Customer Reviews

Lady of His Own

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Although I've already read close to 200 romance novels this year (historical, medieval, erotic, contemporary, paranormal, etc.), this is the first book I've ever had the guts to write my personal opinion on...

Girlfriend (SL) is all that AND the bag of chips! I didn't think she could match the sensuality of "Devil's Bride", but she dun did it again with her seductive exchange of Charles' and Penny's pent up sexual desires for each other, which spans 13 years of abstinence for Penny and maturing into manhood for Charles. Although neither will openly admit loving the other, their individual exploration of each other's passions, expresses their love not just physically, but blissfully includes their hearts and souls. Something the two were too inexperienced to understand 13 years earlier when Penny surrendered her heart and virginity to Charles. Now a grown woman, spinster at 29, and him a bachelor, Earl in need of a wife at 33, Penny offers Charles another personal "invitation"; one in which she never extended to any other man since her first and only time with him. By continuously intensifying each kiss and embrace, they are awakened to each other's sensual growth and ripened maturity that only the nurturing of time and experience could hone; they welcome their differences as man and woman vs the experimenting adolescents of their past relationship. Their new relationship gradually develops, which now transcends the physical plane and drives deeper into their hearts. Penny and Charles are satisfyingly surprised by one another when they recognize their coupling isn't quite the same as they remembered that afternoon they tumbled in the barn when they were youths of 16 and 20 years old.

Charles slowly builds his plan of seducing Penny into surrendering her heart to him and becoming his wife. She relinquishes her stubborn attitude of `I am in control and call all the shots of my life' and little by little allows him to be the man in her life; friend, lover and protector. Her fervent moments of passion burst out as he guides her to "heaven" again and again by candle light and moon light; saturate his personal pleasure along slide ensuring hers. SL articulates very well their maturity, as well as the soul satisfying giving and taking of pleasure betwixt the found again lovers. SL had me in Penny's spell when Charles whispered a moan, succumbing to Penny's ravenous hungry eyes and seeking hands, "Whatever you wish, however you wish. I'm yours. Take me." Ohmigod...

The `who done it' murder mystery plot of the story will keep your mind contriving trying to out wit the author between the love scenes. Charles and Penny constantly share their ideas and are basically honest with each in their joint efforts to clear her family name and find a brutal murderer and spy. Therefore, leaving little room for blatant deceptions (lies), allows them to `go hand and glove' in impromptu situations they face during their investigations.

This is definitely a "deep read" - more than the surface of words in a book...mysteries of the heart's desires and yearning for the other half of its soul mate to "complete" the longing to be loved as no other can possibly do. -Nadine "Madame Jazze"

Like the characters in the novel, I think Stephanie Laurens' style has matured some in this book. Penny and Charles seemed realistic to me, as did their responses to each other and how they eventually decide to let themselves love each other. Since they know each other well, they have a deeper relationship than one that seems to be just passonate but almost casual sex. Reminded me of the long term friendship in A Secret Love, which is probably my favorite SL book.

All that said, the spy sub-plot is over done, doesn't make sense and drags on way too long. I felt the book ended up being 50-100 pages longer than the story warranted due to the silly spy story. This applies to the other Bastion Club books, too, which don't have the compelling but simple story of her earlier work.

If you love SL books, it is worth buying this one. Not her best, but the passion is there and the characters realistic and believable.

The 3rd in the Bastion Club series and the best. This time we are in Cornwall with Charles and Penny. They are a pair of stubborn and high-strung lovers, never getting enough of eachother. The intrigue comes from a mystery surrounding jeweled pill boxes and state secrets being passed to the French during the Napoleanic Wars.

If you love lots of hot, steamy love scenes mixed with international espionage during the Regency, you will have a blast reading the latest of Stephanie Laurens. If you have a "modesty meter" don't read it.

Started with a zip, and just zapped out. Got over half way... and it just started dragging. Once the sex started, the pages just started filling up with mostly sex..Fluff fluff and more fluff...... I didn't think I had a modesty level, (what one reviewer noted) but I guess when it comes down to it...I just might have one after all, wanting more a story and less steamy sex or fluff.....I love Stephanie Laurens, but the Bastion series, has been my least favorite so far. This is the third in the series...and it was not worth keeping for me. On a romance meter....it was very low.

However, on a different note....if you are looking for a book that makes you hunger for sex...this is it!!! The heroine shatters and screams many times. I got to page 324... And those words I was so sick of seeing...I finally screamed and shattered the book.
Sorry Ms Laurens, I still love you though... and hopefully the future is not so shattering.

It's still a good book for the romance. I enjoyed the innuendos in their conversations -- clever and fun to read. Penny was more an equal to Charles than Laurens usually writes. The mystery ran along a little slowly, but it all came together at an exciting end. I was never bored and was a little surprised at the negative reviews here. I hope she does a book about Dalziel.

I think this is the best of the Bastion Club series so far. I liked the history between Charles and Penny and their realization that the thirteen years they spent apart made them into the people they were and therefore better suited for each other the second time around. Both of the main characters were strong and knew their own minds and there wasn't the usual overdone miscommunication between them that is usually present in romances. The spy plot of the book was okay but SL delivers on the steamy sex! I agree with the one reviewer who would like to see a book on Dalziel.

Well over a year ago I began reading historical romance novels and the first I read were Stephanie Laurens. I read every single one she wrote and each one seemed better than the rest! Since then I have been searching for an author I feel is as good as she is - and I am still searching. Yes, there are many great authors but there is just something about Laurens that reaches the very depth of a person. This book embodies that character development. Charles was so dynamic and you just loved to see someone so in control of everything in his life have to thoughtfully, seductively court Penny who 13 years before they had one night of passion. It is always so romantic when the man never forgets a lost love and it was so clear that Charles never forgot Penny. And Penny who is now 29 could never ever forget her first and only true love. It was so obvious how this couple was closer and more connected than most couples in romance novels. That is what I feel Stephanie does better than anyone. All of the passion seems so real - it is intense - it is absolutely beautiful. Someone wrote this book was too long - how anyone could think a Laurens book too long - I could just read on and on and never tire of any of her love stories. I have a special place for all of Laurens books and will be reading this one I am sure again and again. Totally a complete winner!!!

Setting - Cornwall, England 1816 --- Escaping matchmaking mama's, well-intentioned sisters, and other interfering females, Charles St. Austell was thrilled to accept another mission from his ex-commander Dalziel to travel to his ancestral estate in Cornwall and ferret out rumors of spies working with the smugglers in that area. Restless, unable to sleep his first night home, he was astonished to discover his neighbor, Penelope Selborne, walking through his home in the middle of the night. He knew Penelope rather intimately from a one-time tryst that occurred thirteen years previously. When Penny studiously avoided him after that one passionate interlude, and being third in line to the Earldom, Charles joined the service, going to live in France, setting up a spy network reporting back to the Home Office. With his father and both brothers now deceased, Charles was now the new Earl and knew he must marry and beget an heir.

It didn't take long before Charles uncovered a mysterious plot that put the Selborne family right in the middle of treasonous activities, and endangering Penny's life. He also realized that the years apart hadn't stopped his loving Penny, and as she again attempted to keep him at arms-length, he wasn't about to let her slip away from him again. Between trying to ferret out a cold blooded assassin Charles set into motion a sweetly sensual seduction to make Penny his Countess.

Stephanie Laurens is an auto-buy for me and I eagerly await each and every novel that is released, even though I can't imagine any of her new heroes supplanting Devil Cynster (sigh), or the Cynster series! With this third entry in the Bastion Club series, I struggled with the first 80 pages of this book as the groundwork was slowly and meticulously laid. Thankfully the action finally picked up rather well after that. I am not adverse to steamy sexual scenes, but have to admit that after so many instances with Penelope `shattering' as she reached for the moon - I was again, getting bored? More importantly, when a man takes as much time, patience, and extreme efforts to please a woman, without gaining his own satisfaction, how could any woman have any doubts that he might not love her? Being a huge fan, I hate to say it, but this was not one of Lauren's best! One thing, she has accomplished though is that she has certainly whetted my appetite to discover more about the mysterious master-spy commander, Dalziel, so you know I'm coming back for more! --- Marilyn, for (...)

The foremost reason I like this Bastion Club series is that the women are not the "teach me" types of other Laurens' novels. The Bastion Club women are assertive, intelligent women with a great deal of self-determination and lives of their own. No wonder they appeal to the Bastion Club men!

I like Penny because she is tall, resolute, and wants equal participation in her relationships. Charles is confident, secure, and wants a partner. Perfect match! Their chemistry is obvious from the start, and the reader doesn't have to wait too long for some sexual sizzle.

Oh, yes, Laurens includes a mystery that Charles and Penny solve together but only after a great deal of knife action that threatens everyone.

I have been noticing an increasing, dismaying trend in all of my favorite writers: they aren't using intimacy between the characters as the emotional connection it should be, but as a space filler when they have nothing else to write about!
And Stephanie Laurens has done this in a few of her latest books.
Putting all my doubts aside, I reluctantly bought this book and had to struggle my way through it. I honestly couldn't wait for Charles's story, I thought it would be my favorite. But Ms. Laurens didn't even try to make these characters remotely likable, to me. I had a hard time empathizing with them and their love. I am so sick of romance novelists thinking that if they add enough blatant sexuality it makes a good novel! What happened to the ROMANCE??? It really is despairing.