SECRETS OF SEDUCTION/ LOVER BE MINE (Legendary Lovers Series 2 & 3) by Nicole Jordan-a review

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SECRETS OF SEDUCTION (Legendary Lovers #3) by Nicole Jordan

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date April 29, 2014

The most charming Wilde cousin, Lady Skye has secretly loved the enigmatic Earl of Hawkhurst since girlhood, long before the tragedy that left him scarred both physically and emotionally. When Skye learns that the celebrated hero has returned to England from his self-imposed exile to make a cold marriage of convenience, she brazenly plants herself on his castle doorstep, determined to convince Hawk that she alone is his true mate and destiny.

An elite member of the Guardians of the Sword, Hawk has vowed never again to risk the pain of loving—but that’s before he deals with the most enchanting, annoyingly persistent seductress he’s ever encountered. One night of blazing passion leaves him impossibly torn. Will Hawk choose duty over love, or will he open his heart and let Skye’s healing light penetrate his darkness?

REVIEW: SECRETS OF SEDUCTION is the third instalment in Nicole Jordan’s Legendary Lovers historical romance series focusing on the five Wilde orphaned cousins-Ashton, Jack, Skye, Kate and Quinn. The cousins have been raised by their bachelor ‘uncle Cornelius’ and Skye is determined to find the missing piece in Cornelius’s life-a love that he lost so many years ago. Each book can be read as a stand alone without too much difficulty.

Each storyline is loosely based on a popular fairy tale or Shakespearean play. This is twenty three year old Lady Skye Wilde and the Earl of Hawkhurst ‘Hawk’’s storyline-a Beauty and the Beast tale of lost love, forgiveness and letting go.

The focus of the storyline is on matchmaker and youngest Wilde-Lady Skye Wilde. Along with her cousin Kate, Skye has the uncanny ability to find love matches for each of her family members only this time she is determined to find the perfect match-for herself. Having set eyes on the Earl of Hawkhurst ten years earlier, Skye has dreamt of the day she could call him her own. But Hawk is several years older, a widower who lost his wife and child to a devastating fire, and a man who cannot forgive himself for their death. It is the fire that has left Hawk scarred-both inside and out-leaving a ‘beast of a man’ both in the physical and emotional sense. Skye will enter Hawk’s life under the ruse of asking for his assistance in finding a long, lost ‘friend’.

The premise follows Skye as she sets into motion her plans to seduce the man she has admired for over ten years. His life revolves around a ‘secret society’ of friends and Skye hopes to use these friends to assist in looking for her bachelor Uncle Cornelius’s long lost love. And along the way Skye is determined to show Hawk what it is he has been missing.

The relationship between Skye and Hawk is one of immediate attraction but a reluctant attraction for the widower Hawk. Skye’s bubbly personality is too effervescent for Hawk and her playful attitude leaves something to be desired-especially for a man who prefers to grieve in solitude with only a bottle of brandy for company. It is only with Skye’s determination that Hawk will begin to live again but at a cost that will break Skye’s heart when Hawk looks to someone else for the future.

Nicole Jordan writes a wondrous storyline of romance and love; a second chance for a man whose guilt eats away at his heart and his soul; and a breathtaking story of reuniting two lovers who have been separated by distance and time. Most of the secondary characters are new introductions to the series that add an air of mystery, suspense and danger. The world building continues from the previous storylines with the inclusion of some of the previous storyline characters.

Told from third person point of view SECRETS OF SEDUCTION has a little bit of everything: humor, love, romance, betrayal, intrigue, suspense and heartbreak. Skye is a woman who puts her heart on the line and tells it like it is-she would fit perfectly into the twenty first century with her take charge attitude. She knows she may be fighting a losing battle but in the end it is the heart that knows where it truly belongs.

Reading Order
Prince Charming
Lover Be Mine
Secrets of Seduction

Copy supplied by the publisher.

Reviewed by Sandy

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LOVER BE MINE (Legendary Lovers #2) by Nicole Jordan

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date May 2013

As the wickedly seductive Wilde cousins seek true love by taking a page from history’s legendary love stories, Lord Jack Wilde plays a determined Romeo courting an enchanting Juliet.

The last thing Sophie Fortin expects at a masquerade ball is a dazzling kiss from a pirate. Her desire quickly falters when she learns that her masked gentleman is devilishly scandalous Lord Jack, a member of the captivating Wilde clan — and a man she’s forbidden to acknowledge. But when Jack begins a breathtaking seduction, Sophie can barely resist.

Jack never imagined that the daughter of his family’s mortal enemy would awaken such fierce passion within him—until one unforgettable kiss changes his mind forever. Soon, Jack is hell-bent on winning Sophie’s hand, going so far as to abduct her to save her from marrying a rival nobleman. Determined to woo Sophie and her unyielding parents, Jack is faced with the one decision he’d sworn never to make. The secret heir to a prince, Jack has spurned his royal heritage for years . . . but for Sophie he’ll risk all to turn a legacy of heartbreak into love ever after.

REVIEW: LOVER BE MINE is the second instalment in Nicole Jordan’s Legendary Lovers historical romance series. This is Lord Jack Wilde and Sophie Fortin’s story-a tale not unsimilar to Romeo and Juliet where a decades old feud has left two families bitter and Sophie’s family without a title or a royal name. Nicole Jordan weaves a fractured Shakespearean tale where our couple will fall in love much to the disdain of Sophie’s family when an arranged marriage has already been in the works that will insure Sophie’s family a title and connection to a royal seat. Each book can be read as a stand alone without too much difficulty.

The focus of the series is on the five Wilde cousins who, through young Kate and Skyler Wilde, have made it their job to ensure each of the cousins finds love. With reference to fairy tales and Shakespeare’s plays, the youngest Wilde’s set into motion a plan that will see their cousin Jack fall in love with Miss Sophie Fortin-but not before a battle of wills forces Jack and Sophie to reconsider what it is, that they want. With the Fortin family pride on the line, Sophie refuses to acknowledge her love for Jack in the hopes that her father will be accepted back into royal society.

The attraction between Jack and Sophie is immediate. They are drawn to one another but Sophie has been betrothed to another man. Jack’s only hope to win Sophie’s hand is to accept his family heritage as the rightful heir to a principality but in doing so he must accept that the man he has hated since a young child is the father who abandoned his mother and his self almost twenty five years earlier.

Sophie is a strong willed woman-when she wants to be- but has a very difficult time saying no to her father. Her mother’s ‘depression’ and her father’s loss of prestige is used constantly as a form of blackmail to ensure Sophie’s compliance and in this she is a character whose personality flickered between weak willed and combative. Her feelings waffled constantly, and at times, was an irritant to both Jack and the reader, as well.

The passionate storyline follows Jack and Sophie as they dance around one another and the private and public morals of the day. The sexual tension is palpable; Jack’s need for Sophie is demanding and true. Theirs is a sensual affair that will pit two families against one another should the truth be revealed about their already burgeoning romance. Emotions run deep when a man refuses to acknowledge his birthright but must do so to win the hand of the only woman he has ever loved.

Nicole Jordan pulls the reader into a seductive storyline where one couple will unite two families torn apart by a blood feud that tells a different tale then history remembers. LOVER BE MINE is an engaging tale where Romeo fell in love with his Juliet but no one was harmed in the end.

Copy supplied by the publisher.

Reviewed by Sandy

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New York Times bestselling author Nicole Jordan spins delightful tales that simmer with passion and sensuality. In her former life, Nicole grew up as an Army brat, moving frequently and attending high school in Germany. She later earned a civil engineering degree from Georgia Tech and spent eight years as a manufacturing manager making disposable diapers and toilet tissue! Currently Nicole lives in the Rocky Mountains of Utah with her real-life hero (her husband) and beloved kids (her horses).

With over two-dozen historical romances to her credit and four million books in print, set in numerous eras and locales, Nicole now enjoys chronicling the sparks that fly when Regency lovers play the matrimonial mating game.

One of her novels had the dubious honor of being humorously spotlighted by Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show.” On a more serious note, Nicole’s romances regularly appear on numerous bestseller lists, including The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today, and have earned such honors as RITA finalist, RWA’s Favorite Book of the Year, the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Historical Romance, and the Dorothy Parker Award of Excellence, presented by a group of over one hundred romance reviewers.