16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another Gorgeous, *Tortured* Man in Need of Redemption, January 30, 2005
This review is from: Princess: (Book 2 in the Ascension Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)
Darius Santiago was definitely the outstanding secondary character in Gaelen Foley's "The Pirate Prince" (Book 1 in the Ascencion Trilogy), and "Princess" (Book 2 in the Trilogy) is essentially his story. In the first book, Darius is introduced as a beautiful but damaged child of 14 years old, resourceful beyond his years and unable to trust anyone but Prince Lazar and Allegra, whose lives he saves by aiding an escape from a sadistic Barbary slave-owner. (Interestingly, this episode is never mentioned directly in the second story.) "Princess" is set 20 years after the first book and Darius, raised as a ward of Prince Lazar, is now the chief spy and assassin of Ascencion (the fictional island off the coast of Italy where the stories are set.)
The princess of the title is Lazar and Allegra's first born daughter, the stunningly beautiful Princess Serafina, who has been nursing a crush on Darius, her former bodyguard, since she was 4 years old. Secretly madly in love with her too, Darius holds himself aloof as he realizes that a marriage between a princess and a illegitimate, half-Gypsy gutter-rat is an impossibility, particularly when Napoleon is eyeing the island's navy and Serafina's marriage could have major political consequences.
Darius is a wonderful, dark, *dark* hero--gorgeous, loyal to Lazar, ruthless with his enemies and wonderfully gentle with Serafina. Ashamed of his past, he feels unworthy of the lovely, pure princess. He has a heck of a reputation with the ladies of Ascencion, but never has felt truly accepted by anyone except Serafina. Serafina herself is a bit of a disappointment as a heroine. She is a typical high maintenance, tantrum-throwing beauty--all tossing inky curls, pouting cherry lips and stamping little feet. Her moods are wildly labile and she can be a manipulative little so-and-so. Kidnappers and killers are lurking, the kingdom is in dire peril, and she wants Darius (the king's right-hand man) to loosen up, take a vacation and fly some kites. In a word, she is *childish* (this is Allegra and Lazar's daughter?????) But she is not without redeeming qualities--I did like her spunk, bravery and unwavering loyalty to Darius.
The plot starts out with a bang--a foiled kidnapping attempt on Serafina--and moves along pretty well. Things heat up when Serafina and Darius move to a safe house for her protection and are left to their own devices (kite-flying and much, MUCH more!)
As usual for Gaelen Foley, the writing is good, the dialogue is littered with distracting modern phrases and idioms and the sex scenes are smokin' hot. Surprisingly, Lazar and Allegra turn out to be losers as parents, although they are still mad for each other.
In summary, this is an very entertaining story of forbidden love with a wonderful *damaged* hero.
Highly recommended!
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A thoroughly enjoyable book, December 15, 1999
This review is from: Princess: (Book 2 in the Ascension Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)
Princess
Wow, what a great story. Well written and entertaining, Princess is a great sequel to the Pirate Prince. Bringing together the right amount of authenticity to the time and plot possibilities makes for enjoyable reading. Set during the early Napoleonic Wars, Ms. Foley enlightens the readers of the fears that different countries held at that time. Although not central to the story, we learn about Spain, England and Russia's involvement towards France. Unlike most stories which only portray England's involvement or references to specific battles, this story gives an over all picture of Napoleon's popularity or repugnance, depending on the side of the story you are on.
The characters are very well developed, especially the hero. I would even call this Darius's story, not Serafina's (although the book is titled Princess). We know Darius from the previous story, as a ragged but spunky street rat. Seeing him full grown and wearing different resentments towards different sources is fascinating. The only one who understands him (and conversely, who understands her) is Serafina. Maybe it is because they have grown up together that this bond is so strong. I sometimes despair that Serafina is a bit too spoiled and will not grow up, but she only really acts that way towards people who expect her to act that way (her court, parents, etc.). When she tries this with Darius, it backfires in her face terribly.
I think the only criticism I have of the book (and its so minor as to not even be worth mentioning) is how could the king and queen not know how much Serafina and Darius loved/desired each other? Why such a shock? Over all, I loved reading this story. The sequel is set up quite nicely, and not just as an afterthought at the end of the book. During Princess, there are many points leading to Rafe's story, revealing to the reader what the court's women and his parent's influence turns him into.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting & passionate but, could have been better..., January 28, 2006
This review is from: Princess: (Book 2 in the Ascension Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)
This is the fifth book by GF that I have read this past year. I also read and put in a review on "The Pirate Prince" (good), "Prince Charming" (good just not great), "The Duke" (excellent - best so far) and "Devil Takes A Bride" (pretty good). Now I have finished the last book in the Ascencion trilogy "Princess".
I definitely felt that the first series - Pirate/Princess/Prince- was good but, not her best. She was clearly in the early stages of her writing in these books and learning the art of writing. She was developing her craft of drawing in the reader to every aspect of the book - plot, characters and conclusion.
If someone wanted to be picky in her books it's easy to find things that don't work. For instance, actions between the main hero and heroine:
1) One moment they start disclosing critical parts of their past they are worried about only to have some incident occur and they change their mind halfway into a scene and decide NOT to share after all (this would be fine had it happened one time - but, it happened time and time again....too often to be appealing);
2) Or...the hero and heroine finally get around to telling each other how they really feel and how much they love the other then...some incident will occur again and only moments later they are saying get lost, I hate you, go away (once again, this happened too many times to be worthy of some form of plot interest);
3) The writer often had the characters saying the oddest phrases or words that didn't seem to match the time frame of the book. I don't expect someone in the early 1800's to say things like; "eh" in response to a question, calling a girl a "kitten" or "brat", or the phrase "ugh-oh" when trouble arises, or "hey" to catch someone's attention. These phrases were out of character for the time frame and odd for the historical context of the book;
4) In the beginning of the book Darius saves Serafina from two French guys who are out to hurt her, Darius gets a serious knife wound and instead of rushing back to help him, Serafina's dancing in the rain saying how he saved her (oh, they eventually go back and get him stitched up but, not before a little summer rain dance gets done!). That wasn't very thoughtful of our dear heroine;
5)Finally...one reviewer noted how the author spent a large portion of time mentioning how incredibly perfect, beautiful and glorious Princess Serafina was and how handsome, dangerous and gorgeous the King's most trusted spy Darius was. I agree, they were perfect specimens of manhood and womanhood but, after a few descriptions, we get it...it doesn't need to be every few pages.
These things were slightly exasperating but, not enough to make me not like the characters or the plot. You just have to get past these oddities and then you can enjoy the rest of the book.
Sometimes I found it hard to connect to Serafina and Darius. Serafina showed how spoilt and childish she was in some of her words and actions. She was clearly raised in luxury, attention and security at the Kings court so, it was strange how independent she could be after being cocooned her whole life. She was a strange mixture of intelligent woman ready to help the needy of the island, fight for the rights of others and caring for her family and friends but, she seemed spoiled when it came to getting what she wanted and some of her actions clearly got her in trouble because she didn't think clearly. But...many of her redeeming qualities helped me to get over the unattractive qualities of her character and I was able to like her in the long run.
In turn, Darius was out there bedding every gal in the land even thought he coveted Serafina her whole life from afar. (I didn't care for the two gals Julia and Princess Pauline that try to seduce him but...it was understandable with such an attractive man). He was kind and honorable and dignified in most instances and then a wild, crazed animal-like killing machine in others when someone he cared for was in harms way. Darius clearly had a terrible childhood that molded him into the complex yet interesting person he became as a man.
I guess I felt each character had almost TOO much going on in their personal development. It seemed there was almost too many sides - often opposites - to one person. Perhaps the book needed to spend more time developing each aspect of their character so...by the time the book ended, they had come more full circle. They each had redeeming qualities and it came to pass by the books ends end but...parts definitely felt rushed getting them there.
Many reviewers did not care for how the parents, King Lazar and Queen Allegra turned out in this book, compared to their earlier story in "The Pirate Prince". I have to concur that the author did a terrible job continuing their story here. Both parents were busy with state matters and although they loved their daughter, spent more time on outside interests, their own love life and that of pampering the future king, her brother Prince Rafe. They were very cruel when they found Serafina and Darius together - basically tossed them from the kingdom and turned their backs on them until near the end. Not appealing. The King and Queen we met in the last book were heads above these new people. I think the editor or publisher should have required these parts to be re-edited before printing so, the story flowed and was told better. The parents part were clear misses in this book.
The most redeeming part of this book was the attraction, love and almost from birth bond Serafina and Darius shared. They clearly worshipped the other (once again the parents never got a clue till the end on this one) but...others picked up on it. Most of the time they were trusting, caring and loving. Their feelings grew stronger over the years, even more so when Darius took a bullet for his father, when Darius saved Serafina from dangerous situations and then when Serafina helped Darius to be free at the end. Their love was clearly meant to be and was interesting, passionate and appealing. There was some back and forth anger and defensiveness going on as I noted earlier but, not enough to ruin the book. Clearly, the level of intensity and emotion between the two kept things interesting. Especially a few of the love scenes between the two - hot, steamy and passionate for sure.
In the end I would support there is adventure (Darius trying to kill Napoleon to keep the French from invading Ascencion), intrigue (who the Russian Anatole really is who is betrothed to Serafina to keep Ascencion safe with the alliance between the two countries and who keeps trying to kill Serafina), and passion (that between our hero and heroine). All the good things to keep a love story going.
Princess is not the best book I have ever read but, it is enjoyable and comes from a really solid author worth reading. I would give her 3 1/2 stars if I could but, not quite four - not up to that standard with the things that were off in the book. I would still recommend you read this series first but, plan to move onto "The Duke" and the books that follow. The second series is much better developed and a lot of the oddities in the first series goes away (thank goodness). Happy reading!
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