HER EVERY PLEASURE

Author: Gaelen Foley ISBN: 9780345496690 4/2008 HISTORICAL Publisher: BALLANTINE
Time Period: Regency

Princess Sophia was only a child when Napoleon conquered the island paradise ruled by her father. Raised in England and now twenty-one, she means to claim the throne that is rightfully hers and bring peace to her war-torn land. But an ambush by deadly enemies forces Sophia into hiding outside London. Disguising herself as a peasant girl until she can safely return, she meets Major Gabriel Knight, a wounded warrior whose brush with death has utterly changed him. Heir to a great fortune, and a master swordsman, he has given up his worldly possessions and laid down his arms. Sophia is fascinated by his brooding magnetism, and Gabriel, lured by her beauty and healed by her touch, is drawn back inexorably toward the world of the living. But when Sophia’s royal destiny is revealed, Gabriel knows he must take up his sword again, whatever the cost, to protect his princess from those who would destroy her. And as longing blossoms into passion, Gabriel discovers the one cause that is truly worth fighting for . . .

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Gaelen Foley has brilliantly written some of the most suspenseful historical romance scenes I've ever read. Take for instance, in PRINCESS, when Princess Serafina is being chased through a maze, pursued by whispers and suddenly grasped from behind without warning. Foley left me breathless, hanging on to the edge of my seat through the imagery of that scene, one that will stay inside my head forever. HER EVERY PLEASURE has small snippets of that brilliance, too, but not quite as often or intense as some of her other works have. Still, it's those moments that carried this story through the "down" times for me, and one of the reasons I decided to rank this book as a Four Rose Read.

The first third of HER EVERY PLEASURE I'll admit I did have a bit of a hard time with. If it weren't for some of its scenes written as aptly as I've described in the paragraph above, such as Sophia's attempted kidnapping, then I probably would have given this book just an average rating and no more. But again, Foley's writing holds me captive as Sophia tries to flee her pursuers. In doing so, she finds herself driven straight into the territory (and arms) of the retired and emotionally scarred military war hero, Major Gabriel Knight, who mistakes her for a wayward gypsy.

I'll admit that this is the point where some of what happens went a bit beyond my guage of believability, and to be honest, I nearly put the book down. But then the storyline improved, the prose hit its stride and having been found, never once lost its momentum, leaving me pretty much a satisfied reader.

Part of a trilogy, I did miss the first in this series, HER ONLY DESIRE, but there's enough little tidbits in HER EVERY PLEASURE that I didn't feel left out or confused when reading it. While this book isn't a favorite of mine by Gaelen Foley, I think as the middle child of a trio it has its own fair share of personality, one that will make it go over well with fans of both Foley and historical romance in general.

Nancy Davis