Customer Reviews

Princess: (Book 2 in the Ascension Trilogy)

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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!

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.

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!

If you love big epic advnetures that will make you laugh, cry, and stay up all nite, don't miss this book. I have read thousands of historical romances and this is one of the best this year. Exciting, hot, tender. Darius is to-die-for! Keep writing, Gaelen! Anxiously awaiting Prince Charming...

I have read A LOT of Romance novels (and I mean a lot), but this is the BEST one I have ever read. I never thought anything would top 'Honor's Spendor' by Julie Garwood, but this one did it!!! I loved the book so much I wrote to Ms. Foley and thanked her for writting it (and I've never done that before). I have never read such passion, devotion, and fierce love between two characters as I did in 'Princess.' Darius loves Sariphina so much it hurts. And likewise, she always knew she belonged to him. This book was everything I have ever looked for in a love story. I mean, you could feel every emotion they felt as you were reading. I cannot say enough about how great this book is. You have to give it a try. I read the book before this, 'The Pirate Prince' and though that was an enjoyable read, this book surpasses it a billion times over in my opinion. Read them both for yourself and see if you agree with me. Thank you, thank you, thank you Ms. Foley for writting the best book I have ever read!!!! Oh, if you want another good book by Galen Foley, you will LOVE Lady of Desire as well! She is such an intense and gifted new writer and she knows exactly what women want!

When the book opens, Princess Serafina is running from French kidnappers. She is saved by the head of royal security, Darius, whom she has known her entire life. The year is 1805, Serafina is 20 and Darius is 34. She is the oldest offspring of King Lazar and Queen Allegra of the island kingdom of Ascension. He is the illegitimate offspring of a Spanish count and a gypsy woman. She is to remain pure until her political marriage to Russian Prince Anatole in exchange for his military protection against Napoleon. Darius is termed a male slut (although not a "rake" in the typical romance tradition). She is outgoing and spoiled (although she feels that her parents do not truly love her), while he has been abused as a child, is shy underneath his bravado, and has feelings of self-loathing due to his abuse as a child. What they share is love for each other, physical beauty and different degrees of terrible parenting.

The plot revolves around Darius' need to prove himself worthy of Serafina, even though he feels he can never marry her. After the initial kidnaping attempt, Darius takes Serafina away to a country villa to protect and hide her. There the two quickly become physically intimate, although Serafina remains a virgin. Upon returning to the palace, Darius leaves without warning to assassinate Napoleon. He knows that doing so will not only rid the world of a monster, but free Serafina from the need to marry Anatole. While doing a requested background check for Lazar, Darius discovered that Anatole had caused his first wife's death. Darius does not expect to marry Serafina when all is said and done, however, because he expects to die after killing Napoleon. Unfortunately, Darius' shot goes awry, his plans to commit suicide with arsenic are foiled and he is captured. Napoleon's sister, Pauline, spirits Darius out of his death row prison cell to have sex with him and he is able to escape. He makes it back to Ascension on the eve of Serafina's wedding and goes immediately to her room. Finally, the two make love and Serafina ensures that her parents will catch them in bed, thereby negating the political wedding and ensuring her wedding to the man she loves. A battle of wills between two strong-willed people ensues, complicated by the brewing military battle, the spurned and murderous ex-fiancé Anatole, Serafina's brother (the heir apparent, Prince Rafael) and his unwise liaison with a duplicitous older woman that leads to a near rout of Ascension.

The plot is fast-paced and although politics plays a huge role in it, the author never lets the reader get lost in political details. The characters in Serafina and Darius' generation are well-drawn and believable. By the end of the book, you feel that you have "been there" with them and know these characters. My only caveat is that after reading about Lazar and Allegra in the Pirate Prince, I felt that they either had an unsupported personality change between then and now, that they really must be horrible people and that fact was hidden in the earlier work, or Foley has unnecessarily betrayed her characters in order to create the essential plot point. It was shocking tto see these characters as parents who were totally unconcerned not only with Serafina's emotional happiness, but her very life. Allegra especially would have willingly sacrificed her at any time to save Prince Rafael - Serafina was clearly disposable. (Rafael, although the favorite, is also not given good parenting either.) And then at the end, to have Lazar tell Darius he would have allowed them to marry at any time, if Darius had only asked - well, that made no sense in light of his earlier unconcern with her health or happiness and very rapid use of her as a political pawn. (I mean, he did not even wait for the background check to come back.) I felt the older characters would have been better served if they had been shown to be in a huge dilemma about how to save their island and Serafina too - they could have pretended to agree to the marriage and then scheme to prevent it, with or without Darius. This misstep by the author is the reason why the book gets 4 stars instead of 5.

Darius is the King's most trusted spy and master assassin. As a royal ward, an adopted son of King Lazar and the captain of the Royal Guard, he lives in the world of treachery, political intrigues, and espionage. With a dark and tortured past, he is ruthless in his pursuit of perfection. Quiet but fearless, always on guard with his emotions, his emptiness and desperation mirror his need to prove himself worthy in the eyes of one stunningly beautiful royal protectee, Princess Serafina, the only woman he loves beyond reason but will never possess.

Serafina is betrothed to a Russian prince to ensure the safety of the kingdom from Napoleonic conquest. As head of the palace security, Darius acts as her personal bodyguard, protecting her from men at all cost even from himself. He is aware of the feelings of adoration and devotion Serafina has always harbored towards him but he fiercely masks his smoldering attraction in favor of gratitude, honor, loyalty and love for King Lazar and the royal family.

Gaelen Foley weaves a tale of the inner battles of Darius to resist the irresistible Serafina whose caresses promise ecstasy beyond his wildest dreams. She pursues and he flees in this fiery dance of passion. Gaelen Foley sets in motion a sequence of events that will challenge the strength of their deep and unconditional love.

Aside from the sizzling erotic moments, she also packs exciting fast-paced actions, from the violent rescue of the princess by Darius, his suicidal mission in Milan, and his final encounter with Prince Tyurinov.

Gaelen Foley has created the character of beautiful Serafina as a pampered and spoiled princess who can have "any man in the planet" but who worships only her dark, brooding protector. Intelligent and beautiful, kind but willful, Princess Serafina knows what she wants and that is the love of only one man, Darius. She will pursue him at all cost even in treachery and seduction for she vows no man will ever rule her heart. She seduces him in their secluded hideaway. In the end, to finally claim her man, she pulls out a scheme this time, in FLAGRANTE DELICTO!

Even her daring a la "femme fatale" rescue of Darius from the hands Anatole proves her deep love and absolute loyalty to her man.

The story begins with the rescue of Princess Serafina by Darius in the garden maze on the night of her engagement party from French spies out to kidnap her to avoid the alliance of Russia with Ascension. The wounded Darius leads the panic stricken princess back to the palace through a secret passage leading directly to her bedchamber.

As head of the palace security, Darius is the only man privy to the secret door to the bedchamber of the princess. Although he has never violated her privacy in the past, his access to the secret door will later seal his claim to Serafina but will destroy the trust of the King and face the wrath of her fiance, Prince Tyurinov.

Inside her bedchamber there are so many tender and poignant moments that will reveal how deeply they feel for each other. He discovers that she keeps a portrait of him on the mantel. While tending to his wound, Serafina finds out that he still wears the medal she has given him on her twelfth birthday when he took the bullet meant for the King.

When security demands that she be whisked away to a secluded hideaway alone and unchaperoned, she manuevered the King to have Darius as her protector. She senses that Darius needs to learn how to love and heal the wounds of his past and she is the only person who can handle him. He tries to resist Serafina but the smoldering passion is a force to reckon with. What follows is the battle of wills...

I like Serafina's relentless determination, gentle persuasion even brazen maneuverings to get her man. You will feel the inner turmoil Darius suffers in trying to ignore her romantic advances and sweet seduction. Her gentle yet not too innocent declaration, "You can take anything from me", when he takes the white bow she ties around her head for keepsake when he leaves for Milan in a suicidal mission is utterly provocative and seductive. Imagine what Darius feels!

I love their verbal sparring and I admire her spunk in one incident, which I quote:

Studying him intently, she rested one juicy hip against his desk, her slim arms folded under her breasts, "You're very handsome when you scowl".
He gave him a dirty look. Laughing softly, she reached out and gently smoothed his hair out of his eyes. "You need to learn to relax-".
He grabbed her wrist and forced her hand away. "Stop touching me, for God's sake! Why are you always touching me? What are you trying to do to me?"

Poor Darius, can he ever resist such a temptation from the virginal princess who is off-limits? Secluded in a villa, passion explodes. While she remains intact and technically a virgin, he shows her all the wondrous ways a man can physically and sexually love a woman.

Their physical intimacies in the secluded villa, the taking of her maidenhead in her bedchamber on the eve of her wedding and later the incredible bout of afternoon sexual delights in the pink room in the same villa days after their wedding are so sensual and graphic and yet poignant and romantic you will appreciate Galen Foley's talent to satisfy the romantic and sensual fantasies of her readers.

This is a beautiful and satisfying sequel to Pirate Prince. Read the book and get carried away in this forbidden love by Gaelen Foley. She knows how to deliver a story with a strong plot, well defined characters, and scorchingly sensual love scenes that capture the readers' imagination. This blazing tale of seductive desire and passion is simply AWESOME!

There was so much left unsaid in this novel. By the end of the novel I was incredibly sick and tired of hearing how important trust and truthfullness are in a relationship when through the whole novel, Serafina never finds out (or asks for that matter) how exactly Darius met her parents. I mean, she's known him all of her life, and she hasn't wondered how he ended up there? I liked Darius, and enjoyed how you could still see the little boy introduced in the Pirate Prince in the grown man, but I had a lot of trouble coming to grips with Serafina. I would have liked to see more growth from her, and more instances of true bravery. Also, it almost seemed to me like King Lazar and Queen Allegra were completely different people from the Pirate Prince. They might have aged, and had children and whatnot, but why would that make Lazar a hot-headed bad judge of character? And Allegra just completely not taking a moment to hear out Serafina and Darius, choosing to believe the worst? Are those the actions of a chick who literally fought for her man? I almost feel like this novel was fan-fiction based off of the Pirate Prince.

I own literally THOUSANDS of romance novels. (You should see the book section in my garage sales!) PRINCESS is the only book that I have read more than twice. This book has been sitting on my nightstand since the day I bought it, which was years ago! I can't even pinpoint exactly what makes this book better than the rest--the characters, the angst, the forbidden love, the emotion, etc. etc! But I do know that I will treasure it for a very long time. I have read all of Gaelen Foley's novels (THE DUKE is also very good), but PRINCESS remains my absolute favorite romance novel of all time--I didn't think anything could top Judith McNaught's regency novels, but this has definitely done it! What a fantastic story! :-)

I just loved Foley's "The Pirate Prince", so I went and picked up the second installment in the Ascension trilogy. "Princess" surpasses the former installment by a long shot. I didn't think that any book could be better than "the Pirate Prince" but I was very, very wrong. This book tells the story of Darius, whom we met briefly in Lazar and Allegra's story. He was a tortured young man who had seen horrors beyond our comprehension, and was rescued from his cruel fate by Lazar and made his personal assasain. As he serves his King, Darius finds himself in love with Lazar's daughter, Princess Serafina. He tells himself that she could never love him because of who he really is inside, but secretly he years for her love and acceptance. Serefina has always loved her dark hero, who took a bullet for her on her birthday years ago.

As the book begins, Princess is running away from an overzealous man. As she is running away from him, Darius comes to her rescue after being away for a long time. The "suitor" ended up being a spy who was bent on kidnapping her. The hidden love that they feel for each other is written so beautifully by the author that you can feel every emotion as if you are the one in love. Serafina decides that she won't let this man get away from her again, so she begs her father to let Darius come with her in the country to guard her. Darius is furious that she used such an underhanded tactic to keep her with him. But while they stay in the country together for a few days, their love cannot be detained any longer.

Darius finally lets his guard down and embraces the love that she gives him with all her heart, holding nothing back but her virtue. They both know that a whole different world awaits them outside of their little paradise. Serafina is engaged to marry another, and Darius knows that this beautiful woman would come to hate him if she knew who he really is. Then one night, danger comes to crush their fairy tale, and Darius has to go back to Ascension to root out some spies.


This story has everything in it to make an historical romance reader content. I nearly cried at the words spoken from Darius' mouth to Serafina when he tells her what is inside him, why she should hate him, not love him. Gaelen Foley has written THE BEST historical romance I've ever read, and I know that I will run to the bookstore everytime a novel of hers comes out. She knows exactly the kind of hero that us historical romance readers long for and pens them with such great personal struggles and leaves us wanting more when we regretfully have to turn the last page of the book. You don't know what you are missing if you don't buy this book. It is in every way different from other historial's in the way that the hero and heroine don't fight their feelings for one another the entire book. Don't skip this book at the bookstore, but buy it and every one that Gaelen Foley has written. You will definately be very happy that you did.