fiery passion reignited takes them into uncharted waters that could lead the second lost lord home... (from Goodreads)


Review: This is the second book in a trilogy. The stuff about reclaiming their birthright seems to have all happened in the first book. So, this book contains a bunch of spoilers for the first one. Though, since its a fairly run-of-the-mill historical romance, nothing mind-blowing seems to have happened.

While the evil uncle has been dealt with, his attempts to claim the family title by offing his nephews have left them all with a lot of baggage to deal with. This is one of the driving forces that keeps the hero and heroine from thinking they can be together for most of the book, and I thought the author handled it reasonably well. 

However, the mentions of the uncle and what happened fourteen years earlier still came up a lot more than I felt they needed too. Or maybe it was just that they came up in the same way each time. Either way, it annoyed me at times.

But I liked Anne and Tristan, and was curious enough to see how the author actually got them together. She did give them several actual problems that needed to be worked out, rather than a series of trite misunderstandings.

Unfortunately, part of the process of getting them to their Happily Ever After(tm) involved a character who really never seemed to quite feel like she fit into the book. My best guess was the author intended Lady Hermione to be a silly, young girl who thought she was in love with a guy who wasn't interested, not as a creepy stalker. But her status as stalker was cemented in my mind by her last scene, where we get to see inside her head as she realizes Tristan will never be her's. I think it was suppose to be a sign of her maturing, but it came off as just shifting the object of her obsession. 

Nothing groundbreaking, but it stands well on its own, and, if you can ignore the creepy lady, a good read.